Organization of a balloon unit

During the US civil war, the balloons were a very popular target, so ground-to-air attacks would definitely be very popular. Snipers would do well at this, and at longer ranges you have artillery. When your target is a balloon, you don't have to work hard to find your target.

The balloons were also close enough that the US aeronaut and the Confederate aeronaut could look at each other in at least one battle. I don't think that was typical, since the balloons let you see 15 miles away. At least it tells you that sometimes it might be helpful to have a sniper in the air. Snipers, however, are not used to operating with a big obvious 40 foot wide target on then. During that era, big balloons could hold 5 people, or 4 people and a telegraph.

I read somewhere about WWI or WWII balloons having gunners associated with them to keep the balloons safe. WWII is the era of powered balloons, so I don't know if it's in the scope of your question. By then, balloons are much bigger, so they might be able to start carrying a halfway decent long-range gun. I know there were threads on airship weapons here that emphasized that an airship can't carry a truly powerful naval gun but I don't know what the limit is (and an airship is much much bigger than the balloons I intended to discuss in this thread.)
The Prussians used this thing to shoot at French balloons during the Franco-Prussian war.
 
Yeah, it's one of the many things that's an absolute bugger for working out the real strength of Union units, because the Union had (say) 20 men per battery and the rest of the ones they needed were on secondment from the infantry, while the Confederacy had (say) 20 men per battery and the rest were e.g. black slaves.

The Civil War balloon units had a similar counting problem. I'll post my notes soon.


I found this 173 page paper from the US Army Command and Staff College on the subject
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a284682.pdf

a quick scan didn't show me the actual table of organization but it does provide a thorough history and the problems and achievements by the limited battlefield use during the Civil War

There is however an extensive bibliography so that may offer some leads to what the actual organization looked like in terms of personnel.

That is a fantastic source. I'll have to give that a good look-over.


Balloons were used for observation during WWI, and were very heavily protected by AAA which made "balloon busting" dangerous. From early on observers in balloons had parachutes, unlike HTA aircrew. Balloons as such were not used during WWII except unmanned barrage balloons. Blimps were, of course, used heavily in ASW warfare primarily by the USN.

One big difference between balloons in the ACW and for some time thereafter was that initially the hydrogen for balloons was generated on the spot (iron and sulphuric acid reaction) where later on hydrogen (and for the USA helium) was in compressed gas cylinders.

Oh, that explains the 500 bottles of hydrogen that the Danish had during WWII, each bottle weighing 65 kg and holding about 5 m^3. I didn't know whether they were filled on the field or whether the hydrogen was shipped in. Since they used 50 m^3 per day, that's enough bottles to last 50 days.
 
The Prussians used this thing to shoot at French balloons during the Franco-Prussian war.

Thanks for showing the cool gun. For those who don't want to read the article, I'll point out that it says the French were using balloons to carry people and mail out of besieged Paris, so that's really different from the recon and mapping missions we saw in other wars. Total of 65 balloons left Paris with 164 passengers and 2.5 million letters. The Prussians shot down 5-8 balloons, even though I think they only had the one balloon defense cannon. I'll read more about the Franco-Prussian war
 
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Okay, here's my big summary post so far. There's information repeated from earlier in the thread, but I'm trying to keep it organized.

In general
All the balloons we've been talking about are hydrogen balloons. The lift of a balloon is proportional to its volume. For hydrogen, 1 m^3 of hydrogen can lift 1.202 kg.

Early experimental hydrogen balloon 1783
The first manned hydrogen balloon was 380 m^3 and carried three people: Jacques Charles, and the Robert brothers. The balloon lost some gas over a couple hours, so it only carried one person after that.

French military balloons 1794-1799
The Compagnie d'Aérostatiers was founded for recon missions. It consisted of two officers, and 24 enlisted men. This is small even when compared to a 1762 company of 3 officers and 52 enlisted.

They had two balloons, the Intrepid and the Hercule. I don't know how many people it could hold, or if they operated both balloons at once. The Intrepid's volume was 493 m^3, so it could in theory lift more people than Charles's balloon. The gondala was 115 cm by 75 cm, which I think is big enough to squeeze two people in.

Over time, at least one other company was founded. The captain in charge of the company was still working with balloons when he was at the rank of commandant (equivalent to Anglophone major)
They produced their own hydrogen in the field, which involved building a complex oven in the field to extract hydrogen from water. The complexity of this process was one of the reasons the Companies were disbanded. Presumably that was a lot of the labor.

Union Army Balloon Corps 1861 – 1864
In the American Civil War, the USA and the CSA each had balloon units to provide recon aid to artillery, and to assist mapping. The Union Army Balloon Corps was a civilian operation, but many of its members had courtesy titles, and expected to be commissioned officers.


Equipment
  • 3 small balloons for rapid inflation in windy conditions. The smallest could carry only one person. Officers on the field took turns going up to survey the area
  • 4 large balloons for high flying and for lifting heavy weights such as a telegraph key. The Intrepid had a diameter of 44 ft, so I estimate its volume to be 1260 m^3.This could carry five observers, or four observers and a telegraph.
  • 12 portable hydrogen generators, invented by Lowe, built in the Washington Navy Yard. One could fit in a standard crate, and one horse could pull it to the observation station. Each balloon needed two generators.
  • 4 army wagons per balloon. I think this includes the two needed to carry hydrogen generators.
  • A barge to launch balloons from. This was made from a steamer, with its engine removed.
Balloon Corps employees
  • 1 Chief aeronaut. For most of the time, this was Professor Thaddeus Lowe. He was offered as much pay as a colonel, and received the courtesy title of “major”. He led the Corps, and spent a lot of time in a balloon. At the Battle of Gaines Mill, he was sick with malaria, and asked for someone else to be “constantly up” but not one relieved him.
  • 1-6 other aeronauts, with smallest number right before disbanding. Many of them had the courtesy title of “captain”. One and only one aeronaut wore a military uniform, Ebenezer Seaver, who saw fit to wear an exceptionally gaudy uniform to go with his unofficial title.
  • Several general assistants to aid with the details of administration, maintenance, etc. I don't know if the job duties are analogous to an officer or an enlisted man.
  • Civilian teamsters attached to balloon trains and observation stations. They managed the horses and the wagons.
  • 1 Barge master. I'm not sure if the barge had more crew.

Personnel on loan from other units
  • 30-40 enlisted men per balloon, some on temporary detail and some on permanent detail. Sometimes a balloon received all the soldiers from one company, sometimes from multiple companies. Some of them were selected because they were qualified map-makers. Other men were involved in towing balloons in calm weather. One newspaper estimated that 600 soldiers served with the Balloon Corps at one time or another.
  • At least once, 1 officer to assist in managing a balloon
  • On the rare occasion they wanted to use a telegraph, they got a telegraph operator on detail the Telegraph Corps. The operator came with a telegraph, and served for a short term before returning to his regular assignment. The operators were all civilians, and the management of the Telegraph Corps were all officers.
Missions:
  • Taking observers up to identify enemy land and sea movements. Usually the observers were officers, but sometimes they were reporters.
  • Map-making. I assume enlisted map-makers were allowed in the balloon.
  • Aiding artillery aiming.
At the Battle of Gaines Mill, the Confederates had a balloon manned by Porter Alexander, who I think was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time. The Union Balloon Corps was disbanded due to change in military command, ill health of Lowe, and financial scandals of Lowe.

Sources besides Wikipedia
http://www.civilwar.org/education/h...e-seven.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-us-l3qOVwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Balloons+in+the+early+civil+war&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZts_WoKrSAhVo3IMKHcdkC6QQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=Balloons in the early civil war&f=false

US WWI Balloon Squadrons 1917-1918
WWI was described as the height of military ballooning. As Sloreck pointed out, the biggest threat to balloons was airplane pilots, and a balloon busting pilot had a very dangerous job. Becoming a balloon busting ace was considered a heroic achievement. The U.S. had balloon squadrons as part of the Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps. They supported the French army in World War I. There was 1 balloon for each company, five companies for each squadron, and 3 squadrons for each wing. Some of these companies still exist as squadrons in the USAF, using airplanes. There were a total of 50 U.S. balloon companies, 17 of which served on the front.

Danish Balloons
I'll give a careful read of the chakoten.dk source so I can do it justice. Each division had one balloon company. The title of “observer” was for officers and officer-trainees. The duties of the observer are to a. Do regular recon of the terrain and the enemy, b. Supporting artillery by directing fire and checking effect of shots, c. Receiving optical communication, d. photography to support their mission.
 
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Thanks for the contribution That's pretty plausible. I didn't know about that practice in artillery practice. In the last couple days I've been reading a lot about the Union Balloon Corps in the American Civil War. For one balloon, they had one civilian aeronaut (occasionally called "captain") who's in charge and who is the one that actually flies the balloon, one or a few general assistants, and enough teamsters to handle four wagons. They also borrowed from the army: about 30 enlisted men from nearby companies, sometimes one officer, sometimes a telegraph officer (civilian who works for the army). I don't know how to compare the scales of the operations between the 1790s and the 1860s, since in the later case you have more labor saving technology, but you also have bigger balloons and bigger ambitions.
I realize I haven't properly thanked you for this. It does shed a lot of light into how things operate. I'm working on a big write up summarizing everything I've been reading over the last week about this. This is key to understanding how balloons were used in WWII. An observer is an officer of a person in training to be an officer, a balloon master is a senior NCO or warrant officer, and I don't know what rank a balloon operator (ballonfører) has. In general it looks like flying is an officer's job. By the way, I see that the Danish Army currently has an "offiserselev" rank between korporal and sergent. Since officerselev means "officer's student", do you suppose this is the same thing as a kornet, but under a new name?

I have a book in my collection concerning the history of lighter-than-air travel "Balloons and Airships" by Lennart Ege. Concerning the USS Intrepid (the Civil War balloon), they indicate that one Col. W.F. Small was the observer who did the aerial reconnaissance. Thaddeus Lowe was in charge of the operation as he was the experienced aeronaut. One other point, companies, platoons etc. back then were smaller than by today's standards, so thirty men could have been a platoon. And, yes, they
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (01).jpg

have dragooned men from other outfits for help if needed.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
John Braungart
 
I have a book in my collection concerning the history of lighter-than-air travel "Balloons and Airships" by Lennart Ege. Concerning the USS Intrepid (the Civil War balloon), they indicate that one Col. W.F. Small was the observer who did the aerial reconnaissance. Thaddeus Lowe was in charge of the operation as he was the experienced aeronaut. One other point, companies, platoons etc. back then were smaller than by today's standards, so thirty men could have been a platoon. And, yes, they View attachment 310074
have dragooned men from other outfits for help if needed.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
John Braungart

Wow, John. What a cool book! Would you care to share anything else from there?

I know that at least some of the time Thaddeus Lowe was the one flying the balloons, so it wasn't that Col. Small was always in the one flying. I know that in some balloons, officers would take turns going up in the balloon, especially if the balloon only had room for one person at a time. Your letter sheds some light on the role of army officers involved in the Balloon Corps, and other things about the operation. One of my sources said that enlisted men were involved in mapmaking, so I'm surprised they had a Colonel do it. It goes to show you that flying was seen as the domain of officers and other gentlemen.

One thing bugs me about that picture, and it's the fact that Intrepid was big enough to hold five people, which doesn't show in that picture. Maybe they had different sized gondolas at different times, or maybe the picture didn't show the dimensions accurately.

I found this neat collection of letters written during the Civil War called The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies by Ainsworth and Kirkley.

On page 268 was this entry

Thaddeus Lowe said:
Lieut. Col. A. V. COLBURN,
Assistant Adjutant-General:
DEAR SIR: One of my assistants arrived this morning from General Hooker's headquarters and reports that the balloon has been constantly used for the past week making observations of the enemy's movements and position. A large number of ascensions have been made, the aeronaut being accompanied by Colonel Cowdin, Colonel Small, and others. Colonel Small while up with the balloon made a very fine map of the enemy's works and surrounding country, a copy of which is being prepared, and will be forwarded to headquarters.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
T. S. C. LOWE
Chief Aeronaut

So at least once, Colonel Small went up with an aeronaut who was not Lowe and drew maps. P. 299 mentions a Lt. Comstock, a Col. Upton, and a Major that also went up in the balloon.

If anyone's curious, this is a good book to browse. It also shows on p. 302 that the balloon establishment was placed in the charge of Capt. C.B. Comstock (not sure if this is the same Lt. Comstock mentioned on page 299). This makes him Prof Lowe's boss, because Lowe asked Comstock for his duties, and the captain made rules about leave taken by the professor's subordinates. Comstock also tried to reduce Lowe's pay, which led to a lot of back and forth. I'm surprised, because I thought Lowe was considered the civilian equivalent of a major.

Pages 300 and 306 gives some technical specs, dimensions, and costs of the balloons, including the fact that it takes 3 hours to inflate, and that they can stay inflated for over a month without changing gas, and that they operate during storms.
 
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You have to remember that you need the gas generating apparatus - hydrogen gas was generated was generated by the combination of iron filings and sulfuric acid (H2SO4 + Fe = H2 + FESO4). This took up one to three wagons for the apparatus and supplies. You also needed at least two wagons for the deflated balloon and basket, and the assorted other items such as mooring lines, the telegraph, telescopes, sketching materials etc. Then you need some wagons for food, forage, tents. You'll need one or two soldiers per wagon, plus those to run the apparatus, security etc.

You know your stuff. All my reading on Civil War era ballooning led to just confirming what you wrote way back on February 20. Your total number was around 4-8 wagons for a balloon, and the number in the books was 4 (or 6 if they were counting the generator separately). During the Civil War, the teamsters were a separate set of civilians, so I can kind of see how they could get by with 30 enlisted men. You're convincing me that the numbers we saw for the French in the 1790s are surprisingly low. In the 20th century they still had all of these needs and at a larger scale, except they hauled the hydrogen instead of manufactured it.

Here's what I can say about the Danish program. I think these stats are from the 1920s, but I remember something else suggested they were from the 1940s.

A hydrogen filler (Danish brintfyldning) could be transported in 5 pieces by train or truck. I don't think this is at all for manufacturing hydrogen for the reasons sloreck specified. Jeg snakker ikke dansk, but I think it is for transferring hydrogen from the canisters to the balloon.

As stated above, they had 20 trucks. This includes 2 kitchen trucks, 1 medical truck, 1 fuel tinder, and two winch trucks that the authors of the charoken PDF are very proud of. The winches contain 500m drums of cable to reach the balloon from the ground. Telephone cable connects the balloon to a telephone car on the ground.

Stronger cables are used to tow the balloons around at 6 km/h. (Even in the American Civil War, it was very valuable for the balloon to move as the enemies move). The larger K-type balloons each had an onboard motor that could move the balloon at 45 km/h, which is a huge advantage.

The soldiers were armed with M 1889 rifles with knife bayonets. Officers and NCOs without rifles had M 1910/21 pistols. Each balloon companies also had six M1903/24 recoil rifles for anti-aircraft use. I'd love it if a gun enthusiast can dig up a picture, but I get lost in the foreign language articles. In addition, they often had the help of fighter jets and anti-aircraft artillery.

The big balloons could reach a height of 2km, with visibility of 20km, and the smaller balloons could reach a height of 1000m with visibility of 15 km.

Ballonparken recruited and trained 55 men per year. As has already been said in this thread, each company had 130 soldiers at rank OR-3 and lower, 12 NCOs (OR-4 and higher), and 8 officers.
 
I realize I haven't properly thanked you for this. It does shed a lot of light into how things operate. I'm working on a big write up summarizing everything I've been reading over the last week about this. This is key to understanding how balloons were used in WWII. An observer is an officer of a person in training to be an officer, a balloon master is a senior NCO or warrant officer, and I don't know what rank a balloon operator (ballonfører) has. In general it looks like flying is an officer's job. By the way, I see that the Danish Army currently has an "offiserselev" rank between korporal and sergent. Since officerselev means "officer's student", do you suppose this is the same thing as a kornet, but under a new name?

The Balloon"fører" and observers would be an officer or kornet.
Just looked up the Officerselev - its just a denomination of a trainee for the initial period i.e. till they get to the officersacademy. They are "enlisted" for the purpose of training as officers and as such as anybody entering the Danish armed forces have to be a private doing basic training/bootcamp then enter NCO-training and then probably becoming a sergeant and entering the officers academy.
In the old days when I served with the Airforce I enlisted for national service as a private then went to NCO-training as "befalingsmandselev"/NCO trainee and then becoming a sergeant. In those days the officers went through the same training but being termed cadet until they became sergeants and then entering the academy.
Officerselev isn't a rank. :)
 
About Danish army divisions:
prior to WWI there was much political discussion on the employment of the army in case of war. 1880-95 was the period when the fortress of Copenhagen became the main defensive position in the end the army made two commands one in Jutland which by WWI had a brigade of infantry and the command of Sjaelland which had 3 divisions. During WWI the ladder was increased to 5 divisions.
Post WWI the army was demobilized and by WWII the army would consist of 2 divisions - one in Jutland and one in Sjaelland.
The Ballonparken organization and number of balloons 8-10 really reflect the situation of pre-WWI and WWII not the WWI organization of 5 divisions and a brigade.
 
Wow, John. What a cool book! Would you care to share anything else from there?
I know that at least some of the time Thaddeus Lowe was the one flying the balloons, so it wasn't that Col. Small was always in the one flying. I know that in some balloons, officers would take turns going up in the balloon, especially if the balloon only had room for one person at a time. Your letter sheds some light on the role of army officers involved in the Balloon Corps, and other things about the operation. One of my sources said that enlisted men were involved in mapmaking, so I'm surprised they had a Colonel do it. It goes to show you that flying was seen as the domain of officers and other gentlemen.
One thing bugs me about that picture, and it's the fact that Intrepid was big enough to hold five people, which doesn't show in that picture. Maybe they had different sized gondolas at different times, or maybe the picture didn't show the dimensions accurately.

Okay, enclosed are some photos of the actual balloon. Also as to why Small went aloft, maybe he had some talent at sketching, or mapmaking, although all I could find that that prewar, he was a lawyer and professional soldier, while postwar, he became a U.S. Senator.
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (04).jpg
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (05).jpg
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (06).jpg
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (07).jpg
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (08).jpg
(1861) [United States] Intrepid (09).jpg

These photos are not the best quality, but do go a long way in showing what I was driving at.
Now helium was not known in those days, but I believe that if it was, you could take the earlier dirigible balloons and mount a small (3" or 4"?) breech-loader in the bow and send it against Confederate hard points (forts, campgrounds, staging areas or supply depots) much like the mission of the bomber corps of the Second World War.

Regards,
John Braungart
 
In the first photo you see those two boxes attached to the balloon which are the hydrogen generating apparatus. Using helium for a lifting gas would allow you to use CW era firearms safely, however the technology for separating helium was not there in 1860, and also the largest helium deposit in the world is near Amarillo, Texas - this presents obvious difficulties as getting anything from there to the eastern theater absent rail connections is more or less impossible. Of course, the CSA would control this deposit if it was known.

The reason you would put Col. Small (or another officer) in the balloon is that they would have the skills to make useful maps showing terrain features and military units. Lowe had no training in those arts, and could report fairly obvious movements, a trained observer could do much more.
 
The Ballonparken organization and number of balloons 8-10 really reflect the situation of pre-WWI and WWII not the WWI organization of 5 divisions and a brigade.

Thanks for clarifying the history of organization there.

Okay, enclosed are some photos of the actual balloon.

Wow, those are really good pictures. And they prove that the Intrepid had a tiny gondola, at least on some missions. I admit, I had my doubt that the illustration of Col. Small in the balloon was accurate, since the gondola looked small in that picture, and I read that the Intrepid could hold five people. What I also like about these pictures is that we can see them working. There are over twenty people holding the rope, which I never expected. I think a good number of them are in soldiers' uniforms, but I'm pretty ignorant of this. This would be as many people as in the whole Compagnie d'Aerostatiers, although admittedly their primitive balloon didn't produce as much lift force.
There are 10 guys working on inflating the balloon. Almost all of them have the same hat, so I'll guess these are enlisted soldiers on detail. There's a more gentlemanly looking fellow off to the right with his hand on his balloon, so I'll guess that's an aeronaut. There are many more people sitting in back watching. I suppose you don't get to see those every day, and if you're in the army, you often have time to sit and wait.

Also as to why Small went aloft, maybe he had some talent at sketching, or mapmaking, although all I could find that that prewar, he was a lawyer and professional soldier, while postwar, he became a U.S. Senator.

He was good at drawing landscapes for sure.

8513h.jpg


I know they also got enlisted men to do sketching from balloons, too. I can see how they'd prefer an officer, since they liked to send officers up anyway.

Now helium was not known in those days, but I believe that if it was, you could take the earlier dirigible balloons and mount a small (3" or 4"?) breech-loader in the bow and send it against Confederate hard points

Using helium for a lifting gas would allow you to use CW era firearms safely, however the technology for separating helium was not there in 1860, and also the largest helium deposit in the world is near Amarillo, Texas - this presents obvious difficulties as getting anything from there to the eastern theater absent rail connections is more or less impossible.

Thanks sloreck for pointing out that helium was in western Confederate territory. I knew the U.S. had a near monopoly in the world wars, but I didn't know the source. You both mention shooting from a helium balloon. Does anyone know if this was actually done in later years when helium was more common?

I have another unrelated question. I know in the military,someone with NCO rank could be a skilled technician instead of a combat leader. Was this true in the 18th and 19th centuries as well? If an enlisted man were unusually qualified in carpentry, chemistry, semaphores, or telegraphy, would he be a sergeant, corporal, or private?
 
In the ACW you did have enlisted soldiers as engineers or artisans of various sorts. To a greater or lesser extent all in uniform received some sort of military training including firearms, and would be issued at least revolvers for weapons.
 
Thanks sloreck for pointing out that helium was in western Confederate territory. I knew the U.S. had a near monopoly in the world wars, but I didn't know the source. You both mention shooting from a helium balloon. Does anyone know if this was actually done in later years when helium was more common?

During WWI the Germans did it for defensive as seen here, although with hydrogen gas and non-black powder weapons:

(1916) [Germany] LZ.62 [German Navy L.30] (01).jpg
(1916) [Germany] LZ.62 [German Navy L.30] (01).jpg
(1917) [Germany] LZ.70 [German Navy L.39] (02).jpg


Regards,
John Braungart
 
Not very well organized at all.

They all just start drifting from each other and float away =(

Nice one. Keep 'em coming.

In the ACW you did have enlisted soldiers as engineers or artisans of various sorts. To a greater or lesser extent all in uniform received some sort of military training including firearms, and would be issued at least revolvers for weapons.

I didn't think about the engineering units. I know there were engineering units, and the members were called Pioneers. My guess is that most pioneers were privates with shovels. Do you have a feel for whether skilled artisans in the army in the 1800s had private rank, or if some of them would be sergeants?

During WWI the Germans did it for defensive as seen here, although with hydrogen gas and non-black powder weapons:

Okay, that's really cool. I see the title of the second scan, but what is the source of the first one.
 
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