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WWII Barrage Balloon Sites

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Bonner
  • Start date Start date
Hi Phil/Di
I'm very late as usual, as a lad growing up around Witton I recall us referring to the grassy area on the hill between Deykin Avenue and Brookvale Park as 'The Barrage Balloon field' we used to catch field mice and release then in what must have been the Concrete Balloon Mooring points, bowl shaped structures sunken and set in the ground. Years later the whole area was split by the M6 but the gully to George Rd remains with a tunnell under the Motorway - such is progress.
 
Dennis,do you have a map for Air raids on Bordsley Green,Pretoria Road to be specific as my mum was bombed out of there,thanks Angela.
 
Angela it appears from the BARRA/ Swanshurt School site that Pretoria Road was hit badly on 3/12/1940, with a number of casualities on that date, what number did mom live at.

Colin
 
Colin B said:
Angela it appears from the BARRA/ Swanshurt School site that Pretoria Road was hit badly on 3/12/1940, with a number of casualities on that date, what number did mom live at.

Colin
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Mom lived at 147 Pretoria road which isnt mentioned on the Barra website.I have been to 147 and its the last one of a run of 11 terraced houses (mid terrace) i.e.127 to 147 that are completely different so i guess the whole 11 had to be demolished. There are other houses in the road also different in ones and twos. I think the bombers were aiming at the factory in Fordrough Lane the next road. I notice alot of houses in St Saviors road were also hit probably because of the gas works .It makes me wonder if the bombers thought its easier to kill all the workers instead.Angela
 
My Father was in 911 squadron and kept all his documents from the time 1939 to 1942. His Company address was 'Headquarters Nos. 911 & 912 (Co. of Warwick) Balloon Squadrons, Royal Air Force, 885, Tyburn Road, Erdington, Birmingham 24.
As I mentioned he kept all his documents plus many photo's of the time and if anyone is interested I would be happy to pop them on here.
 
zzfool,
zzf00l said:
My Father was in 911 squadron and kept all his documents from the time 1939 to 1942. His Company address was 'Headquarters Nos. 911 & 912 (Co. of Warwick) Balloon Squadrons, Royal Air Force, 885, Tyburn Road, Erdington, Birmingham 24.
As I mentioned he kept all his documents plus many photo's of the time and if anyone is interested I would be happy to pop them on here.
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Post them Please i am sure they will be of great interest. Len.
 
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Not sure if this will work.. if it is too large I might put them up as a link..

image.jpeg
 
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Sorry if they are too large.. However, 911 squadron No. 17 crew based in West Bromwich. Most if not all the crew were from Fort Dunlop in Erdington.
 
That's all for now.. I have other doc's but unless anyone has a specific request for certain papers I think that gives a general impression of events at the time.image.jpeg
 
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Re: WWII Barrage baloon sites

Fascinating pics and other information. Thanks for them.

Do you have a rough estimate of the year for each of them?

Chris

PS Obviously not the Calling Out notice!
 
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Almost certainly 1939 - 1940. Father was sent a Dunlop inernal Memo 29th Feb 1940 saying that it would not be neccesary for him to return to his regiment unless he received further papers recalling him..
 
Re: WWII Barrage baloon sites

zzfool, I am pleased you have posted these super photos, Thank you. Len.
 
Thank you for that. However, It is my older Brother Alex that has been working away in the background getting old negatives developed and printed.. not an easy or cheap task these days.
 
zzfool, You and your brother Alex have started a very interesting thread and i am sure all forum members will agree and those who hav`nt seen it yet will agree when they look at the thread. Len.
 
Phil Bonner said:
... Colin B Ref Post # 67. Yes, had come across the article. It must have been quite a base in its heyday. All the former WAAFs I've been in touch who were based there, have said what a happy camp it was. The King & Queen visited the site in 1940. Today there is no trace of it.
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Oh dear, I know I have arrived on this threat a few years late, but I am interested in RAF Wythall, as my grandfather was one of the original officers there.

If Wythall is the place Phil Bonner is referring to on page 5 of this thread, I believe there is certainly some trace of it.
The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Trust operates The Transport Museum at Wythall: www.wythall.org.uk and I understand it occupies part of the site of the erstwhile RAF camp.

AngelaB

 
I thought I would share these snaps (taken with as Box Brownie I think)

image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
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And these two snaps show a typical 'jape'

Those Old Dunlopians amongst you may recognise a certain Walter Simes first asleep inside the tent and then with the tent 'removed'

image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
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zzfool, Thanks for posting and sharing your super photos they mark history years, i remember barrage balloons as i was 11yrs when WW2 started a runaway balloon damaged a shop next to the original New Inn pub on the Coventry Rd, Yardley, there was a balloon site off Yew Tree Lane, Yardley. Len,
 
I can't be absolutely sure but I think some of the pic's are of a balloon site in West Bromwich (I know Dad was stationed there at one point) and possibly Withy Hill park in Sutton Coldfield (just by St Georges Barracks)
 
A view of the Wythall barrage balloon site as seen by a very young child.
I have no idea of my age at the time suffice to say I was small and light enough to be held in my mothers arms. This is one of the very few memories I have of my mother. I was three years old, almost, at the outbreak of war so I guess this was in the early days of the war before the blitz.

Before going to bed at night I was shown the barrage balloon that was in the sky and quite visible from my home. Knowing nothing of Wythall and the war, at that time, I must have wondered - even been frightened maybe - by this object in the sky. Whatever the reason I do remember being encouraged to say 'night, night" to this balloon who, it seemed, was called Barry.:D .
 
I think Alan may have meant he was giving us a "word picture". (I, too, looked in vain for an image to start with!)


Am I right in presuming that a base would be in a rural spot such as Wythall to be out of harm's way, but that the balloons themselves were taken on a daily basis to more vulnerable sites in industrial areas where day or night bombing raids were to be expected? So the balloon crews, sleeping in their tents, would have been very exposed to danger from above.


Angela
 
Angela, Barrage Balloons were not moved from place to place during air raids as it took to long to inflate them and the the needed an anchorage point, they were on static sites as far as i know. Len.
 
Hi phil
just reading site ref barrage ballons .no one has yet reported on the one behind lucas factory in formans rd in sparkhill.
I lived about 50 yards down from the factory during the war
 
Re: WWII Barrage baloon sites

I didn't post any pics, or intend to. I was puzzled initially but I guess the pics are those posted by zzf001
 
Radiorails said:
A view of the Wythall barrage balloon site as seen by a very young child. ....
.
Click to expand...

I think this phrase was what misled us, Alan!
It must have been a scary sight for a small child.

I have a theory that our earliest memories are of things that frightened us; certainly mine tend to be that way. For example, I remember going with my mum to meet my father from a train at Leamington Spa, when he returned from the war well into in 1946. I was really scared of this strange man, who I suppose I had hardly ever seen.

AngelaB
 
I have only just discovered this forum as part of my research into my father's WW2 activities in 911 Squadron Balloon Barrage. Frederick Thomas Harris volountered for service in 1939 at the age of 38 and was posted after training to a Balloon Site situated opposite West Bromwich Albion's football ground in a small park which lay behind a bakery. I visited the site many times as a young child. It is correct that Kenneth Horne was the Commanding Officer. My father had the unfortunate accident one day on launching or more correctly flying the Balloon to have one of the mooring ropes wrap around his wrist. He was carried up in the air sufficiently to see the WBA football ground. They were able to lower the balloon before the rope slipped off, luckily only sustaining a twisted knee. Also in 911 Squadron was Oswald Bailley, of the well known clothing and camping store. I believe that the ballon was not flown directly from the winch lorry but via a very well secured foundation in the ground alongside the winch. All winches had to be very well earthed because of static electricity. At the start of the war this Station was protected by 2 WW1 Lee Enfield Rifles, each with 5 rounds of ammunition. A generous supply of pick axe handles were also in the Guard Room. My father was moved to a site in the centre of Birmingham at Highgate Park. I also visited there but cannot recall much about it. The Squadron was moved up to Manchester , Stretford I think, before moving down to Meopham in Kent just in time for the V1's. Hope that this may be of interest.
 
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