Once-secret photos reveal the extraordinary lengths armies will go to fool the enemy.
Tanks But No Tanks: The Dummy Weapons Of War
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In the leadup to the second battle of El Alamein, British forces disguised tanks as trucks...
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...and turned jeeps into phony tanks. This photo shows a dummy tank’s metal cage before it was fitted with wooden panels to complete the disguise.
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A British tank dressed as a harmless lorry. In the autumn of 1942, British troops massed phony “tanks” at the south of their line and real, disguised fighting vehicles to the north.
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When British Tommies pulled off their tanks’ disguises and charged into battle, the northern German forces were caught off-guard and Britain won its first major land battle against Nazi Germany.