Scenes of War - Tethered Balloon

The use of balloons on the battlefield was already practiced during the Revolutionary Wars.

In the Battle of Fleurus (26.06.1794) Jean Marie Joseph Coutelle ascended for reconnaissance on the French side with the balloon “Entreprenant”.

With the invention of the kite balloon (around 1889 by Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld) its use for military reconnaissance became practicable.

The task of the field airship formations equipped with tethered balloons was reconnaissance and scouting as well as directing artillery fire.

They were used primarily on the Western Front.

Tethered balloons had attached kite surfaces and air bags, so they could be better stabilized and had improved lift.

The kite balloons used from 1916 onwards could ascend up to 1,500 m and had a gas capacity of 850 cbm.

Initially the tethered balloons were laboriously hauled in with hand winches, later — from 1915 — with power winches.

In 1915 there were initially only 9 tethered balloons in the West. However, the airship service was expanded. In front of Verdun alone, 12 balloons were already in use the following year.

In the Battle of the Somme (24.06. - 26.11.1916) 18 field airship detachments with a total of 50 balloons were deployed.

To be able to return to operational readiness quickly after the loss of a balloon from a balloon detachment, replacement was improved. For this reason, corresponding field airship depots or parks were established.

From the end of 1917 the basic equipment was improved.

By mid-1918 the German Army had 186 balloon detachments and 56 detachment staffs.

For safety the observer had a parachute; later there was a basket parachute, i.e., the entire basket could be released from the balloon when under fire. In total, over 500 balloons were shot down by enemy aircraft or artillery.

Max Erhardt: In the Balloon Before the Enemy. Max Erhardt, Lieutenant of the Landwehr and Leader of a Balloon Detachment, Verlag Julius Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1918.

Lennart Ege: Balloons and Airships 1783–1973. Orell Füssli Verlag, Zürich 1973.

Ernst Struck, Lieutenant of the Reserve and Leader of a Balloon Detachment, In the Tethered Balloon. Verlag August Scherl, Berlin 1918.

See also the article: The German Imperial Army in the World War - Structure and Organization - Airship Troops.