BERLIN COPIES LONDON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19881, 7 March 1939, Page 5

BERLIN COPIES LONDON

BALLOON BARRAGES

MODERNISED TECHNIQUE

BERLIN, Feb. 23

Following London’s initiative, Berlin and other large German cities are installing balloon barrages to entrap air raiders.

Large-scale ‘tests are to be held sobn. It has also (been decided, to erect barrages in strategic positions on the route of invading aircraft, notably along the valley of the River Elbe, which forms an excellent landmark for a foreign pilot, just as the Thames shows the way to London. A balloon barrage was _ erected during the September crisis round the Leuna petrol works, near the Czechoslovakian frontier. It was the first step in this form of defence since barrages were used in the Great War to protect factories in the Saar, Lorraine, and Luxemburg.

Research officers and a special balloon barrage detachment stationed at ißad-Saarow, near Berlin, have modernised the technique and greatly increased the effectiveness of the balloons, which are small and can hardly be seen by a pilot and are capable of reaching a height of six miles.

It is explained inat the moment an aeroplane touches the wire, a soldier at the winch releases the brake, .freeing the cable, with the result that the aeroplane which is trailing several hundred yards of cable, must be brought down. If the propeller strikes the cable the plane’s engines will be torn from its mountings.