‘There is a captive balloon, just over there. It looks like an oyster.
They say that a man lives in the balloon. They say that from the balloon you can see the enemy's trenches and the country behind, held by the enemy, but from here we can see nothing, only trees and farmhouses and carts going along the road, and the captive balloon.
Aeroplanes sail over our heads sometimes. They gleam in the sun, they whirl about and disappear and come again, swooping down over us with arrogant wings. They are beautiful, proud and adventurous.
But the captive balloon is tied forever to a field. It has been there ever since we have been here and that’s a long time now.
It never moves. What does it do ? It is an oyster, keeping an eye on the Germans.’
Mary Borden, WW1 American nurse who volunteered on the Western Front to set up a hospital unit. The Forbidden Zone: A Nurse's Impressions of the First World War
