Meanwhile in France…
Although Greg had not yet got to France, this photograph dated 15 May 1918 of a kite balloon in operation at Bray-sur-Somme somehow found its way into his collection.
But where is the balloon, you might ask? About half way down the full image, and about one third in from the left hand edge. Here is a magnified detail:
Kite balloons are shaped to be more aerodynamically stable than near-spherical balloons, and so can withstand more windy conditions. Both sides made good use of balloons as observation platforms, for artillery support and general reconnaissance. The balloon shown here is probably a German copy of a French Caquot design, designated Typ Ae, standing for Achthundert english. The Achthundert is a reference to the ~800 m³ capacity of the balloon, which was based on a captured British model.
Here it is at closer quarters:
The position of the balloon was, when the photograph was taken, some 4½ miles/7 km ESE of the closest point of the forward positions of the British front line between Morlancourt and Sailly-le-Sec, and so was presumably intended to gather information from that direction.
As a comparison of the following two images shows, the landscape hasn’t changed a great deal in the intervening 100 years. The settlement at the bottom right of the old photo is La Neuville-lès-Bray, which hasn’t expanded much. Neither has Etinehem in the top right. And the courses of the Somme and the Canal de la Somme that joins it from the bottom centre of the photo are much the same.
