During World War II, thousands of barrage balloons were deployed over cities and strategic sites in Britain, Europe, and Pacific theaters, with steel cables extending upward to deter low-flying aircraft. These defensive balloons protected against dive bombers and strafing attacks, representing the largest-scale military use of balloon technology in history.

WWII barrage balloons became iconic symbols in British war poetry and literature, appearing in works by Henry Moore, who famously sketched them, and in verses by wartime poets. The surreal image of silver balloons tethered over bombed cities influenced literary treatments of vulnerability, protection, and the strange beauty found amid destruction, becoming enduring symbols of the Home Front experience.