66

The observation balloons branch is a little-known specialty of the French army. However, it plays an important role during World War One in intelligence gathering and directing artillery fire. But sterling service does not prevent it to undergo a crisis during the interwar period, mainly for lack of sufficient funds. The ballooning observation, a part first of the Engineer corps then of the Air Force, has an organization, staffing, hardware, employment doctrine of its own. General Paul Bienvenue, one of the first balloonists, keeps alerting his superiors on the poor state of the branch in the years 1920-1940, without success. Lacking modernization, it is debilitated when embarking on the 1940 campaign, before collapsing under the blows of the Luftwaffe.