#observation balloon

[panelswithoutpeople]

"One less aristocrat!"

Corto Maltese: Under the Flag of Gold

by Hugo Pratt

[usafphantom2]

Painting l did in 2015.

The Royal Aircraft Factory FE2d of British WW1 ace Harry Luchford who was credited with 24 German aircraft June-Oct 1917, 11 of those with the FE2d. He was shot down & killed in Dec 1917 by Prussian ace Walter von Bulow who was killed only a month later.

@PeteHill854 via X

[scrapironflotilla]

The two observers bail out of their "sausage" observation balloon after it's shot up by an enemy plane, c1917.

[lonestarbattleship]

USS TEXAS (BB-35): Observation Kite Balloon

Before the installation of aircraft catapults and observation planes, kite balloons were used as observation platforms to aid in targeting. TEXAS used one during WWI.

"The balloon was a two-man observation platform that floated 800 - 2000 feet above the ship, at the stern. A telephone was connected from the balloon to the bridge. Each occupant was provided a parachute."

One of the crew members climbing down.

The kite balloon was brought aboard while she was at Rosyth, Scotland on May 28, 1918 and removed in 1924.

source, source, source

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 101205, NH 44086

NARA: 111-SC-53424

Imperial War Museum: Q 19553

Photos from Battleship Texas' WWI Cruise Book "North Sea Days": link

[redarmyscreaming]

German observation balloon at Equancourt, France, 1916.

[thisdayinwwi]

New-York Tribune Aug 5 1917 

A French observation balloon ready to take its position to spot enemy positions.

5 August 1917-08-05    

[dieselfutures]

Caquot Kite Balloon

[waldopeircegoestowar]

‘From the day of our arrival at the front we heard wild tales about trips to the ammunition dump at Chateau Soupir. Well, yesterday (September 4th), we received an order to go there. Twenty cars left camp after breakfast for the ammunition park to load trench mortar bombs. It was three o'clock in the afternoon when we crossed the Aisne at Oeuilly and turned to the left along the road following the north bank of the river.

Just beyond the battered little village of Bourg-et-Comin, a Boche observation balloon floated lazily in the sky all day long commanding an unobstructed view of about a kilometer of road so that during the daytime it was unsafe for anything but fast moving vehicles such as staff cars to pass. For this reason we stopped in Bourg and parked behind what was left of the houses began a five hour wait until it should be dark enough to proceed.

Aeroplanes taking advantage of the clear, calm afternoon were buzzing around and as they circled back and forth the German anti-aircraft batteries were firing at them just closely enough to keep the aviators on their guard, changing their elevation and direction constantly.

At dusk we started on and after almost one hour of slow running turned off the main road through a narrow iron gateway into the grounds of the Chateau Soupir.’

September 1917, Chateau Soupir (Battle of the Aisne - Chemin des Dames sector), American ambulance/truck driver’s diary - The Hard White Road - Photo: 1917, German observation balloon hovering over the road.