Operation Outward came about mainly because of an accident.
British Barrage balloons were gigantic balloons filled with helium and tethered to the ground by steel cables.
They were meant for ground defense, making it hard for aircrafts to perform low flying bomb attacks.
Overnight on September 17th-18th, 1940, there was a raging storm.
Gale-force winds ripped loose a bunch of British Barrage balloons and carried them across the North Sea towards mainland Europe.
Within a few hours, there were several reports of electrical outages in countries such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
The balloons’ trailing cables had struck power lines, disrupted railways, and even knocked down the antenna for the Swedish International radio station.
A few days later, the British War Cabinet received a report about the incident.
Previously, in 1937 Britain had considered using balloons as offensive weapons of war but chose not to pursue such a program.
With accidental proof of how effective balloons could be, Winston Churchill directed the use of free-flying balloons as a weapon of war be investigated.
During the winter of 1940 as Britain began to ponder using balloons, the empire was in a precarious position.
In June their only ally France had fallen to the Germans.
Throughout the late summer and into the fall the British Royal Air Force (RAF) had fought the Luftwaffe, Nazi Germany’s air force, in several air skirmishes in what came to be called the Battle of Britain.
The British Empire prevailed, serving Hitler his first major defeat.
However, the cost of the battle was enormous in both manpower and resources.
If Britain was going to invest in a balloon offensive project, it needed to be worth their while.
It would be around 6 months before Britain gained another ally in the Soviet Union and close to a year before the USA joined the war.
As luck would have it, the balloons were the perfect low-key weapon to wreak havoc on Germany.
Britain has favorable weather conditions for such a mission.
High altitude winds generally blow from west to east from the British Isles.
Even if the wind wasn’t blowing in the exact direction, it didn’t matter.
Since the Third Reich controlled much of mainland Europe, the balloons didn’t have to be aimed at a target or even be especially accurate.
Furthermore, power lines in Germany were particularly susceptible to the balloons.
Prewar German electricity grids used slow-acting circuit breakers and Peterson coils as opposed to the faster-acting circuit breakers, which could quickly isolate damage used by the British.
If a balloon cable drifted across two or more power lines, it was highly likely to cause a short circuit or damage the power line enough that it would most probably break in the future.
Also, the British Royal Navy had a stockpile of 100,000 surplus latex weather balloons which made the operation cost-effective.
On March 20th, 1942, the first balloons launched from HMS Beehive, near Felixstowe in Suffolk County not far from the southeast coast of the UK.
It was a joint operation, with 230 men and women from the Royal Navy, Royal Marine, Women's Royal Naval Service, the RAF Balloon Command, and the Naval Meteorological Services working together.
For security reasons, the launch crews were given the cover story of being part of a "Boom-defense" unit.
The spherical balloons when inflated with hydrogen had a diameter of 8 feet (2.4 m).
To prevent escape, the balloons were inflated inside three-sided tents or windbreaks.
During inflation, the balloons were sprayed with water to avoid friction between the latex balloon and the tent canvas; otherwise, the hydrogen might have accidentally ignited.
Then crew members conveyed the balloons by hand to a dispersal point, where a payload was attached.
It could be a dangerous job, and launch crews wore protective gear, including fire-proof black gloves, during balloon handling.
In several instances, members of the launch crew required medical treatment for burns caused by exploding balloons or other mishaps.
The balloons were launched between 10 am and 4 pm when the wind and weather were suitable.
Just before launch, a slow-burning fuse was lit on each balloon.
The length of the fuse was determined by the estimated time it took the balloon to arrive over German-controlled territory.
Once released, the balloon rose rapidly.
Around 25,000 feet (7600 m), an internal cord would tighten and prevent further ascension by releasing some gas; the balloon would then begin a slow descent due to the hydrogen gradually leaking away.
After a while, the slow-burning fuse would release a plug from a can of mineral oil; as the oil slowly dripped out, the balloon's payload would lighten, moderating its descent.
The fuse was also used to release the balloon’s weapon.
There were a number of payloads a balloon might carry: trailing wire or explosives, which were code-named beer, jelly, and socks.
For the balloons that carried a trailing wire, the slow-burning fuse would melt through the cord that held the wire, deploying it.
The trailing wire itself consisted of 700 feet (213 m) of hemp cord with a break strength of 40 pounds that was attached to a tail of 300 feet (91 m) of wire.
The wire was dragged for about 30 miles (48 km) in the hopes it would encounter a high-voltage transmission line and cause a phase-to-phase short circuit.