Rubber, wood and even reed tanks actively used in the war, to outwit the enemy.
Models of military vehicles could decide the outcome of the battle.
First time they were used on the Western front in 1916 and since tanks could affect the outcome of the battle just by their presence. German soldiers were afraid of them panic. Then the army commanders developed methods of intimidation of opponents, misleading them about the location and number of tanks.
In the years of the First world war, the allies built a wooden dummy tanks, transporting them on horseback, and used to divert German fire away from their real tanks. Soon the fake armored military vehicles floated and Germany. After the war they were used in the exercises.
1918. German dummy tanks, made of reeds.
1925. German soldiers pushing a couple of dummy tanks.
1928. Cardboard German tanks on maneuvers.
1926. German dummy tanks.
1931. A German soldier pushes the dummy tank.
1931. German soldiers are part of the fake tank that he needs to connect to the car.
1931. German dummy tanks.
1932. The Germans carry out military exercises with dummy tanks.
September 1932. German troops crossing by ferry, and a dummy tank over the Oder river during military exercises.
21 Oct 1932. A fake German tank in front of the Reichstag.
1939. Soldiers carry an inflatable tank model in England.
Dummy tanks were widely used during the Second world war. They served as a crucial element of tactical deception for both parties. Rubber tanks were used a secret unit of the U.S. army. The Japanese also used fake tanks, making them out of wood and scrap materials, even sculpted them from the volcanic Sands of Iwo Jima.
Dummy tanks used so far. The US army has designed the inflatable tank, simulating thermal radiation, like a real fighting machine. Assembled it the size of a duffel bag.
Circa 1940. British military inflated rubber tank model.
1944. American soldiers inspect a German tank wooden, built on the basis of a truck in France.
November 22, 1944. An American soldier inspects a replica of a German tank in Metz, France.
1945. Us marine pulls out a wooden plate from the Japanese dummy dummy in Okinawa.
1945. American soldier looks into a wooden German tank on the outskirts of Cologne.
1954. British soldiers with inflatable tanks during a training exercise on Solsbery plain.
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