Click for Site DirectoryCREATED 25/02/2008 23:32:46
BARRAGE BALLOON VESSELS
During the war the military decided that not only was it a good idea to have balloons that were mobile on the land with a mobile winch vehicle but it was well known that waterborne balloons on rafts had been successful in Italy prior to World War one when the Austrians and the Italians were at war. So the concept was created of using various boats that were powered (unlike the rafts / pontoons of WWI days).
The military classed these as auxiliary fighting vessels and were made up of two distinct groups:
1. Sea-going vessels that accompanied convoys usually comprising of small mercantile vessels and tugs
2. Those that tended to fly the balloons in harbours and estuaries and were generally made up of drifters and barges and trawlers. These vessels would then sail to a particular spot in an estuary, anchor and then let the balloon up to deter enemy aircraft from perhaps attacking a docks area. Trawlers and Drifters were often commandeered by the military to be adapted to fly barrage balloons.
All of them needed a flat deck area big enough to bed a balloon down and a winch that could be operated with relative ease for hauling down and letting up the balloon.
This a Balloon Vessel, carefully examination of the picture gives her name as "ELLEN B". If you look carefully at the flag, you will see some odd looking dots on the picture. These dots are in fact where the censor has attempted to mask out the superstructure of a large naval ship in the background.!! Presumably a destroyer? The sea-going vessels were formed in July 1940 and were based around the Sheerness area until 1943 until disbanded. You can see the flat area on deck where she would be close-hauled to the deck. From the picture I suspect that the balloon is undergoing gas topping up as the small top up pipe seems to be in use.
The following ships were listed as ocean-going balloon vessels: This gives name, tonnage and when built along with fate in 1943 and thereafter.
NAME Tonnage Date Built Fate after 1943
ASTRAL (Ex-pilote 14) 451 tons and built 1930 1943 she was returned as a wreck locating vessel
BOREALIS (Ex-pilote 15) 451 tons and built 1930 Lost 10th August 1940
BUNGAY (Ex- Maidstone) 688 tons and built 1926 Returned 1943
DEAL 691tons and built 1928 Returned 1943
ELAN II Tug Target service 1941
B16. FRATTON 757 tons and built 1925 Examination service (1943) lost 18th August 1944
HASLEMERE 756 tons and built 1925 Laid up 1943 returned 1945
MAMMOUTH 954 tons and built 1918 Rescue Tug (1943)
PINGOUIN 700 tons and built 1917 Tug - Target service 1943
PINTARD 700 tons and built 1917 Tug - Target service 1943
RAMIER 685 tons and built 1917 Tug - Salvage vessel 1943
RENE LE BESNERAIS 246 tons and built 1931 Tug - fate not known
ROEBUCK 769 tons and built 1925 ROEBUCK II (1943)
SAMBUR 769 tons and built 1925 TOREADOR (1942)
Other vessels would have been trawlers and drifters.
In June 1940 there were a vast number of ships in the various naval commands that were involved in Barrage Balloon work, below are a number of listings from Don Kindel and his Royal Naval Ships site.
http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4006-15RNHome3.htm#wac
Home Fleet - Northern Patrol - Orkneys & Shetland Command - Rosyth Command
Barrage balloon trawlers - ten at Scapa Flow
Barrage balloon drifters - two at Rosyth
Balloon barrage drifters - five at Loch Alsh, three at Buckie fitting out, two at Peterhead fitting out, two at Fraserburgh fitting out
Barrage balloon drifters - three at Tyne
Nore Command
Grimsby and Humber area
Balloon barrage drifters - eleven at Grimsby, one at Humber
Thames and Medway
Balloon barrage drifters - 18 at Sheerness, one under repair
- Dover Command - Portsmouth Command - Plymouth Command
Balloon Barrage Vessels - drifters CREAGH MHOR, EBOR JEWEL, GENERA, STUDENT PRINCE, WENGEN, Dutch CLEON, LIBERTY, TALONA, THORA,
Belgian motor fishing vessels ALEX GABRIELLE, JORDEANS, British dumb barges LEEDS LUMINARY, LEEDS METEOR, LEEDS POLAR, all at Humber
Kite Balloon Servicing Vessel -
KILLINGHOLM at
Balloon Vessel - OMEGA at
Kite Balloon Vessels - JOCKETTE II, PAPAKURA, WANDA, all at Felixstowe
Based at Ipswich
Balloon Barrage
Vessels
- ABLETTE, CAROLE, CHARLES HUTSON, COSMIC, EDITH, EILEEN, ELECTION, ELSIE,
ESTER, FELIX, HOOK, LESLIE WEST, ORWELL,
It should remembered that on D- Day 6th June 1940 vast numbers of vessels were equipped with balloons and sent to defend ships on the channel crossing and while waiting in the sea getting ready to unload their precious cargo on the Normandy shore. However a number of stories have surfaced where the captain decide to discard the balloon. This was because it might deter the Luftwaffe from bombing the ship it was a great target for the German rangefinders to locate and shell with accuracy. A number of ships were hit in this way. The captain decided that they might fare better with no balloon and use every weapon they had to give the ship air defence in the event of a Luftwaffe attack.