THE NEW TRICK WHIC WORKED ONLY TOO WELL;

Quote:

Window also was prepared. The new device seemed an unlikely weapon to RAF crews. It consisted of bundles of metalized paper strips–each bundle had 2,200 strips–made of coarse black paper with aluminum foil stuck to one side. British scientists had theorized that the strips of metalized paper floating in the air would swamp German radar with false echoes. The idea was not new. Japanese naval aircraft had used such a weapon–called Giman-shi, or deceiving paper–during night attacks on Guadalcanal. Adolf Hitler’s scientists had developed their own, called Duppel, in Berlin and tested it. The test was so successful that the Germans were afraid it would fall into British hands and be used against them. Incredibly, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, chief of the Luftwaffe, not only ordered all research on Duppel stopped but forbade development of a counter to the device. Now, from Lancasters and Handley Page Halifaxes, bundles were hurled out flare chutes into the freezing dark, a wearying task. In all, 7,000 bundles were dropped. Down below, Luftwaffe radar stations that had been easily plotting RAF bomber streams were flooded with false returns. Hostile planes were everywhere. The whole defense system was blinded. German ground controllers panicked. All Luftwaffe planes were ordered to simply fly toward Hamburg and find their own targets. Rolf Angersbach, in a Dornier Do-217, obediently headed for the city and found himself surrounded by slow-moving radar contacts…but no planes. After firing his guns all over the sky, he was ordered to land to tell his bosses what was going on. Angersbach later recalled that he found everyone helpless and bewildered.

http://www.historynet.com/allied-aerial-destruction-of-hamburg-during-world-war-ii.htm