99 Balloons II.

This is coolbert:

"You and I in a little toy shop buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got Set them free at the break of dawn 'Til one by one, they were gone Back at base, bugs in the software Flash the message, 'Something's out there' Floating in the summer sky 99 red balloons go by."

Conclusion.

Barrage Balloons.

From the the Internet article: "2.3] BARRAGE BALLOONS IN WORLD WAR II / OPERATION OUTWARD" - - the barrage balloon. An anachronism of warfare the likes of which we will NEVER see again?

"A barrage balloon is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against low-level aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult."

An array of tethered balloons, metal cables holding the balloons fast, creating a maze, a "spiders-web" in the sky!

An OBSTACLE in sky, analogous to a minefield? An OBSTACLE, as with all obstacles as found in warfare, NOT a strict and total impediment to movement [air flight], but a barrier, an impediment that causes your enemy to slow down, deploy, take casualties! AND guarded or monitored as well - -  those approaching [those on the offensive] the OBSTACLE having their movements conform to the wishes of the defender!

"Balloons were intended to defend against dive bombers flying at heights up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), forcing them to fly higher and into the range of concentrated anti-aircraft fire"

Indeed, the barrage balloon, a mass of them intended to make an entire formation of attacking bomber aircraft [dive or level bomber] fly higher, low-level precision bombardment from the sky being negated. Attempting to fly THROUGH one of these "assemblages" most difficult and dangerous. You might have your wing sheared off or damaged by striking on of those metal cables tethering the balloon!

Explosive charges as attached to the cables in addition posing yet another significant hazard to the combat aviator. NOT just analogous to a minefield in the sky but AN ACTUAL MINEFIELD IN THE SKY!

"Some versions carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up against the aircraft to ensure its destruction"

Strike on of those cables with your aircraft and you set off an explosive device and you are blown to smithereens in the process!!

Any attempt to "force a passage" of the balloon assemblage also most deadly AND COST PROHIBITIVE! Quite often those balloons assiduously guarded by batteries of AAA [anti-aircraft-artillery], the balloons as a defensive weapon very effective when compared to the loss of a combat aircraft [bomber] and crew!

["forcing a passage" by the use of cable cutters. That massed formation of AAA below having targets of an irresistible nature presented to them, almost in a manner seldom seen!!]

"The balloons were credited with a number of 'kills' during the Battle of Britain, though as in World War I their main purpose was to simply present a hazard to aircraft attempting to perform precision low-level attacks . . . the balloons, as was generally the case, were associated with anti-aircraft gun batteries . . . it was far less expensive for the British to replace balloons than it was for the Germans to replace aircraft and pilots."

Barrage balloons the use of now a passe' and outmoded form or warfare we will NEVER see again! At the time effective but NOT NOW!

coolbert.