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A Tale from WW II
In the early stages of WWII, British commanders realized that
they were out-gunned by the German airforce. To help conceal
their weakness and divert German bombers from invaluable British
airfields, the Allied army created an elaborate system of
camouflage and decoys.
Carpenters, artists, and painters
built an impressive array of ships, aircraft, tanks, and airfields
all from lumber, canvas, plaster, and chicken wire. Once complete,
the decoys were placed away from key targets so enemy planes
would spot, report, and attack them rather than targets of
real value. In England, decoy airfields were attacked more
than real ones and thousands of tons of German bombs were
wasted on fake targets.
The Germans also used decoys, but
not without problems. In his book Masquerade, writer Seymour
Reit tells of one German failure that became legendary among
RAF pilots:
The German "airfield",
constructed with meticulous care, was made almost entirely
of wood. There were wooden hangers, oil tanks, gun emplacement,
trucks, and aircraft. The Germans took so long in building
their wooden decoy that Allied photo experts had more than
enough time to observe and report it. The day finally came
when the decoy was finished, down to the last wooden plank.
And early the following morning a lone [British] plane crossed
the Channel, came in low, circled the field once, and dropped
a large wooden bomb.
One can resist an
intrusion of armies but not an idea whose time has come.
-- Victor Hugo
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