Balloon Busters

I couldn't help but notice that out of all MvR's 80 credited victories, none of them were balloons. In contrast, Pilots such as Willy Coppens, Leon Bourjade and Frank Luke appeared to make careers out of balloon busting with 35, 27 and 14 balloons destroyed, respectively. There are many others aswell in this category.

Why is this? Did these balloon busters particularly target balloons over aircraft or did they just take the opportunity when it came, and it happened to come a lot? I can't imagine the likes of MvR not managing to bag a single one where others are getting them by the hatful.

Your thoughts on this please

Nick

Luke and Coppens were specialists in Balloon busting, to the point of planning it out and making it "their thing".

Others with significant balloon victories(5+?) like Barker took out balloons as targets of opportunity.

MvR wrote something about ground support squadrons perhaps they took out balloons as a rule? I don't think Jg1 was usually tasked with taking out balloons, though Löwenhardt has a number of them to his credit. In any case, it's not the sort of task a CO should take on himself.

I think it was also a nasty job. It seems so easy; that great big fat target just sitting there, but I wonder how many pilots died attacking balloons. It had to be as risky as flying on those ground attack flights that resulted in so many RAF flyers being killed. Luke, Coppens, Beauchamp-Proctor, and the others must have had incredible courage.

[AustralianAce]

Maybe a reason he was not credited with one is probably cause he didnt get one. MvR probably thought it was not honourable to shoot one down seeing as it could not fight back. The only thing that could hit pilots attacking balloons was ground fire. And if you dived on a balloon ground fire would be less likely to hit.
Also when playing RbII/3D I always think as balloons as an easy kill.A free kill if you will.

[WFS]

Maybe a reason he was not credited with one is probably cause he didnt get one. MvR probably thought it was not honourable to shoot one down seeing as it could not fight back. The only thing that could hit pilots attacking balloons was ground fire. And if you dived on a balloon ground fire would be less likely to hit.
Also when playing RbII/3D I always think as balloons as an easy kill.A free kill if you will.

Taking out a balloon was a particularly nasty piece of business. They were usually ringed with machine guns and AA. They often had fighter protection as well. Then, there was the danger of getting caught in the fire ball when the balloon flamed. Many times it took repeated passes on the balloon, at ever decreasing altitude, to destroy it. Think about it, the fact that the balloon was stationary meant that the enemy defenses knew beforehand exactly where you would be at the moment of attack.

Frank Luke had several planes written off as beyond repair after he returned from balloon attacks. It took steel nerves to stay on target long enough to to make even one successful pass at a balloon. From what I've read balloon busting was so dangerous that most pilots wouldn't even attempt it unless ordered to do so.

Wayne

[Immo_Frese]

Of course there was always the danger of being blasted away by the explosion of the balloon. The photo with Lt. Noltenius' badly burned Fokker D VII comes to mind. Most of his fabric was burned when he was forced to fly through the flames of a quickly ignited balloon he shot down on 14.September 1918

Immo

The only thing that could hit pilots attacking balloons was ground fire. And if you dived on a balloon ground fire would be less likely to hit.

Archie,

Balloons were anything but an easy target. Protecting the balloons was not only concentrated AA, and machine gun fire, but many had protection from scouts as well. Not only did the attacker have to be concerned about the ground fire, which knew the altitude of the balloon, hence the attackers, *he had to worry about attack from above. The other worry for the attacker was if the balloon was a decoy.

Leutnant Rudolf von Eschwege (The Eagle of the Aegan) fell to such a decoy. von Eschwege had a knack of destroying No.22 Kite Balloon company's balloons, the C.O a Lt H Thrower decided to put an end to von Eschwege and sent Cacquot balloon BMS7 aloft with a dummy observer and bomb.

von Eschwege attacked the balloon when he turned away, the bomb was detonated, and von Eschwege's Albatross spun into the ground killing him.

Harry Cobby the Aussie had a knack for downing balloons, but I dont think I ever recall him saying it was an easy practice.

Andrew.

That's what makes this forum great. 3 of us basically typing the same sort of reply at once.

Andrew.

Here's another "Balloon Buster", an unsung hero, but, I'll wager, not unknown to Forumites:
H. Weir Cook, the 'Balloon Buster of the 94th Hat-in-the-Ring!'
You can read about him in Rickenbacker's FIGHTING THE FLYING CIRCUS (accurate, albeit ghost-written). Cook's score was 7 confirmed: 3 aeroplanes, 4 balloons.
His methodology? To gain altitude well above the target and to dive down almost vertically upon the gasbag. He was a thoughtful, planning kind, for he didn't like to or intend to make a second pass. (And he did use an 11mm m.g.-armed SPAD; I believe that's approximately .44 caliber)
He was the squadron's balloon specialist: relied upon to do a difficult job, to carry through on something that no-one else was particularly keen on doing.
You rarely hear much about such men, but they're the bedrock of any successful military operation...

[Rick]

As the story goes, and I have no opinion on the veracity of this, Ltn. Fritz Ritter von Röth was a balloon buster because he had bad eye sight. He needed to 'get up and personal' in order to be able to attack his targets. Oh well. R.