soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Michael Emrys" wrote in message
news:C3E1BCAF.1719D%emrys@olypen.com...
> in article
> a6d19dc2-6c62-49e1-98c9-988001776a9e@s13g2000prd.googlegroups.com,
> narrledudh@hotmail.com at narrledudh@hotmail.com wrote on 2/20/08 7:59 AM:
>
>> I also seem to have forgotten which side (both perhaps?) in North Africa
>> would
>> make plywood shells to make non-combat vehicles look like tanks to enemy
>> photo-recon.
>
> Before Operation Crusader, the British rigged canvas screens on their
> tanks
> to make them look like trucks. I wonder what they did about the tracks in
> the sand though, as I imagine that those for tanks are distinguishable
> from
> those of trucks.

Jasper Maskelyne. A stage illusionist who came up with all the methods to
deceive the Germans. He was quite brilliant. He had searchlights that
shined up from the Suez canal and way to the size of it, with rotating
prisms. This confused German Italian pilots who would not see the exact
position of the canal beneath.

The British Army made tanks look like trucks and trucks look like tanks, to
deceive. He created a dummy Alexandria harbour and the Germans bombed that
instead.

There was talk of Tom Cruise playing him in film titled The War Magician.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article400181.ece