大象传媒

This is a story about Barrage Balloons.

I was twenty or twenty-one at the time, living at Regent's Park in London. I was part of a squadron managing eight barrage balloons. What's a barrage balloon? It's a huge balloon, filled with carbon dioxide gas, that floated in the sky, designed to form a physical barrier to incoming 'planes and bombs. My job was to launch them.

I remember one lunchtime in the summer of 1944, coming out of the underground station. I noticed an officer looking hard at a balloon -- and with good reason! It was at the height of the roofs of the houses -- but should have been five to eight thousand feet high! I went straight to the balloon launching site. There were twelve of us, very busy, trying to bring it in as quickly as we could. The balloon had come down in the midst of a group of houses. We had to drag it in, deflate it, and pack it away. There were so many dangers -- the gas, the cable that could have knocked people over as it draped across the park/road/houses. We did manage to deflate it safely, though, and roll it up.

We were too busy to feel much emotion. There just wasn't time to say "oh, I've got backache." There was a real feeling of comraderie. It was very manual work, launching the balloons -- a bit like driving a car, but going nowhere!

THIS STORY HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE SITE BY JOHN YOUNG OF 大象传媒 SOUTH EAST TODAY WITH THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION. SHE IS AWARE OF THE SITE'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

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