Tinsel (codename) facts for kids
Tinsel was a special piece of equipment used by the RAF during World War II. It was carried on their bombers. Its main job was to block or 'jam' the radio messages of German Luftwaffe night-fighter pilots. This made it harder for the German pilots to get instructions from their ground controllers.
What Was Tinsel?
Tinsel was a clever system designed to mess with enemy communications. It helped protect RAF bombers flying at night. The equipment was quite simple but aimed to cause confusion for the German air defense.
How Tinsel Worked
The Tinsel system used a microphone placed inside one of the bomber's engine parts, called a nacelle. This microphone picked up the loud noise of the aircraft's engine. The sound from the microphone then went into the bomber's regular T1154 radio transmitter.
The wireless operator on the bomber had a very important job. They would listen to the radio frequencies that the German night-fighters were using. When they heard a German message, the operator would quickly tune their own transmitter to that exact same frequency. Then, they would send out the amplified engine noise on that frequency. This noise would then block, or jam, the German radio message.
Was Tinsel Effective?
Tinsel was not super powerful at completely blocking out the German speech. Instead, the engine noise usually just acted like a loud background sound. This made it much harder for the German night-fighter crews to clearly hear the instructions they were getting from their ground controllers. Even though it didn't completely silence the enemy, it still made their job much more difficult during the dark nights of the war.
Images for kids
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R1155 Receiver on top of T1154 Transmitter, used for Tinsel.
