The 19th hole, after our “golfing” outings, usually provides for some interesting conversations/disagreements and sometimes enlightening sessions about all sorts of topics. A couple of times we’ve talked about deception practices used by the military.
One that almost everyone in the group knew about was the (fictitious) First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) built up around General George S. Patton in England to mislead the Germans into believing the main Allied invasion of France would take place at the Pas de Calais rather than the beaches of Normandy. An entire fake army group under George Patton was set up, complete with fake airplanes, tanks and cannons.
So the use of decoy airfields and other “make-believe” facilities during World War II is a reality — not a “legend” as one of our group insisted. During the war, both sides tried to fool each other — there is no doubt that the Germans built wooden airplanes and sometimes complete airfields to keep the allies away from their “real” airfields. They also painted bomb damage on existing airfields to make them look unusable and spare them from further bombing.
A famous story that has never been completely verified — or — disproved, goes like this….
After Germany occupied Holland, they build an “airfield,” constructed with meticulous care and made almost entirely of wood. There were wood hangers, oil tanks, gun emplacements, trucks, and aircraft. Apparently, the Germans took so long to build their wooden decoy that Allied photo experts had more than enough time to observe and report it. Shortly after the “airfield” was finished, a British RAF plane crossed the English Channel, came in low, circled the field once, and dropped a large wooden bomb.
I first heard the story in a training course when I was in my mid-twenties. It’s never been proven or dis-proven. There’s been a lot of discussion and reasons given as to why it could have happened and why it isn’t likely that it did. One thing is true — high grade inflatable dummy aircraft are still deemed effective today and are being deployed to fool the enemy… this despite today’s excellent quality of satellite reconnaissance photography. I’d be a little more skeptical if I hadn’t been involved in a few projects that are more far-fetched, and funnier, than this one. But no matter what you believe, it’s still a great story.
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