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This reminded me of your grandmother's picture, Neville.



On the look-out at Ladysmith
Taking an observation from a war-balloon

Source: www.angloboerwar.com/forum/19-ephemera/3...-jack?start=42#91486

The home service uniforms indicate that the above photograph was taken in England prior to deployment to South Africa.

Below are three images taken during the period 1896 to 1899, when my great grandfather was serving with the Balloon Section at Chatham.






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2nd Balloon Section camp during the Siege of Ladysmith.
Major Gerard Heath, R.E., standing on the left and Captain W.A. Tilney, 17th Lancers, on the right.

Note the hydrogen gas cylinders under the tarpaulin in the background.




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Four images taken from Volume 1 of - With the Flag to Pretoria.


Getting a war balloon ready : Adjusting the telegrapic apparatus.



Filling the war balloon.



Soldiers on the Veldt as seen from the war balloon


Retiring the Balloon: During the action at Vaal Krantz, the balloon came under heavy fire, and had to be retired out of range by means of the rope which was used for tethering.

Neville - I am a bit worried about those exposed hydrogen cylinders, it would have been very interesting if they had received a direct hit from an incoming Boer shell. Is there any evidence of a Hindenburg like conflagration in the ABW?

Luckily for my great grandfather it was nigh impossible to ascertain the range of a balloon. A spherical object, of unknown diameter, floating in the sky with no terrestrial reference points poses all sorts of problems for the sniper and artillerist.

The greatest danger came from squalls of wind while being winched back to terra firma.

This German novelty card, which involved some form of dodgy indoor pyrotechnics, was wishful thinking.
A trail from the rifle muzzle to the balloon suggests some sort of fuze, which burned its way to the balloon basket, where it set off a small gunpowder "cap". I don't know what prevented the paper from bursting into flames.

The original illustrated envelope carries the description: "Transvaal Scherze [Transvaal Jokes] / Neue Knallbilder [New Cracker Pictures] / No 3808".




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