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WWII Barrage Balloon Sites

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Bonner
  • Start date Start date
thanks for the photo elmdon it certainly looks like it was meant to anchor something down...if it was a barrage balloon i would think there would have been more than one anchor point...but of course you cant go digging holes all over your garden..hopefully someone can help you with this one

lyn
 
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thats what i thought so i will make a feature of it
hope some one out there knows a bit more about the barrage site would love to learn a bit more about the history the rover plant and airport are close and solihull gas works and i know there was a gun site at the back of the olton hall pub and a couple of houses in jillcott road two mins away were bombed so the area saw some action have now been told all civil defence records are at warwick
elmdon
 
philm said:
There was a barrage balloon (largely female) crew sited in playing fields half way down Oakhurst Road, Acocks Green. Used to watch them inflating the balloon and raising it up into the sky attached to its steel cable. One night we also had an anti aircraft gun in the road firing away (mainly to boost public morale I think, rather than to shoot planes down). A prized shrapnel find to us boys was a frgment of the brass vernier gauge from the end of a shell, used to set the height at which the shell would explode.
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Interesting post - my grandparents lived in Oakhurst Road throughout WW2, as did my late uncle who would've been around 7 years old in 1940.My dad can also recount a few passed on snippets from that time - my gran apparently called the anti-aircraft gun 'Big Bertha' due to the noise when firing, the house at the top of Oakhurst Road which was hit by a bomb and destroyed....and also the oil bomb (?) which landed outside the shops and damaged the water main which meant the water supply was off for days.
As a youngster after the war, dad also recalls the trackway which led from Gospel Lane (now Langley Hall Road) which led onto what is now Robin Hoood Golf course - somewhere across in the field were anti aircraft gun base mounts - latterly also completely removed.
 
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There was a barrage balloon site at King Edwards Sports Ground in Trinity Road. it received a direct hit on Tuesday 19th November 1940. nine of the eleven people on the site at the time died. My mother 17 year old Barbara Richards was buried under the rubble for 36 hours, her friend Joan Russell aged 14 was killed the other survivor was a Jeffrey Sharp who was blown through the roof by the blast, Corporal Francis George Giles was also one of the victims
 
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elmdon said:
have just uncovererd what i belive to be barrage balloon anchor point in my garden in solihull near ice rink 28x28 inch concrete slab with 1inch dia steel eye bolt and 1inch dia steel ring. was there a site in this area to protect the rover plant or elmdon air port would be grateful any info on this site
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Hi I lived in Common Lane, sheldon when I was a kid from 1950 onwards. There was a barrage balloon anchor point over the park behind us. I believe its called Sheldon Country park now. It was about the size you stated and had a large rusty ring on it. My mum told me there were barrage balloons over there during the war.
Sorry can't help you with your question but the size you state sounds about the size of the one I found.
Kind regards, Wendy
 
elmdon said:
will try to send photo if i can but will have to wait for my son to loand and sendView attachment 98788
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Hi Just seen your concrete slab and ring, looks like the one in the park behind common Lane, someone else suggested they would be anchored by more than one which seems logical but I can't remember if there were more in the park, but sounds reasonable suggestion, but would be a fair way away from each other I would think,
Wendy.
 
Ann Steiner said:
Did Phil ever finish his research/book on barrage balloons? A cousin of mine, around ten years old at the height of the war, sent me a written memory. At the time, she was living on Daisy Farm Road, Warstock, south of central Birmingham. She said there were barrage balloons located near Daisy Farm Park, which I believe was near Gorleston Road. There were anti-aircraft guns on Daisy Farm Road, and a German aircraft crashed in a local field, known as The Stiles. The Prince of Wales Pub was very close by. Don't know if this is in an area Phil was looking at and/or researching, or if he's maybe already done, but throw this out just in case it's of any interest.

Ann
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A recent post encouraged me to review this thread.
I had assumed that the barrage balloon I saw was based at Wythall but considering the direction we were looking would certainly fit with Daisy Farm Road and probably the open space, still there today, at its southern end. With hindsight it seems that Wythall is situated south west whereas the balloon was north west from our home at that time. At least it can be said that the balloon was within Birmingham and not beyond the city boundary.
 
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I guess being very young at the time I mention, two or three at the most, I had no idea of anything other than there was something in the sky. :eek: It is strange, but as time progressed, daytime raids were, maybe, less common. Early warning systems had improved as the war progressed so probably the balloons were ready for launch but only elevated when necessary. I do not recall seeing a balloon in the later part of the war but maybe I had only seen it during summertime whilst it was still daylight.
 
Oldmohawk has recovered many of the lost images on this thread. These have now been replaced. Well worth a look. Viv.
 
The setting up of barrage balloon units around Birmingham (surprisingly as early as January 1939). More info provided in the cuttings attached. Viv.

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The first Birmingham balloon seems to have been the Aston Park one. Viv.

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Inflating a balloon and the hydrogen gas containers used to inflate the balloons. If you wanted to see inside one for 2/6d, you could walk through one at the Hall of Memory (see attachment). Viv.

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The Evening Despatch must have had had good informants about the looming war, as the newspaper is dated March, 1939. ;)
 
I have a vague recollection of my Auntie Alice telling me that when she was a teenager during the war there was either a barrage balloon station at Billesley common or an anti aircraft gun emplacement. She did mention, with a glint in her eye, that there were a number of Americans there for a short while.
 
Phil Bonner said:
:) I am researching the Birmingham Barrage Balloon Squadrons, formed in 1939 and manned by the local population as part of the Auxiliary Air Force. For the North Birmingham Barrage there were 3 Squadrons, 911, 912 & 913, under No 5 Balloon Centre at Sutton Coldfield. For the South Barrage, the 3 Squadrons were 914, 915 & 916 Sqn, under No 6 Balloon Centre at RAF Wythall. They were all called up in August 1939.  No history of their existence has been recorded, and I hope to put this right by writing up a record for all to have access to.ÂÂ
 Looking through the Squadron Operational records, there is no reference to where a balloon site was. There is only a reference to a site number, eg 914 Sqn site No 15, sometimes abbreviated to 14/15. By 1942 there were 150 balloon sites in Birmingham.  If anyone knows the location of any of the sites, I would be grateful for any information, or reminiscences.
   Phil Bonner
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arrow said:
Hello Shortie and Willey, Thank you for your responses. Romilley Avenue rang no bells, although Wood Lane caused a faint tinkle (but that might be due to it being such a common street name). Looking at the area on Google Earth, it appears that the area has been considerably redeveloped. All I remember about the houses that were there then was that they appeared to my very young eyes to be very tall and thin. As I remember them, they were probably late Edwardian, on three floors, semi-detached, with sloping front gardens, and long narrow rear gardens at the end of which was a rough access lane, on the other side of which was the rec. Many of the houses had garages at the end of the garden, opening onto the lane.
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I have photos on Handsworth Park WAAF with houses in the back ground 1942
 
Dave Richo said:
I have photos on Handsworth Park WAAF with houses in the back ground 1942
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There was a site at the top of Formans Rd Sparkhill ,it was at the back of the Lucas factory on the edge of the Burgundy brick yard clayhole. I lived in Formans Rd at the time and remember it quite well.
 
Dave Richo said:
I have photos on Handsworth Park WAAF with houses in the back ground 1942
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Hello Dave,
Welcome to the forum, why not upload your photos?
Some of us really old ones on here actually saw barrage balloons in the sky when we were kids ...
oldmohawk ...:)
 
There was a BB site in Perry Common Recreation Ground immediately behind the houses on the corner of Dovedale Road and Witton Lodge Road. Until at least 1954, there were several heavy iron mooring rings concreted into the ground. I left Birmingham in 1965 so I have no idea what has happened to the area. I doubt if they are still there.
 
oldMohawk said:
Hello Dave,
Welcome to the forum, why not upload your photos?
Some of us really old ones on here actually saw barrage balloons in the sky when we were kids ...
oldmohawk ...:)
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From my bedroom window, when a child, I could see one of the RAF Wythall balloons. I must have been worried by its appearance in the sky initially, but it seems I was persuaded to call it Barry and say "night night Barry". This was, I guess, in the early part of WW2, probably 1940/41 at the time of the blitz and heaviest bombing.
 
Phil Bonner said:
:) I am researching the Birmingham Barrage Balloon Squadrons, formed in 1939 and manned by the local population as part of the Auxiliary Air Force. For the North Birmingham Barrage there were 3 Squadrons, 911, 912 & 913, under No 5 Balloon Centre at Sutton Coldfield. For the South Barrage, the 3 Squadrons were 914, 915 & 916 Sqn, under No 6 Balloon Centre at RAF Wythall. They were all called up in August 1939.  No history of their existence has been recorded, and I hope to put this right by writing up a record for all to have access to.ÂÂ
 Looking through the Squadron Operational records, there is no reference to where a balloon site was. There is only a reference to a site number, eg 914 Sqn site No 15, sometimes abbreviated to 14/15. By 1942 there were 150 balloon sites in Birmingham.  If anyone knows the location of any of the sites, I would be grateful for any information, or reminiscences.
   Phil Bonner
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There was a barrage balloon unit in a playing field off Oakhurst Road, Acocks Green. It was manned by a team of women, WAAFs I think. At least they wore WAAF type uniforms. I remember them hauling the balloon down in the morning after it being up in the sky all night during the blitz. There was a large drum of steel cable mounted on the back of a lorry to which the balloon was attached.

Regards

Philm
 
In the early 1960s I regularly cycled from Aston to Drayton Manor Park to fish for pike and remember seeing one opposite the Tyburn Pub.
 
Perhaps slightly off topic but was an ack ack gun in Digby Park Small Heath. Just after the war, when there was snow we used to build a 'fort' where it had been. (Imagine an igloo without a roof.) There were some fierce snowball fights to try to capture it.
 
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