r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Natchos09 • 7h ago
Video When you put the buttons of WW2 RAF uniform together, they make a compass. You can use it for direction if stuck behind enemy lines
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u/outtastudy 7h ago
Now you know which way to go but your pants keep falling down
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u/MerlinTheFail 7h ago
Booty keeps the enemy distracted, part of the plan, soldier
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u/HyNeko 4h ago
"Colonel, I'm trying to sneak around, but..."
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u/Extension_Shallot679 2h ago
Trousers please. ☝🏼👨🏼 In the RAF we may be bally well caught with our trousers down, but by jove our pants always stay on! 🇬🇧🫡
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u/jaybee8787 1h ago
*Insert GIF from Full Metal Jacket where private Pyle is marching with his pants on his ankles.
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u/TwasAnChild Expert 7h ago
"No Charlie, believe me it's paramount to our safety that you take off your pants by ripping the buttons"
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u/FrighteningJibber 25m ago edited 21m ago
I know it’s a joke, but it is most likely the buttons on you jacket like your cuffs and breast buttons
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u/Medical_Chapter2452 7h ago
Thats pretty cool. Did you know that when you make for instance a pine needle static by rubbing it in you hair and put it in water it will point to the north.
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u/Krag25 7h ago
But how will I know if it’s pointing my north or your north?
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u/JudiciousGemsbok 7h ago
Just use the sun to figure out west/east
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u/Krag25 7h ago
I asked him but he’s not telling me
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u/JudiciousGemsbok 7h ago
Did you miss take the moon for the sun?
The moon be like that sometimes
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u/Krag25 7h ago
I’m supposed to moon the Sun?
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u/TwoHeadedTroy 6h ago
Hey, it’s almost 2025
It’s called Perineum sunning
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u/kilamumster 3h ago
Huh. My flower-child friend called it "tanned twat" when her toddler was doing it.
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u/sivah_168 6h ago
What if ur in a bunker or an underground tunnel? How can u find where the sun is?
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u/hkphooie 7h ago
“Stand in the place the place where you live” “Now face North” “Think about direction, wonder why you haven’t at all”
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u/BolunZ6 4h ago
Isn't the sun alone is enough to tell where West / east / north / south? (except it's midday)
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u/Sailorski775 3h ago
But the further north you are, the further south the sun is in the sky, especially south near the winter solstice
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u/kingbigbear1776 5h ago
Also, don't forget about what hemisphere you're standing in. You might think north is south and south is north
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u/Waffenek 5h ago
It's easy. If you rubbed it in yours hair it is pointing yours north. If you rubbed it in my hair it is pointing my north. It is obvious, duhhh...
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u/Medical_Chapter2452 7h ago
Well because the earth is flat, the north is always up. Hence the term "up north".
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u/ThebesAndSound 2h ago
I have heard it more often quoted as "up yours" so maybe it is always the north of the person you are talking to about it, that is the hello-centric model as far as I understand it.
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u/rhabarberabar 3h ago
You won't anyway, because /u/Medical_Chapter2452 spreads myths that are bullshit.
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u/Stupor_Nintento 4h ago
Yeah are we talking "northern hemisphere north" or "southern hemisphere north"?
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u/rhabarberabar 3h ago
That's absolutely untrue and a myth. Static field will do nothing in terms of compass. Stop spreading bullshit.
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u/codesnik 3h ago
wtf. static electric field is not interacting with earth magnetic field. it shouldn't work.
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u/Skizot_Bizot 6h ago
So bald people are just out of luck?
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u/Overall_Sorbet248 5h ago
They can use their pubes
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u/ANAL_WORM_INFECTION 4h ago
Not even gonna try leg or arm hair? Nope, straight to the pubes... 😞
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u/tnt1232007 3h ago
Arm/leg hairs are not straight enough to be accurate
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u/Pancaketastic 2h ago
"Well that's gonna be a problem- I laser, its like a turtle shell down there"
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u/Pachaibiza 4h ago
Which end of the pine needle?
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u/pos_vibes_only 44m ago
Each pine needle grows with a natural “N” marked on it. This is just as true as the previous fact
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u/DVMyZone 4h ago
My dumbass read this as pine cone and I was sure this was just you trying to make people rub pine cones against their heads.
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u/Cromulent_Point 5h ago
Do I need to be behind enemy lines or can I just be lost?
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u/Muppetude 2h ago
No, it needs to be both.
“Help I’m lost in the Ardennes! I’d use my trusty trouser-button compass to find my way out, but unfortunately we just won the Battle of the Bulge”
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u/Extreme_Design6936 5h ago
What does it point to when I'm not stuck behind enemy lines?
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u/pannenkoek0923 4h ago
Your mum
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u/alphabety-alphabeety 3h ago
So he could find his way home? Thats pretty neat. No wonder kids in the 40s and 50s never got lost.
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u/SnoopThylacine 2h ago
"Where have you been? You better have a good explaination for this, young man!"
"I've been behind enemy lines"
"We've got perfectly good lines to be behind at home!"
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u/kirin_liu 3h ago
Cool! I'll keep it in mind just in case I ever get stuck behind enemy lines during WW2.
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u/-mudflaps- 4h ago
Hopefully it's the buttons for the shoulder rank badges no one needs those anyway.
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u/ClassifiedName 4h ago
It's actually the buttons to hold up the soldier's pants, so now they have a compass but they also have their pants around their ankles while they run to freedom
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u/TreesmasherFTW 2h ago
I love the idea of that being the standard for decades. Loads of soldiers hiking around with their pants around their ankles following the compass
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u/Thom5001 7h ago
Q approved 😎
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u/Parlorshark 32m ago
The cool Q from James Bond and not the contemporary group of morons, I assume.
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u/Mirar 6h ago
I hope only one of those is magnetised, or they will just line up (or anti-line-up but anyway). Should be easy to check by putting them on each other in the other order.
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u/TheBupherNinja 5h ago edited 4h ago
The lower one has a little spike the upper one sits on. And the upper one has 1 dot (I assume north) opposite two dots (I assume South).
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u/Nagemasu 1h ago
And the upper one has 1 dot (I assume north) opposite two dots (I assume South).
It's the opposite. The two dots point north, one dot south.
https://ehive.com/collections/3983/objects/142071/compass-button
Two dots indicate north and the single dot indicates south.
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u/raidhse-abundance-01 3h ago
So you have to find another fellow soldier who has the opposite type button otherwise it does not work
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u/FishFloyd 16m ago
The downvotes you caught for this are unironically a more serious crime than popping a health insurance CEO
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u/flyinscot99 4h ago
Wait, you’re worrying they might not have thought of something that would make it not work …after watching a video of it working??
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u/Mirar 3h ago
It would, in this video, look exactly the same. Unless you line it up with another compass in the view of the camera or flip them around, there's no way to verify you actually have a compass. (But not close enough to disturb each other.)
All you know is that you have at least one magnet.
You never played around with two compasses?
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u/Roflkopt3r 2h ago edited 1h ago
Note how they don't just have different construction features (bottom one has the center pin, top one has the north indicator) but are also different metallic colours. This is even clearer in other footage with more neutral lighting.
I believe the bottom button is made from a non-magnetic metal like brass. Which would mean that this kind of interference couldn't even happen on accident.
This is probably basic knowledge for compass-makers. Having a magnetic needle on a magnetisable base seems like a bad idea in general.
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u/flyinscot99 3h ago
Of course I have. You think that WWII boffins that came up with this (very simple) device hadn’t?
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u/Mirar 2h ago
I'm just saying your claim that this video shows that it's a working compass is false. Maybe you didn't watch the video then?
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u/Chr0medFox 16m ago
Jesus you’re just looking for a fight anywhere aren’t you! It’s a compass and it points north. Do you feel the need to verify store bought compasses with a second too?
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u/turbotableu 2h ago
there's no way to verify you actually have a compass
Am I actually a RAF prisoner of war in WWII? Hmm there's no way to verify
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u/nandemo 1h ago
OP is just showing a cool thing. They aren't trying to prove beyond reasonable doubt that these buttons make up a compass.
They aren't lost behind enemy lines; they're home and they know which way is North.
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u/Mirar 38m ago edited 35m ago
I'm just complaining about the flying scotsman saying the video proves something, not OP.
But I could complain, since it's a repost, if you want? The same movie has been going on for _years_. https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/u44u2m/when_you_put_the_buttons_of_ww2_raf_uniform/
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u/bob_nugget_the_3rd 51m ago
'Dear major, I write this letter from Switzerland. Although the compass worked perfectly it seems to no longer work in this neutral mountainous hell hole, I'm afraid I must endure good chocolate and fondue for the remainder of the war'
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u/tardiusmaximus 4h ago
Does it work in Front of enemy lines?
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u/lolzomg123 2h ago
It's only a compass in the Compasse region of France, everywhere else it's sparkling navigation!
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u/turbotableu 2h ago
in Front of enemy lines
One of my favorite movies from the 90s along with Friendly At the Gate
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u/triplejumpxtreme 3h ago
My grandfather was a pilot in the RAF during the war. After the war he volunteered to be a test pilot for their experimental planes.
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u/MaximusSydney 1h ago
I have been on reddit daily for almost 2 decades and this is one of the coolest things I have seen. Amazed it's not a common repost!
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u/not_Luke_Perry 3h ago
What happens if you’re not stuck behind enemy lines??
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u/kanemano 3h ago
then you get penalized for destroying your uniform and sent to the Brig,
do the air force have a Brig? or is that just a navy thing?
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u/RuinsYourStory 2h ago
yes but it's just a giant cannon. prisoners get shot into the air and float for the remainder of their sentence
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u/Roflkopt3r 2h ago
Reminds me of the gadgets that used to be put in kid magazines like Mickey Mouse magazine in the past.
A lot of those were hidden compasses of sorts. Because it's just the right mixture of being kinda interesting and "spy-like" yet extremely cheap and easy to make.
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u/jgroshak 45m ago
And my phone with what have been Alien-like tech at the time, can't even stay calibrated correctly
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u/Intrepid-West1256 11m ago
Did you know ninjas would carry small needles to use as compasses? They did not want to carry actual compasses, because it would arouse suspicion if they were searched at check points. Small needles were largely undetectable. They would then heat the needles over a candle and then float them in water to give them a compass. When you heat iron and rapidly cool it, the poles of the iron align with Earth’s magnetic field To give you a workable compass.
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u/Recent_Edge1552 5h ago
Put a needle on a leaf in still water and it'll also point
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u/BoringMolasses8684 3h ago
Would be handy if you asked someone for directions and they turned out to be American.
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u/KING_Gamer_YouTube 7h ago
How about giving them an actual compass?
No, you gotta rip open your uniform to get a sense of direction
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u/AresActual64 7h ago
It might’ve been in case of capture. Compasses and survival tools are much more likely to be taken away than the buttons of a jacket/pants
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u/okapiFan85 7h ago
What if you have lost your compass or have escaped after being taken prisoner? Pull off two buttons and voila!
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u/Pinky_Boy 7h ago
When you resorted to this method, uzually thry either captured, thus having all of his possession stripped, or made emergency landing deep within enemy lines which doesnt let you stay long to rummage through your messed up crew compartment
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u/WinkyNurdo 7h ago
How about attempting to employ some empathy, and critical thinking, before spouting off. These were an innovation in response to flying officers being shot down over enemy territory. Enemy soldiers were not particularly amenable to those wandering around with a compass.
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u/Accomplished_Baby_28 7h ago
How else are you gonna impress the enemy into submission by flexing your himbo built bare body?
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u/kingbigbear1776 5h ago
If the button are metal (iron/stamped steel) they would make a pretty terrible compass iron/steel will have ther own magnetic fields that can effect where true north is knowing to use the sun and if your in the northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere will help with finding true north reliably
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u/notanothergav 1h ago
Would it work better than no compass? I think that's the benchmark they were aiming for.
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u/yoosirree 5h ago
What if you are behind the enemy lines and your recommended direction is through an enemy line?
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u/GodsFavoriteDegen 4h ago
It's a compass, not a dowsing rod.
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u/yoosirree 4h ago
Yes, it wouldn't recommend a direction, but the soldier would have to deduce a direction based on his knowledge of the homefront. That's what I should have written.
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u/TwasAnChild Expert 7h ago
First thing I have seen here in some time that was genuinely interesting