Chaff is getting pricey

[Fonsini]

Some entrepeneurial soul is asking $25,000 for a 2 inch piece of "genuine WWII chaff".

RARE Vintage "Original" World War II Chaff Used to Hide Planes 70 Years Ago | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-Original-World-War-II-Chaff-used-to-hide-planes-70-years-ago-/301712295092?hash=item463f7444b4)

Wonder if it still works :E

[Dash8driver1312]

It managed to help "avaition" but I "wonder" why the stress on "really original" as if "he's having us on"...

[radar101]

I don't know. Although the seller states a credible provenance it looks too small / high frequency for wartime. I would have put it as 50s/60s.

[Pontius Navigator]

We used to get all sorts of WW 2 junk in Christmas snowmen, remember them? About a foot high, covered in cotton wool?

Fold flat gas or sand eye shields, small sellotape sized rolls of window wound round an aluminium core, and Zorro type metal masks.

The mask was my favourite, Matt black, backed with a soft rubber compound, cruciform crosses over the eyes. Perfect vision though tiny slits. I imagine they were anti-spaulling devices for tank crews. Don't know if that was true.

Ps, the picture is very similar to the I-band filaments bbc we chucked out the Shack in the 80s. The stuff I described above was the real deal - tinsel or rope for metric band. While 2-3 foot sections would have worked I think long strings would twist and snake giving multiple returns at the right wave length.

[Tankertrashnav]

Genuine or not, the asking price is totally bonkers! Remove the three noughts and I might be interested!

[Union Jack]

In a purely verbal sense, surely "chaff" should be in Jet Blast......:ok:

Jack

[Lima Juliet]

If you want some 'original' RAF WWII Chaff (codenamed WINDOW) just get some Bacofoil (other brands of tin foil are available) and cut to length with scissors!

Here is some original WINDOW:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/07/article-2229144-15E50E1E000005DC-645_634x421.jpg

LJ :ok:

[Simplythebeast]

Very nice Leon but as that is clearly not the real thing I can only offer $8000!

[Lima Juliet]

Done...Lovely jubbly!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1475000/images/_1479805_fools300.jpg

[Avitor]

It rained down on us when they were testing it. We had Upwood, Warboys, Alconbury, Polebrook, Glatton, And more, no more than a stone throw distant......with a good catapult.

[CoffmanStarter]

Leon ...

While you've got your roll of Bacofoil handy ... you might want to knock up another one of these :}

http://usability.typepad.com/confusability/azdb.jpg

Might help at the next VSO Briefing ;)

[MAINJAFAD]

If you want some 'original' RAF WWII Chaff (codenamed WINDOW) just get some Bacofoil (other brands of tin foil are available) and cut to length with scissors!

The window used in mid 1943 was foil attached to a paper backing, thus some paper and suitable adhesive are required Leon. (Plus it was covered in soot to camouflage it from searchlights).

[twmproject]

AVITOR
Re your comment about the ww2 chaff tests around Polebrook, Northamptonshire: I am working on a small research project and would like to hear more recollections about Polebrook and the 351st.

[rcsa]

Like this, Pontius?

A Lee Miller photo from 1941 - these were fire masks for Air Raid Wardens.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/19/lee-miller-a-womans-war-exhibition-imperial-war-museum-second-world-war-dachau-hitler#img-1

[Pontius Navigator]

Rcsa, I couldn't see your image but found this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/506655026806794814/

The one on the right though mine was a smooth plate, angled on both sides and the crosses as shown but without t h e circles.

Vision wise they were superb Zorro masks. As fire masks I don't know. The black metal would get hot, the eye slits were open to smoke, the backing was Sorbonne rubber and, I imagine could melt.

[ShortFatOne]

My dad was reminiscing just the other day about collecting pockets full of the stuff (from the hedgerows) with his mates on their way to school in the mornings. He never did find out if it was friendly chaff or dropped by the other side. Needless to say he never kept any (I think he said there was a collection bin at school where it was deposited then re-cycled for the war effort).

[morton]

Jumping forward a few years. I wonder how much of it is still in the grass and hedgerows of Scampton? Having loaded up the Vulcan Window boxes the system had to be tested. Sitting in the AEO’s position (facing backwards) is the number one Window box the left hand selector of the left controller or the right hand selector of the right controller? Simple for some but I know that I am not the only one to dispense the wrong one! From what I was told later, the Sergeants face was a picture to behold as he held the dustbin lid under the wrong chute – that’s what I said anyway. If only we had had YouTube then. All I saw, very shortly afterwards, was the dictionary definition of apoplectic at very close range! :\
Still, Type 26 made lovely tinsel for the Christmas tree.:oh:

[NRU74]

On the Valiant, for some reason, we had to practise chucking this stuff out, I seem to recall, once every six months.
The main circuit breakers for the Window Dispensers were actually in the bomb bay rather than the cabin. I recall being 'checked' by somebody on the Windows sortie and I'd forgotten to check the CBs in the bomb bay prior to taking off, so he was able to point out my incompetence (I was a very green 20 yr old)to the Flt Cdr.
Actually, on the sorties we flew over the Kola peninsular in the northern USSR it was all we had in regard to counter measures apart from the utterly useless Orange Putter, and, c52000 ft altitude.
Incidentally, to check the Orange Putter was working we fired a Very cartridge full of window and it showed up on the screen as it dispersed.

[Thomas coupling]

Take a 1m x 150mm strip of bacofoil and cut long 140mm lines into it every centimetre or so (so it looks like piano keys) and attach it to your back window - crack the back window open a little to allow the draft to cause the foil to flutter.
It causes mayhem with doppler road cameras as you go past and they then record your speed. The speed print out fluctuates between 0 - 999mph. :bored:

[woptb]

Is now the time to reveal my EW 'up cycling' project ?

Using the 'best' the 70's & 90's had to offer, my new 'Chav & Flares' (pat pending) dispenser, brings green warfare to a battlefield near you:8