Promptly at 10:00 o'clock, when it
was ready for raising, the German planes hummed busily overhead. Despite
their activities, the balloon got well up and was doing good observation
work on its way over to the naval nuisance; there it reached its
objective, making the necessary notations and records. Then--Kr-kr-kr-p!
Kr-kr-kr-p! And the shells commenced to scatter around it. Then it was a
case of getting the bag down, which was not so easy. These observation
balloons are operated from a large armored truck, to which they are
fastened, and the truck runs along carrying the air-bag with it,
attached with a long cable; it is handled just as a toy balloon would be
carried by a boy,--when the boy runs along, the balloon runs with him.
Attached to the bottom of the gas bag is a basket, usually holding four
observers, with a parachute for each man, and while in the air they have
to work as fast as possible, because their stay in the azure is as short
as the energies of Fritz can make it. If the wind is up and the sky
cloudy, it is one chance in a dozen that they will escape before the
planes get them, as the swing of the basket makes it difficult in the
extreme for them to notice the danger until it is upon them.
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