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The film of up close, showing that even at a glance some of these deceptions could still fool you shows how effective they must have been at fooling aerial surveillance
I doubt it both sides got plenty of reason to lie so I don't blame em but don't ever take these stats a face value while a war is still active. And even after that there can be plenty of falsehoods.
I just remember in first year, when we had 12 systems operating, I saw russian statistics that they destroyed 14. And in next couple of days new reports of HIMARS strikes would come through from their side. Would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
As funny as this is now, the Germans would have made different decisions, maybe the right ones, had they known the true movements and numbers of the allied troops. So this "charade" was kinda crucial for the fall of the Reich lol amazing
i mean it was crucial to it going down the way it did but it was only a matter of time. some people act like a few mistakes is the reason germany fell but in reality they always where going to.
Well yes and no, the Americans + russians + random tech would've beat them, just like the bombs on japan, they didn't *need* it, but it accelerated things
"Funny" part is, they used a similar decoy strategy in africa against the italians. Problem is, the italians more or less reacted the opposite of what the British wanted, resulting in a kinda bloodbath with heavy losses on both sides
Lindybeige has a few videos on British deception, it's in one of them
It's kinda the opposite, they saw a lot of troups nearby, so they reinforced another spot instead, which the brits wanted to attack. Brits had assumed they'd just reinforced the point near the decoys. So they attacked a way bigger force than anticipated
I mean, the allies were essentially just the clean up crew. Most of the war happened on the Eastern front. The soviets had already eviscerated the majority of the German army, and their own army was eviscerated in return. As much as the yanks like to claim credit, they were better at recruiting nazis post-WW2 than defeating them.
Yes, the Eastern front was SUPER important and is definitely not talked about enough in Western counties. But the invasion in France was definitely a super important part of the war effort and to deny that fact is as asinine as someone saying the Eastern front was unimportant.
Even Stalin said the war would be won with British intelligence, American steel and Russian blood.
The invasion of Normandy put a lot of pressure on Germany and made them move troops to the western front.
Stalin had been pressuring the Allies to invade France for a long time to ease the strain on his army. He was pissed when we landed in Africa for our first front instead of Europe.
Dumb take and doesn't line up with reality. It's no question that a German boy being armed up if given the choice would have probably wanted to take their chances on the western front before the east, but d-day was brutal. Amphibious landings are almost always costly. Franklin and Winston would have delayed forever, but Stalin demanded we open up another front for the Germans less he ask for a ceasefire. Retaking France was quickish relatively, but it didn't come free. The Ardennes were brutal the battle of the bulge was stupid ridiculous in the fact that those Americans held their post against such an onslaught and heroic. If Berlin was on the west side of Germany one could imagine pacing wise the western front could have reached Berlin first that's how close both sides entered Germany. Aachen was the first German city taken by the allies and on the Western front and the Germans fought like hell over there homeland. As another redditer already said British Intelligence, American Steel, Russian Blood. Still over 400k Americans died and we were mostly trying to stay out of another war. That's ignoring entirely the mighty eight air force look into the causalitys there before fighters could follow them all the way. Lend lease and stopping oil to Japan one had to take a side eventually, but America very much felt the rest of the world were being children and didn't want to die for skirmishes that they didn't start or want involvement in. America is/was far from perfect, but WWII is a good example of being dragged into world affairs. War is in general is unfair when your a young man being told to fight for some old man's grudge and glory. Sometimes those young men want the glory other times there fighting people entering thier land. But in Americas case 400k men fought for other people's home and freedom and especially in Europe revenge would come in the Pacific. It's wasn't a war for oil America more so than probably any other war since was justifed in their response. We were both attacked and our enemy's wanted to control most of the planet and we decided we would do our part to end it. Not out of good will but essentially frustration Churchill said "You can always count on America to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else" and that was about it. And still we came together as a nation and that many men died for a better world and a good end. Stalin/ Soviet Union meanwhile mistreated his own people and before Hitler invaded he happily split Poland with him. So, I don't care if we took in some german scientists, it was wrong, but in no way did the Soviet Union ever have a particular moral high ground let alone one above the US.
TLDR it's rude and untrue to claim the western front was just a clean up crew. The fighting and deaths could have been ten times higher on the east and probably wers counting civilians dead and still the western front still meant something as it was still a brutal war/hell on earth and America asked plenty of times not to be there while the Soviets very much were okay and participated in conquesting till the shoe was on the other foot.
> It's wasn't a war for oil America more so than probably any other war since was justifed in their response. We were both attacked and our enemy's wanted to control most of the planet and we decided we would do our part to end it. Not out of good will but essentially frustration Churchill said "You can always count on America to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else"
Sick quote
Also, great comment from a frenchman not as well versed in ww2 as i'd like.
This Russian revisionism completely ignores the vital importance of lend lease which was given in large quantities to the Soviets by the western allies.
It's pretty crazy the lengths they went to. Real tanks to make the track, constant radio chatter. Propped up at the shortest crossing and Patton was put in charge. Punishment for being bad and Germans were convinced he would lead the invasion
In school I didn’t like warfare and history. As an adult, I definitely see things in a new light. Of course I still hate people hurting people, but I can appreciate some of the details a lot more.
Not only was Patton (on paper) in charge, but there was a full logistics and administration staff for the fake army, and all backed up by reports from the German spies in the UK (all of whom were either turned by British Intelligence or had been on the side of the Allies from the start), who also concealed the real ship and army movements by, among other methods, claiming their informant in Liverpool had recently died and could they have an extra stipend to give to the (fictional) widow.
Fun fact, the allies were so good at spy work that they caught every single German spy in Britain and made quite a few of them turn double agents, their stories are absolutely insane
I saw a documentary about this and it was at Calais France and hitler had aerial surveillance photos of this and he became obsessed with it thinking he had the inside track on it and I think he had more troops up there then Normandy which allowed the allies to take the beach on D-day. Sorry just I’m just a dad here about to turn 40 and getting into WWII shit like Shane Gillis says 😂
Not at Calais, but in the UK near it.
Calais was in German hands. The Allies couldn’t have built a mock army there.
But Calais is the closest part of France to the UK, so it would make sense for the allies to land there.
The Pas-de-Calais deception was a huge part of the D-Day planning. It was a large part of Operation Fortitude (South) which convinced Hitler that the landings would be at the shortest/most logical landing spot. It in turn was a part of Operation Bodyguard, planning for which started in Summer 1943 (meaning it was ongoing for over a year).
The plan got so much inside Hitler's head that he refused to redeploy troops and tanks from Calais even once the Normandy Invasion was underway. The plan was to delay this for two weeks, it lasted even longer (seven weeks), meaning that the Normandy bridgehead could be established quicker and the breakout happen sooner (although that proved far more difficult than planned due to a number of reasons).
It definitely worked, as goofy as it looked/sounded.
These were also set up in different locations to the real D Day setting off point to fool the Germans into believing we were heading for the Pays de Calais rather than Normandy
I was reading about this the other day. Sending in like fake paratroopers and stuff too as decoys to confuse the Germans about where the Allies would be invading from. Interesting stuff!
"Jerry i feel like these reminds me of something, it's on the tip of my tongue. oh it's on the tip of ur tongue too Jerry. well if it's on the tips of both our tongue then it will come to one of us" -zefrank1
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Imagine how D-Day might have gone if a few soldiers took pot shots at the tanks and the Germans started to discover the ruse. Wouldn’t have changed the tide of the war but perhaps the Germans would’ve been more prepared for a sudden attack.
reading about it i always though if a german scout got a good close look at any of it itd be obvious so why even bother. didnt realize how realistic they actually looked
I read somewhere once that we dropped a giant condoms from airplanes with English writing on the package to make them think we were just giants compared to them.
Wasn’t it more to get them to divert their forces to a place they weren’t actually going to be? We had more tanks than (US alone). We ran into more artillery pieces used to combat tanks than actual tanks
This was part of the Ghost Battalion. All declassified many many years after the end of WWII.
The Allies also recorded the sounds of troop/vehicle movements and played them nearby German front lines with gigantic speakers on top of trucks to add to the psychological warfare and misinformation.
Makes me wish I knew when the Google Street Views would drive by my house again. Imagine how sweet my Zillow photos would be with a couple of howitzers and tanks in my front yard.
WW2 would have lasted much longer if Hitler had not invaded Russia, and continued talks with them.
England would have certainly fallen if Germany had brought it's full power against them.
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That inflatable gun at the end though. I apologize for my thoughts.
Reminds me of an excited elephant I once saw.
"It usually doesn't do that"
I don't apologise at all for thinking of a number of "get it up" jokes.
When you get to my age, play that clip in reverse.
Aww
Looks like the tommy gun from the mask
Lmaooo
Im sorry. You’re just really pretty
The film of up close, showing that even at a glance some of these deceptions could still fool you shows how effective they must have been at fooling aerial surveillance
It's also how russians "destroyed" more HIMARS launchers than US sent to Ukraine) I think first real one was destroyed only last month.
I doubt it both sides got plenty of reason to lie so I don't blame em but don't ever take these stats a face value while a war is still active. And even after that there can be plenty of falsehoods.
I just remember in first year, when we had 12 systems operating, I saw russian statistics that they destroyed 14. And in next couple of days new reports of HIMARS strikes would come through from their side. Would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
I fully thought that car was real and that they were grabbing an uninflated one out of the trunk
As funny as this is now, the Germans would have made different decisions, maybe the right ones, had they known the true movements and numbers of the allied troops. So this "charade" was kinda crucial for the fall of the Reich lol amazing
i mean it was crucial to it going down the way it did but it was only a matter of time. some people act like a few mistakes is the reason germany fell but in reality they always where going to.
See I’m intrigued by your thought but then you go and spell ‘were’ wrong 😅
This is some Hogan's Heroes type shit. 😂😂 I absolutely love this was a real thing and helped us win the war.
That, and the British planting the fake papers on the corpse.
Well yes and no, the Americans + russians + random tech would've beat them, just like the bombs on japan, they didn't *need* it, but it accelerated things "Funny" part is, they used a similar decoy strategy in africa against the italians. Problem is, the italians more or less reacted the opposite of what the British wanted, resulting in a kinda bloodbath with heavy losses on both sides
That’s interesting. Do you mean they just sort of immediately knew and went for the kill?
Lindybeige has a few videos on British deception, it's in one of them It's kinda the opposite, they saw a lot of troups nearby, so they reinforced another spot instead, which the brits wanted to attack. Brits had assumed they'd just reinforced the point near the decoys. So they attacked a way bigger force than anticipated
I mean, the allies were essentially just the clean up crew. Most of the war happened on the Eastern front. The soviets had already eviscerated the majority of the German army, and their own army was eviscerated in return. As much as the yanks like to claim credit, they were better at recruiting nazis post-WW2 than defeating them.
Yes, the Eastern front was SUPER important and is definitely not talked about enough in Western counties. But the invasion in France was definitely a super important part of the war effort and to deny that fact is as asinine as someone saying the Eastern front was unimportant. Even Stalin said the war would be won with British intelligence, American steel and Russian blood.
The invasion of Normandy put a lot of pressure on Germany and made them move troops to the western front. Stalin had been pressuring the Allies to invade France for a long time to ease the strain on his army. He was pissed when we landed in Africa for our first front instead of Europe.
That last part is so bad ass. What a bold and telling statement.
Dumb take and doesn't line up with reality. It's no question that a German boy being armed up if given the choice would have probably wanted to take their chances on the western front before the east, but d-day was brutal. Amphibious landings are almost always costly. Franklin and Winston would have delayed forever, but Stalin demanded we open up another front for the Germans less he ask for a ceasefire. Retaking France was quickish relatively, but it didn't come free. The Ardennes were brutal the battle of the bulge was stupid ridiculous in the fact that those Americans held their post against such an onslaught and heroic. If Berlin was on the west side of Germany one could imagine pacing wise the western front could have reached Berlin first that's how close both sides entered Germany. Aachen was the first German city taken by the allies and on the Western front and the Germans fought like hell over there homeland. As another redditer already said British Intelligence, American Steel, Russian Blood. Still over 400k Americans died and we were mostly trying to stay out of another war. That's ignoring entirely the mighty eight air force look into the causalitys there before fighters could follow them all the way. Lend lease and stopping oil to Japan one had to take a side eventually, but America very much felt the rest of the world were being children and didn't want to die for skirmishes that they didn't start or want involvement in. America is/was far from perfect, but WWII is a good example of being dragged into world affairs. War is in general is unfair when your a young man being told to fight for some old man's grudge and glory. Sometimes those young men want the glory other times there fighting people entering thier land. But in Americas case 400k men fought for other people's home and freedom and especially in Europe revenge would come in the Pacific. It's wasn't a war for oil America more so than probably any other war since was justifed in their response. We were both attacked and our enemy's wanted to control most of the planet and we decided we would do our part to end it. Not out of good will but essentially frustration Churchill said "You can always count on America to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else" and that was about it. And still we came together as a nation and that many men died for a better world and a good end. Stalin/ Soviet Union meanwhile mistreated his own people and before Hitler invaded he happily split Poland with him. So, I don't care if we took in some german scientists, it was wrong, but in no way did the Soviet Union ever have a particular moral high ground let alone one above the US. TLDR it's rude and untrue to claim the western front was just a clean up crew. The fighting and deaths could have been ten times higher on the east and probably wers counting civilians dead and still the western front still meant something as it was still a brutal war/hell on earth and America asked plenty of times not to be there while the Soviets very much were okay and participated in conquesting till the shoe was on the other foot.
> It's wasn't a war for oil America more so than probably any other war since was justifed in their response. We were both attacked and our enemy's wanted to control most of the planet and we decided we would do our part to end it. Not out of good will but essentially frustration Churchill said "You can always count on America to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else" Sick quote Also, great comment from a frenchman not as well versed in ww2 as i'd like.
This Russian revisionism completely ignores the vital importance of lend lease which was given in large quantities to the Soviets by the western allies.
You’re an idiot…
he’s right, it made the german moves most of their forces in calais
That’s brilliant! I had never seen this before
It's pretty crazy the lengths they went to. Real tanks to make the track, constant radio chatter. Propped up at the shortest crossing and Patton was put in charge. Punishment for being bad and Germans were convinced he would lead the invasion
In school I didn’t like warfare and history. As an adult, I definitely see things in a new light. Of course I still hate people hurting people, but I can appreciate some of the details a lot more.
Not only was Patton (on paper) in charge, but there was a full logistics and administration staff for the fake army, and all backed up by reports from the German spies in the UK (all of whom were either turned by British Intelligence or had been on the side of the Allies from the start), who also concealed the real ship and army movements by, among other methods, claiming their informant in Liverpool had recently died and could they have an extra stipend to give to the (fictional) widow.
Fun fact, the allies were so good at spy work that they caught every single German spy in Britain and made quite a few of them turn double agents, their stories are absolutely insane
That’s nuts! I bet those people would never have imagined the tech we have now.
I saw a documentary about this and it was at Calais France and hitler had aerial surveillance photos of this and he became obsessed with it thinking he had the inside track on it and I think he had more troops up there then Normandy which allowed the allies to take the beach on D-day. Sorry just I’m just a dad here about to turn 40 and getting into WWII shit like Shane Gillis says 😂
Not at Calais, but in the UK near it. Calais was in German hands. The Allies couldn’t have built a mock army there. But Calais is the closest part of France to the UK, so it would make sense for the allies to land there.
I love the idea that Hitler was over there thinking he was so smart. Guess again!!! Sucker! 😂 
I think it’s crazy the allies amassed 10,000 ships without them being detected for the invasion.
The Pas-de-Calais deception was a huge part of the D-Day planning. It was a large part of Operation Fortitude (South) which convinced Hitler that the landings would be at the shortest/most logical landing spot. It in turn was a part of Operation Bodyguard, planning for which started in Summer 1943 (meaning it was ongoing for over a year). The plan got so much inside Hitler's head that he refused to redeploy troops and tanks from Calais even once the Normandy Invasion was underway. The plan was to delay this for two weeks, it lasted even longer (seven weeks), meaning that the Normandy bridgehead could be established quicker and the breakout happen sooner (although that proved far more difficult than planned due to a number of reasons). It definitely worked, as goofy as it looked/sounded.
Have you watched Band of Brothers series at least a half dozen times yet? If not, you've got some catching up to do.
Imagine seeing one of your enemies artillery just deflate to nothing
Imagine being inside on of those inflatables and be hit by a shell Not that being hit by a shell is ever any kind of good but still
Imagine tricking the enemy further by convincing them that you have super soldiers who can bench press tanks
I'm pretty sure it was to trick the Germans into thinking they were super soldiers flipping tanks by hand.
*enter Captain America*
These look way better than I thought they would when I read about them in school.
These were also set up in different locations to the real D Day setting off point to fool the Germans into believing we were heading for the Pays de Calais rather than Normandy
I rly like the truck balloon it looks the most realistic imo
Can I buy one for my driveway?
Seriously these could sell like hotcakes as lawn inflatables or be modified into bounce houses for kids parties
Reminds me of Idra rage quitting a match against huk's illusion army, in starcraft 2.
I was reading about this the other day. Sending in like fake paratroopers and stuff too as decoys to confuse the Germans about where the Allies would be invading from. Interesting stuff!
This 1 easy trick fools Putin. Ckick here...
This also was very effective in the African campaign by monty
Is that a 105mm howitzer in your pocket or are you just happy to see me soldier
Probably stronger built than some Chinese hardware.
This story is a reminder that even the simplest ideas can have a big impact.
Love the Flintstones Tank
The tank was a little too round, but from a distance would fool anyone. But the truck? I genuinely thought it was a real truck.
Some big brain sheeet right there
"Jerry i feel like these reminds me of something, it's on the tip of my tongue. oh it's on the tip of ur tongue too Jerry. well if it's on the tips of both our tongue then it will come to one of us" -zefrank1 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Still being used today. Decoys are a very common thing on the battlefield.
Looks vaguely familiar to the ai generated videos XD
Me: Casually picks up tank. Germans form a distance: 😰
Imagine how D-Day might have gone if a few soldiers took pot shots at the tanks and the Germans started to discover the ruse. Wouldn’t have changed the tide of the war but perhaps the Germans would’ve been more prepared for a sudden attack.
Genetically mutated experimental soldiers flip trucks and tanks with ease!
The canon is my wood in early morning
German pilots: "Holy shit those Americans are strong!"
Where i can get one?
This reminds me of We happy few.
My wife shuts and locks the bedroom door and all the sudden I'm a world war II artillery gun 😂
reading about it i always though if a german scout got a good close look at any of it itd be obvious so why even bother. didnt realize how realistic they actually looked
Those are very good quality inflatable tanks tho
I read somewhere once that we dropped a giant condoms from airplanes with English writing on the package to make them think we were just giants compared to them.
Fake it till you make it
I would love to own a functional one of these from then! Wow that would be cool imo.
Do any of these still exist? They are super coll
Meanwhile, patrolling German soldiers/spies horror struck watching super human allied soldiers lifting heavy armoured vehicles.
Wasn’t it more to get them to divert their forces to a place they weren’t actually going to be? We had more tanks than (US alone). We ran into more artillery pieces used to combat tanks than actual tanks
And the question is............did they sell them after the war?
nah people in the 40s were just really strong
Imagine the fun you could of had with those as a kid, makes me wonder what they did with them after the war was over
This was part of the Ghost Battalion. All declassified many many years after the end of WWII. The Allies also recorded the sounds of troop/vehicle movements and played them nearby German front lines with gigantic speakers on top of trucks to add to the psychological warfare and misinformation.
I can't stop thinking how much fun one of those would be to take to the beach.
Makes me wish I knew when the Google Street Views would drive by my house again. Imagine how sweet my Zillow photos would be with a couple of howitzers and tanks in my front yard.
the inflatable gun is what my pp looks like when i see a hot girl in the bar
where are they now
WW2 would have lasted much longer if Hitler had not invaded Russia, and continued talks with them. England would have certainly fallen if Germany had brought it's full power against them.
Imagine a German recon plane spying soldiers casually flipping trucks. They’d think we have a super soldier programme.
Imagine being a German spy seeing men deadlift tanks and tear them apart with their bare hands
This be a cool story to tell when someone asks, “…what’d you do in the ww2…”
I wish they still made these!!!
these blowups look like they could take longer to make than real tanks
Modern versions would have "ДЕТИ" written on the roof, or "WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN".