Not all effective tech is high-tech. These fragments of aluminum covered paper were dropped by the Luftwaffe over the UK between 1943-5. Their purpose was to jam the UK’s radar system by dropping quantities of them from the sky to creating a cloud of false echoes. Named Window (later chaff) in the UK or Düppel in German, several countries had actually come up with them as a solution early in the war. However each side knew the moment it was used the enemy would do likewise, so it remained unused as a weapon until the Allied bombing raid over Hamburg in Autumn 1943. A few weeks later the Germans retaliated as they began using it for their own bombing raids over London (and elsewhere). These German strips measure 19mm wide, were originally 80 cm long and were dropped in large bundles.
What I like about these surviving small fragments is that they were actually dropped during the war, found by a child and clearly tucked away as a memento for many years. Although the accompanying description says they were found in 1942, clearly it must mean 1943 onward (and the much older owner just got confused years later). They appear to have been attached to the printed sheet relatively recently. Either way they are a great memento from a wonderfully simple yet effective piece of WW2 Radar history.
