Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II
Figure 12. Barrage balloons. Barrage balloons were a relatively cheap
device that inhibited many more low-flying aircraft than they destroyed.
These devices were also useful against the V-1s. (Reprinted from
http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/images.)
280 balloons that later were augmented to 1,400. No fighters
were employed in the defense of Antwerp, mainly because of
the short distance between the V-1 launcher and its target. 42
In the attack on Antwerp, the Germans fired their first missiles
from the southeast in October. In mid-December, they
shifted to the northeast and finally, by the end of January, to
the north. The last direction of attack created a particular
problem for the defense because a large airfield in that sector
21