大象传媒

It was 1943 or 1944, and I was in the Physics Lab. at Rutherford Girls' School, being told by Miss Andrews to "practice your examples, girls" when the windows were suddenly darkened. The barrage balloon which resided on our school playing field had somehow broken loose. We all abandoned our work and dashed outside to see this huge shape, trailing its wires like an enormous jellyfish, floating away northwards over Benwell. Either the balloon itself or possibly the wires whipped about a foot off the spire of St. James Church, Elswick Road, and it was several years after the war before it was repaired. I remember being told that escaped barrage balloons were shot down because of the damage they could do, and I've often wondered what happened if they were shot. I know they were filled with helium, but did they go off with a bang, simply drift quietly to earth, or wizz round like a toy balloon when you let go of it! Presumably somebody out there will know. It enlivened a boring physics lesson for us, anyway. Because of the barrage balloon, we couldn't have games on our own field, so we used to take the No.8 blue bus up to Dame Allan's and use their field. Little did I guess that 30 years later my son and daughter would be playing games on that same field, because they went to Dame Allan's School.