Nightfighters

[Whiterook]

Oh OK...so this stuff wasn't towed...it was dropped?

[salinator]

Originally Posted by Whiterook

Oh OK...so this stuff wasn't towed...it was dropped?

Chaff (nicknamed "window" by the Royal Air Force) are a cloud of thin lightweight strips of metal cut to a specific size, which can be dispersed from a heavy bomber. These strips are designed to be detected by RADAR and therefore instead of detecting isolated real targets, the RADAR operator sees just a huge cloud.

[Roddoss72]

Salutations All

The British came up with Mandrel it was carried on a designated aircraft within the formation and its function was to create a mass disturbance of the signals of the German airborne radars, the problem was that once Mandrel was switched on it was to left on, this in itself was not a proble but the interference of Mandrel made the actual aircraft carrying the device stand out thus making it easy to pinpoint the aircraft to nightfighters.

Regards

Roddoss72

[Whiterook]

Originally Posted by salinator

Chaff (nicknamed "window" by the Royal Air Force) are a cloud of thin lightweight strips of metal cut to a specific size, which can be dispersed from a heavy bomber. These strips are designed to be detected by RADAR and therefore instead of detecting isolated real targets, the RADAR operator sees just a huge cloud.

Ahhhhh, got it now. Actually, though it was mentioned before, the reference to "Chaff" is what made the proverbial light bulb finally switch on for me! MAn, that must have been a lot of metal drifting to earth at times!

[Whiterook]

Originally Posted by Roddoss72

Salutations All

The British came up with Mandrel it was carried on a designated aircraft within the formation and its function was to create a mass disturbance of the signals of the German airborne radars, the problem was that once Mandrel was switched on it was to left on, this in itself was not a proble but the interference of Mandrel made the actual aircraft carrying the device stand out thus making it easy to pinpoint the aircraft to nightfighters.

Regards

Roddoss72

Interesting...never heard of this technology used in WWII. Thanks! I have to look into this!

[Geek44]

Originally Posted by Whiterook

Wow...great write up mate...thanks! Question: how did the aluminum strips work? You said the bombers floated above the drifting strips...were they towed in some fashion? I'm afraid I can't picture it.

The 'Window' strips were cut to half the wavelength of the German radars they were trying to jam. Let's say (hypothetical) the Germans used radars with a wave'length' of 24 inches. Each window strip was cut to a foot. Bags of these strips were simply emptied out of the bomb bay of a bomber and the strips just drifted like autumn leaves. The idea was to 'jam' the radar with millions of bogeys. The radar operators were unable to seperate the actual targets from the 'chaff'. Hence, the 'hiding above the metal clouds' analogy.

[Whiterook]

Nice explaination....thanks! That's so cool really. It must have been an amazing sight to behold. I assume many bombers, for instance, dropped it on the same mission? That's a lot of chaff!

[Erich]

Gents a little correction if I may. Yes indeed the German LW dropped Düppel - window over England on it's missions at night many many times as BC did over the Reich

another note of importance, as the LW aerial radar systems were succumbing to more and more of BC radar-jamming influence the German night fighter crews would home on to the area of heaviest window dropping therefore coming upon BC's heavy bombers and taking toll..........

Erich ~

[Geek44]

Indeed mate. The Nachtjagd reaped a harvest. I believe that survival rates among bomber crews were something like one in five at times. Of course that includes flak and other causes too.

[Erich]

the 1 in 5 were in 1943 through mid-44 although even in 45 the Lw Nachtjagd was not out of the picture yet and delivered the goods on several nights although getting harder and harder to send up aces as well as kids due to lack of fuels available

Erich ♫