"Cardboard" Division Units

[Panzer Commander]

I was reading up on some history and found these units used by Rommel to "increase" the size of his forces.

He had his mechanics rig up wood and canvas tank shells and fasten these to Kubelwagons and other small vehicles. He then had these units mix with his actual tanks during the offensive. This caused the British to retreat at what appeared to be a 1000 yrd front of solid tanks approaching them. The Russians made similar mockups for their T-34s to fool German recon.

Could these "dummy" units be added to SPWAW to add to the fog of war. They could appear to be the actual tank until spotted within a certain distance (modified for exp of spotting unit). The German units actually were mobile while the Russian were static.

Rommel was reported to say with a bit of humor to one of the "cardboard" tank commanders that it would be okay if a few losses occured.

Note: Another tatic used by Rommel was to have his Light Division parade in a town known to have British spies. He had his units circle the town a few times making his forces appear to be much larger than actual. No wonder he was called the "Desert Fox".

[Bill]

Monty was a bit of a fox as well. To help deceive Rommel into thinking that the attack was going in in the south of the Alamein position he had old oil drums laid in a line on their side heading south. From the air it looked like a fuel pipeline which was extended by a bit every day.

Bill

[Bonzo]

The Brits also rigged up covers to disguise tanks as lorries. I think it was more to throw off recon, but it would be a nasty trick when you sweep in to rip up a supply convoy & find tanks instead of trucks.

Bonzo

[Hans]

Originally posted by Bonzo:
The Brits also rigged up covers to disguise tanks as lorries. I think it was more to throw off recon, but it would be a nasty trick when you sweep in to rip up a supply convoy & find tanks instead of trucks.

Bonzo

I've seen pictures of Grant/Lee tanks with a "mask" looking like a lorry put on their front only. So this must have been just for the attack.

Hans

[Bonzo]

I've not seen those photos. The ones I saw were profiles of, I think, Cruiser tanks. I can't quite remember where I saw them though - "The Rommel Papers" perhaps. I'm sure used deception in many ways.

Bonzo

------------------
Robert (Bonzo) Lindsay, Coordinator
28th (North-west) Battalion Headquarters
http://dreadnaught.home.icq.com
nwbattalion@icqmail.com