The Dark Side Of Tinsel

The article about tinsel was most interesting, and I fondly recalled my experiences with it many years ago on our family Christmas trees (C&EN, Dec. 15, 2014, page 31). We were more frugal in those days, and it was exasperating to recover tinsel to use again the next year.

There is, however, a darker side to tinsel. During WWII, I was on guard duty one very cold night at an airstrip in northern France during the Battle of the Bulge. I suddenly became aware of objects floating in the air around me. I later learned that it was strips of tinsel called “chaff” or “windows” by the British. It was dropped from aircraft to jam radar—didn’t know if it was Allied or German. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to save some of it.

Bernard Hofreiter
Peoria, Ill.