Subscribe to Dark Docs: [ Ссылка ]
Operation Outward was a unique British World War II program that called for free-flying balloons to disrupt German communications, power lines, and other critical objectives. Despite its unconventional nature and practicality, the operation was a tremendous success.
Some balloons were filled with trailing steel wire intended to damage high voltage power lines by producing short circuits, while others were filled with explosive devices to start unexpected fires in German forests and fields.
The plan was not just cost-effective, amounting to less than 8 dollars per balloon in 1942 currency -around 140 dollars in today’s- but also practical, as there would be no friendly casualties.
More than 100,000 Outward balloons were launched between 1942 and 1944. At one point during the war, over 1,800 balloons were being sent into Germany in a matter of hours.
According to postwar data, it is estimated that damage caused by the unlikely weapons amounted to around 55 million dollars in today’s currency.
That was a lot of havoc coming from cheap, ordinary balloons.
- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -
