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When the Battle of Britain commenced in July 1940, the Luftwaffe committed more than 1,200 medium bombers, 300 Ju-87 Stukas and 760 Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters to the campaign.
Aside from the threat posed by AA batteries and Spitfires and Hurricanes, barrage balloons also proved effective when German aircraft encountered them directly.
As told by Donald Nijboer in his book Luftwaffe Bombers vs British AA Defences Britain 1940–41, overseen by RAF Barrage Balloon Command, headquartered at Stanmore, the barrage balloon was the last link in the ground defences.
Located over important targets, the standard hydrogen-filled KB barrage balloon flew at a maximum height of 15,000ft. Like the guns, they forced incoming raiders to fly at higher altitudes. This degraded bombing accuracy and allowed aircraft to be engaged by HAA guns in the target area. Balloons could also bring aircraft down. If a bomber hit the balloon’s cable, the drag generated would cause the aircraft to stall and crash – unless its wings were fitted with balloon fenders (relatively few Luftwaffe aircraft had them at the time) to slice through the cable.
Indeed, aircraft were almost always destroyed or severely damaged when they ran into a barrage balloon cable. However, one crew operating over Britain had a remarkable escape after ‘landing’ on top of a barrage balloon, rather than striking its cable.
On the evening of Jul. 22, 1940, four Ju-88s of 7./KG 30 set out to drop magnetic mines into Plymouth Sound, the aircraft being led by Hauptmann Hajo Hermann. The operation culminated in a low-level and low-speed delivery of the mines in a heavily defended area. For Hermann and his crew, it would be an unforgettable mission. Approaching over the northeastern outskirts of Plymouth and heading southeast at around 15,000ft, Hermann throttled back, extended his dive brakes and trimmed the aircraft nose-up to achieve an almost flat, quiet, 45-degree descent to the release point. With the breakwater release point in sight, and searchlights stabbing the sky successfully seeking the Ju-88 out, the aircraft had dropped to around 6,000ft in bright moonlight when, suddenly, a grey bulbous mass loomed directly in Hermann’s path – a barrage balloon!
With no opportunity to take evasive action, at slow speed in a semi-stalled flying attitude and with the controls unresponsive, the Ju 88 literally wallowed onto the top of the balloon rather than flying into it. What happened next was described by Hermann as ‘like trying to fly a grand piano that had been thrown from a high-rise apartment!’ After seconds, the bomber fell off the balloon and the crew still found searchlights shining at them. Only now they were shining from above – they were tumbling earthwards, but upside down.
With the realisation he was still alive, Hermann shouted ‘Aus!’ to his crew, ordering them out of what seemed to be a stricken aircraft. A wall of cold air slammed into the cockpit as the canopy was released, and Hermann selected full throttle and closed the dive brakes. Almost immediately, and just as the crew were about to abandon the Ju-88, control was regained right above the breakwater. Releasing his mines, a shaken Hermann roared off at full throttle, chased by ground fire. Behind him, the flapping and deflating balloon descended over the city. It had been an incredible escape. Had the Ju 88 been just a few feet lower when it met the balloon, the bomber would have impacted the cable head-on. The outcome, then, would have been rather different.
Luftwaffe Bombers vs British AA Defences Britain 1940–41 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: Crown Copyright and Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-417-1766-03A / Ellerbrock / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Aviation History
