Why balloons were some of the scariest targets of World War I

[Wyatt]

For World War I pilots, the most terrifying song that relates to their experience may not be Seven Nation Army but 99 Luftballoons, because going against barrage and observation balloons in the Great War was terrifying.

Pilots with the balls and skill to attack these balloons were known as balloon busters, and ones that had shot down more than five of the balloons were known as balloon aces. And yes, shooting down a balloon counted as a “kill,” same as shooting down a piloted enemy plane.

But what made them so hard to shoot down? After all, they were just a bunch of floating bags of air. Pop ’em with a needle and get on with your day, right?

Well, no.

First, military balloons weren’t made of cheap Mylar or latex. Many in World War I were made of tightly woven fabric, though vulcanized rubber and Thiokol rubber were prominent in World War II. All of these materials could take plenty of hits without splitting, meaning bullets that passed through them caused them to leak instead of to pop. So they couldn’t simply be popped, and it often took a lot of rounds to bring one down. But if a fighter did manage to slay the beast, he wasn’t out of danger yet. While American balloons in World War II were sometimes filled with helium, none of the early Great War combatants had access to that gas, and hydrogen was the preferred gas for barrage balloons anyway. Link To Article

Frank Luke was awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses and the Medal of Honor for his heroics in September 1918, going to his grave as America’s best-ever balloon buster with 14 kills against balloons and four against fighters.


Luke Air Force Base was named after Second Lieutenant Frank Luke (1897–1918). Lt Luke is a posthumous Medal of Honor recipient and the number two United States ace in World War I.

Born in Phoenix in 1897, the "Arizona Balloon Buster" scored 18 aerial victories during World War I (14 of these German observation balloons) in the skies over France. Lieutenant Luke was shot down at Murvaux between Verdun and Stenay, France, on 29 September 1918, after he had destroyed three enemy balloons. Surviving the crash of his Spad, Lieutenant Luke drew two pistols and fired on German soldiers, killing several of them before he was killed.


Luke Field is 11 miles from where I grew up in Arizona.

It is a training base and has trained pilots from all over the world including former WW2 Luftwaffe pilots to serve in the Bundeswehr

Eric Hartmann 352 kills, highest scoring ace in aviation history trained there.

Gerhardt Barkhorn 301 kills, second highest scoring ace in aviation history trained there.

Gunther Rall 275 kills, third highest scoring ace in aviation history trained there.