Germans Use Chaff in Battle of Britain

What if the Germans discovered chaff (reflective strips to spoof radar) early enough to use it in the BOB? Both sides discovered the technique in 1942, and both sat on it for a while because they were afraid it would be used against them. The idea was tossed around in Britain as early as 1937. So, what if the Germans figured it out early enough to use it against the Brits in the summer of 1940?

To what extent would the chaff reduce the effectiveness of radar? What countermeasures would the Brits be able to come up with? How much would any reduction in radar's effectiveness impact the BOB?
 
While I do not forsee Operation Sealion, I feel sorry for those ATL British wives waiting for husbands to return only to hear more men had been killed in an effort to get rid of the Germans and their chaff making planes.
The British would be much more strained during this battle.
 
Und how many airplanes could we make mit all zis aluminum you propose dumping out of an airplane? Germany was very diligent about collecting dropped American drop tanks and building new planes from them. They also disapproved of the concept of reciprocating in kind.

German reaction to Allied window was fairly swift. The advantage in electronic warfare is often short-lived.
 
Not sure if Chaff would do much good anyway. Isn't it usually used to distract Radar guided munitions? Radar wasn't that advanced at the time, they were mostly getting early warnings, which would actually be helped if there's a larger radar signature, not hurt.
 
Not sure if Chaff would do much good anyway. Isn't it usually used to distract Radar guided munitions? Radar wasn't that advanced at the time, they were mostly getting early warnings, which would actually be helped if there's a larger radar signature, not hurt.

from what I gather they did use radar guided spotlights for AAA during nighttime raids.
 
Considering that this thread is in regard to the use of window in the BoB, a daylight environment, it's effectiveness would be much much reduced. Plotting would be somewhat difficult, but it could be used capriciously to create feints wherein only the chaffe-dropper would be subject to interception, ruining tea on an otherwise quiet day. It's at times like that when frequency agility would seem desirable.

Once a real raid is within sight of land, the observer corps was still around, looking up. For inland targets, on clear days, radar was superfluous and largely not there anyway.
 
Chain Home didnt work on one single frequency but worked in the 20 to 30 Mhz range approximately 12 meters wavelength, all the stations were tuned to a slightly different frequency to prevent interference. Could this have been used to defeat Chaff, Chaff has to be cut to the right length to work could a station be retuned to reduce the jamming.

I believe modern Chaff flares contain multiple different lengths of chaff to cover the broadest spectrum and some aircraft Chaff dispensers cut the Chaff to the right length as it is dispensed off a long roll of foil.
 
Wavelengths...

IIRC, the German radar worked on much shorter wavelengths, which meant it was vulnerable to chaff. Chain Home used such long wavelengths that deploying suitable chaff would be difficult...

Also, IIRC, for this reason the Germans were scared to try chaff lest it inspire the RAF. It was such a secret that, when deployed by RAF, it came as a nasty shock...
 
IIRC, the German radar worked on much shorter wavelengths, which meant it was vulnerable to chaff. Chain Home used such long wavelengths that deploying suitable chaff would be difficult...

Also, IIRC, for this reason the Germans were scared to try chaff lest it inspire the RAF. It was such a secret that, when deployed by RAF, it came as a nasty shock...

The Brits were also scared of German use of chaff, and delayed its use for several months to a year because of that fear. Based on that, I suspect that there was at least some vulnerability. It's my understanding that the Brits only used chaff after they converted to less vulnerable radar in 1943-44 time frame.

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Overall, I suspect people are underestimating the impact. If the Germans did use chaff and it succeeded in blinding or significantly degrading British use of radar, the impact wouldn't be trivial. Radar was key to British ability to manage the air battle, making sure the fighters were up in a timely and proportionate way. Air observers could help, but given the speed of an airplane, the time period from a German bomber reaching the coast to it reaching a target 50 miles inland would be under 12 minutes. The extra warning time from radar was crucial.

The issues are (a) How much could the Germans have degraded British use of radar? (b) What countermeasures could the Brits have taken in 1940? and (c) What impact would it have on the course of the BOB? Would the air battle still be a pretty obvious British triumph?
 
It could have a huge impact, radar was vital to British tactics. Depends how good the radar blinding effect was. I know in Vietnam that one problem was that the mass use of Chaff really signaled exactly where a raid was almost as effectively as an actual radar image, so the Germans would need to spread it over a wide area to have a real effect.
 

Cook

Banned
(c) What impact would it have on the course of the BOB? Would the air battle still be a pretty obvious British triumph?

The triumph is that the Germans don’t march into Whitehall. Chaff is not going to alter that.
 
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