Pop Pop!

In World War I, we didn't have fancy satellites and drones to keep tabs on enemy positions.  That work had to be done by a dude with binoculars and a radio sitting somewhere high up.  In many instances, this meant putting him in a basket and strapping it to a giant hydrogen-filled balloon so he could float above the battlefield and report what he saw.

Just as there were guys whose job it was to sit in the balloon, there were guys on the enemy side whose job it was to stop them.  These 'balloon busters' would fly in low in biplanes and attempt to shoot down the observation balloons with incendiary rounds.  While it might sound like a dude in a wicker basket beneath a giant stationary balloon filled with explosive gas would be a pretty easy target for a fighter plane with specialized ammunition, the task was actually quite dangerous for the balloon busters.  Observation balloons were valuable assets, and their owners would devote significant resources to their defense, including ground-based anti-air installations and fighter plane escorts.

The greatest of these balloon busters was the Belgian Willy Coppens, who shot down a whopping 35 German balloons (as well as two enemy airplanes) between April and October of 1918.  In one of his most remarkable attacks, the balloon he was targeting was loosed from its moorings, and rose up beneath his plane.  He shut off his propeller to avoid tangling it in the fabric of the of damaged balloon, and sat parked on top of it until his plane slid off and he could fly away to safety.

As he racked up more victories, Willy became a prime target for the Germans, who set up special traps to take him out.  In one instance, they booby-trapped a balloon with explosives, so that when he shot it down, the resulting explosion would be enough to take his plane down with it.  He narrowly escaped, of course, because he was a badass.

In October 1918, less than a month before the end of the war, he was severely wounded when an incendiary round hit him in the leg as he secured his final balloon destruction.  He managed to crash land behind friendly lines, but his leg had to be amputated, ending his career as a pilot.  He died in 1986 at the age of 94.  As an old man, he probably went around to children's birthday parties and popped their balloons with a pea shooter.