WAR : BARAGE BALLOONS
ACCESS : Generally accessible, but these site are now hard to identify.
This is not a complete list, but those identified to date.
Canmore points out several sites of barrage balloons in West Dunbartonshire. As they needed little established on the ground, little if anything is now recognisable of where they were operated from.
A barrage balloon is a large uncrewed tethered kite balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe collision risk to aircraft, making the attacker's approach more difficult. The design of the kite balloon, having a shape and cable bridling which stabilise the balloon and reduce drag, meant that it could be operated with more wind than a circular balloon could. Some examples carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up against the aircraft to ensure its destruction. Barrage balloons are not practical against very high saltitude flying aircraft, due to the weight of the long cable required. [Wiki].
The Glasgow Story website says : The Kelvin Hall during the Second World War.
At the beginning of the war the Kelvin Hall was adapted as a factory making barage balloons and dinghies. Around 850 people were employed there.
The first was raied in 1939.
The Historic UK website has a fascinating article entitled "Warbirds and War Balloons: Operation Outward". See link below.
We don't have any suitable pictures of barrage balloons in West Dunbartonshire. Let us know if you have one. This one from a airstrip near London gives you a good idea though. You can certainly see how problematic they could be if the wind got up. Some drifted off out of control. [Historic UK website as below].
DALMUIR
This one was tethered in an area of light industry near Cable Depot Road, east of the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.
CANMORE : https://canmore.org.uk/site/203607/clydebank-dalmuir-light
ERSKINE FERRY (Old Kilpatrick side).
A barrage balloon mooring site has been identified from World War II RAF vertical air photographs north west the former Erskine Ferry pier and close to the corner of the current refuse recycling compound. Remember that at that time the Erskine Bridge was still far in the future.
CANMORE : https://canmore.org.uk/site/203618/old-kilpatrick-erskine-ferry
MOUNTBLOW
This one was tethered on what is now playing fields.
CANMORE : https://canmore.org.uk/site/355956/dalmuir-clydebank-lilac-avenue-mountblow-recreation-ground
PARKHALL, CLYDEBANK
This one was in the Parkhall area of Clydebank, a little up the hill from Duntocher Road in Overtoun Road.
CANMORE : https://canmore.org.uk/site/203608/clydebank-parkhall-overtoun-road
THE GLASGOW STORY : https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSE00066
HISTORIC UK website : Warbirds and War Balloons: Operation Outward : https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/History-of-Britain/Barrage-Balloons-Operation-Outward/
PINTEREST : https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/1939--191966002841753977/
