The siege-breaking balloons of Paris

Important to military aviation in Europe was the founding, in 1870, of lighter-than-air detachments within the Prussian Army. Assisted in their creation by Englishman Henry Coxwell, two Luftschiffer (airship) detachments were used immediately for service during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. However, it was the defenders of besieged Paris that history most remembers.

Cut off from outside help by Prussian forces, the Parisians made use of six balloons held within the city to fly out despatches, often under groundfire, the first by Jules Durouf on 23 September 1870 rising over Prussian lines and on to Evreux. Thereafter, a truly remarkable manufacturing programme was started in Paris, using railway stations and other large buildings to assemble additional craft, with gas coming from the Villette works. By 28 January 1871 a total of 66 balloons had left the city, carrying more than one hundred persons, some three million letters and carrier pigeons. Of these, two are thought to have been hit by groundfire from Prussian guns and seven drifted in the wrong direction. The escape of pigeons had been a vital element of the operation, as chemist Barreswil invented microphotography in October 1870 to allow the birds to return to Paris carrying messages, with the first flying from Tours to Paris on 18 November.

- Michael JH Taylor, Aviators: a History in Photographs, London, 2003, p.89-90.

See also:

History: The last grand night ascent at Vauxhall, 30 September 2010

History: Le Bourget Air & Space Museum, 18 March 2011

History: MOTAT 2, 3 April 2013