Roehampton
ROEHAMPTON: Naval balloon training station (HMS President II)
Military users: Admiralty Balloon Training, later RNAS/RAF Kite Balloon Training Centre & Airship Crew Training Centre No.1 Kite Balloon Training Base
Location: Initially either on the Polo Ground and/or Upper Grove House. Later covering both these sites plus Lower Grove House and the Golf Course it seems! Today just W of the University of Surrey campus, NE of Roehampton Gate in Richmond Deer Park or Richmond Park as it was known in WW1, about 3nm SE of Richmond town centre
Period of operation: 1914 to 1919 (some say 1920)
Operating area: Initially 75 acres expanding to 130 acres
NOTES: It might seem, (as I once thought), that the history of military balloon flying is a very dull subject of little consequence but once again - I was wrong! The more I delved into this little known area of aviation the more interesting and complex it became. In fact it seems to have provided a crucial role in the eventual outcome of Allied Forces winning WW1 both on land and at sea.
It was of course the fighter pilots that often became national heroes in WW1 but let’s think on. Who would want to stand in a tethered balloon a couple of thousand feet or so above a battlefield without any defensive armament at all, directing artillery fire, (a far from easy job), knowing that at any minute you and your balloon might well be attacked by an enemy fighter? In which case you only chance of survival was to leap out and trust a very early and barely proven type of parachute.
So, who was really the bravest? Those fighting with weapons trusting to their skill - or those prepared to be sitting ducks? I really don’t think it’s a question that should be either asked or answered. Who knows where such heroism comes from?
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