We Need Answers on the Downed UFOs

By the end of World War II, everyone had a name for the aluminum-foil-like substance that you could dump into the air as a means of preventing enemy radar from tracking your bombers and fighters. We Yanks called it “chaff.” The Brits called it “window.” The Germans called it “dupper.” The Japanese called it “giman-shi,” which roughly translates as “deceiving paper.” Some families even gathered it from the ground and used it as tinsel for their Christmas trees.

In war, advanced technology and equipment can often be neutralized by the cheapest, cleverest hacks, tactics and countermeasures more inventive than they are complicated. The Italian Navy got one over on the mighty British fleet with its “frogmen.” On December 19, 1941, these seamen — wearing oxygen rebreathers, riding on ungainly “slow-running torpedoes,” carrying limpet mines, and sporting waterproof watches with radium dials — sunk or stalled out most of the British fleet stationed in Alexandria, including the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant battleships, and the HMS Jervis destroyer. Because some of those British ships were only disabled and not completely destroyed, the success of the frogmen mission remained something of a secret for years afterward.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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By the end of World War II, everyone had a name for the aluminum-foil-like substance that you could dump into the air as a means of preventing enemy radar from tracking your bombers and fighters. We Yanks called it “chaff.” The Brits called it “window.” The Germans called it “dupper.” The Japanese called it “giman-shi,” which roughly translates as “deceiving paper.” Some families even gathered it from the ground and used it as tinsel for their Christmas trees.

In war, advanced technology and equipment can often be neutralized by the cheapest, cleverest hacks, tactics and countermeasures more inventive than they are complicated. The Italian Navy got one over on the mighty British fleet with its “frogmen.” On December 19, 1941, these seamen — wearing oxygen rebreathers, riding on ungainly “slow-running torpedoes,” carrying limpet mines, and sporting waterproof watches with radium dials — sunk or stalled out most of the British fleet stationed in Alexandria, including the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant battleships, and the HMS Jervis destroyer. Because some of those British ships were only disabled and not completely destroyed, the success of the frogmen mission remained something of a secret for years afterward.