Landships II

Bonjour,

I think that all wooden tanks built by Germans was only training tanks for German infantry on training camps.
I believe that the only dummy tanks, used during this war, was some Mark build by British Army.

If German dummy Mark could be used as decoy (the German Army also used the Mark), it was believable for Renault FT.
It is interesting to see that Germans never built Schneider and St Chamond's mock-up for training.

The French Army gave order to built A7V mock-up and, at least, two models were buid (check on photos).

Bonne journée - Michel

-- Edited by Tanker on Monday 14th of March 2011 12:45:05 PM

Dummys and the German Army

(/.) Dummy gun positions.- -The Germans make considerable use of
dummy gun positions near the occupied emplacements, and employ dummy
flashes in them.
(g.) Dummy trenches. It has been found unnecessary to dig dummy
trenches more than 20 inches deep ; provided the edges are kept sharp, it is
said that they throw sufficient shadow to appear like real ones in aeroplane
photographs.
(h.) Dummy saps. In chalky ground dummy saps are sometimes made
by turning ever the top soil and exposing the chalk, a small T-head being
constructed at the end of the "sap" and lightly wired.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(e.) The exposure of groups of dummy figures in the German
trenches, presenting the appearance of assaulting partie
leaving their trenches to charge.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. Ruses and sniping. For remarks on snipers' posts and sniping
see under "k
Snipers' posts," on page 15. The following are example
of ruses which have been employed by German troops :
(a.) Dummy figures. Dummy placed some 60 yards in front of the
German trench ; on moving the dummy, it exploded.
Upright dummy in a shell hole ; small electric battery on the dummy
connected with an explosive charge in contact with an unexploded shell
Slightest movement of dummy caused contact to be made and exploded the
shell.
Dummy in German uniform, apparently a corpse, placed in No Man'
Land. Patrol going out to secure identification, found a strong German
patrol near the dummy. In another instance, the dummy was made to move
and beckon, as if for assistance.
Dummy moved along German trench to make our men expose themselves
when firing at it ;
fire at once opened on our men from a machine gun.
Dummies placed in 'empty trench to give it the appearance of being
occupied.

-------------------------------------------------

3. On April 4 I posted the dummies, which had been previ-
ously prepared, in the Blinddarm and between the Blinddarm
and the southwest corner of La Boisselle. The dummies were
arranged in three groups, which were fastened on to laths, op-
erated by strings leading to dugouts, thus insuring the safety
of the men operating them, even in the event of the heaviest
enemy fire.

----------------------------------------------------

1. Sufficient attention was not paid to rendering all works
as invisible as possible to ground and air observation.
Screens and dummy works must be employed on a consider-
ably larger scale than hitherto. (Cf. part la, pars. 3 and 19;
part 16, par. 5 et seq.)
1
2. The more defensive works there are, the more targets
must be engaged by the enemy, and the more will he be obliged to
scatter his ammunition.

-------------------------------------------------------

The identification of active machine guns must be rendered
as difficult as possible by the construction of dummy emplace-
ments.

-------------------------------------------------------

from official documents 1917

Cheers



-- Edited by Ironsides on Monday 14th of March 2011 04:33:36 PM

The corbis image above is of a dummy made from reeds caption claims its a decoy for allied bombing attacks... theres two visible in the image....so presumably its part of a production run...

Theres a book Airplane photography (1920) great detail and will probarbly answer most technical questions...

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924015389244 

larger file

http://www.archive.org/details/airplanephotogra00ivesrich

The detail in the german dummies doesnt suprise me heres some more... 

Cheers

-- Edited by Ironsides on Monday 14th of March 2011 11:18:09 PM

 Bonjour,

"Dummys and the German Army . . . ./ . . . .  from official documents 1917",

Yes but, apparently, always nothing about German Dummy tanks . . . used on the Front line in 1918.

Michel

From: A survey of German tactics, 1918 US Doc pg 38


"Anti-tank Instruction.Courses of 8 days were held in
January. A large number took part as spectators. Wooden
tanks were used, at which machine guns and trench mortars
fired until the tanks had penetrated beyond the second line, when
the defense was taken over by the artillery. Instruction in the
vulnerable parts of the tank was given."

Cheers

Dummy A7V

Tanker wrote:

---

Bonjour,

I think that all wooden tanks built by Germans was only training tanks for German infantry on training camps.
I believe that the only dummy tanks, used during this war, was some Mark build by British Army.

If German dummy Mark could be used as decoy (the German Army also used the Mark), it was believable for Renault FT.
It is interesting to see that Germans never built Schneider and St Chamond's mock-up for training.

The French Army gave order to built A7V mock-up and, at least, two models were buid (check on photos).

Bonne journée - Michel

-- Edited by Tanker on Monday 14th of March 2011 12:45:05 PM

---

The Australians used dummy tanks in action in 1918 to a] bulk out the number of tanks that appeared to be supporting them b] fool the Germans into thinking tank attacks were about to take place where they weren't. These were wood and canvas Mk Vs moved around under fire by infantry men. The Americans used dummy tanks for training. Australia, Canada, Britain, Germany, and the United States all used dummy tanks for fund raising.