Chaff is getting pricey
Thread Starter
Chaff is getting pricey
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
Wonder if it still works
RARE Vintage "Original" World War II Chaff Used to Hide Planes 70 Years Ago | eBay
Wonder if it still works
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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.
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.
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:
LJ
Here is some original WINDOW:
LJ
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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.
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!
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Testing Chaff at Polebrook
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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.
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.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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.
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.
Join Date: Aug 2004
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If only.......
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).
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.
Still, Type 26 made lovely tinsel for the Christmas tree.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
