Fun_People Archive
7 Feb
True Humor . . . (or just a story?)

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri,  7 Feb 97 23:54:32 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: True Humor . . . (or just a story?)

Forwarded-by: "Cochell, Jim" <jim_cochell@penmetrics.com>
Excerpted from the book, "Masquerade: The Amazing Camouflage Deceptions
of World War II," by Seymour Reit; Signet, 1980.

Another enemy decoy, built in occupied Holland, led to a tale that has been
told and retold ever since by veteran Allied pilots.  The German "airfield,"
constructed with meticulous care, was made almost entirely of wood.  There
were wooden hangars, oil tanks, gun emplacements, 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.  Early the following morning, a lone RAF plane crossed the Channel,
came in low, circled the field once, and dropped a large wooden bomb.

The footnote for this is: Several versions of this anecdote exist, the most
reliable of which can be found in Major M. E. DeLonge's "Modern Airfield
Planning and Concealment" (New York: Pitman, 1943), page 135.

© 1997 Peter Langston