Danny
Re: Barrage balloons; there was an early postwar story (sorry, no refs) about one which broke loose, and drifted slowly Eastward over our green and pleasant land, shorting out power cables and causing general mayhem. Someone rang the Duty Officer at Air Ministry. "Never fear", said this chap, "our brave fighter boys will sort it out in no time !"
But it was Wednesday afternoon, and those not engaged in official Sport were pushing supermarket trollies in town, or otherwise engaged (was there a time when there was no QRA ?) Anyway, they couldn't get an armed fighter into the sky in time, the Balloon carried on its trail of destruction before drifting out into the North Sea, and was never seen again.
Was the story true ? - Dunno. Could it have happened ? What do you think ?
This one happened on 30th November 1951 - not sure if it's the one you remember.
