An inflatable dummy tank, modeled after the M4 Sherman. World War II foreign variants and use Lend-Lease Sherman tanks.

A dummy tank is a type of decoy intended to fool an enemy into believing a fake tank, usually inflatable or wooden, is real. A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical A decoy is usually a person device or event meant as a distraction to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for Although tanks first appeared in World War I, dummy tanks were not widely used until World War II. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

World War II

In World War II, both the Allies and the Axis used dummy tanks. The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries The British called them "spoofs,"^[1] and designed them, while the Americans used them as well. The United Kingdom, along with the British Empire 's crown colonies, especially British India, declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939 after the The Military history of the United States during World War II covers the involvement of the United States during the Second World War. Before the war began, the Wehrmacht utilized mock tanks to practice tactics and train their troops. Wehrmacht (literally "defense force" was the name of the unified Armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945 ^[2][3]

One of the first uses of dummy tanks during the Second World War was in the North African Campaign. During World War II, the North African Campaign, also known as the Desert War, took place in the North African desert from June 10, 1940 The Royal Engineers stationed there constructed two per day; between April and June 1941, they were able to build three dummy Royal Tank Regiments, and another in November that same year. The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers ( RE) and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR is an armoured regiment of the British Army. These were foldable, and thus portable, however, the Royal Engineers improved them further. Jeeps were used to make the "spoofs" more realistic: a steel frame covered with canvas was placed on them, making a self-propelled dummy tank. Jeep is an Automobile Marque (and registered trademark of Chrysler. Meanwhile, the reverse was also done, to make tanks look like trucks. A further device was put into use that both created simulated tank tracks, and erased real ones. ^[4]

Dummy tanks were used extensively in Operation Fortitude, prior to the landings at the Normandy Beaches. Operation Fortitude was the codename for the Deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings During this operation, they were used to confuse German intelligence in two ways: first, by making it seem that the Allies had more tanks than they did; and second, they were used to hide and downplay the importance of the location of their real tanks, in order to make it seem that the invasion would occur at the Pas-de-Calais rather than at Normandy. Pas-de-Calais is a department in northern France. Its name is the French language equivalent of the Strait of Dover, which it borders ^[5] Similarly, during Operation Shingle at Anzio, Italy, inflatable Sherman tanks were deployed when the real tanks were elsewhere. Operation Shingle ( January 22, 1944) during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest World War II foreign variants and use Lend-Lease Sherman tanks. ^[6] In the Pacific Theater of Operations, the Japanese also utilized decoys; one recorded instance was during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO was the World War II military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it a geographic scope The military history of Japan is characterised by a long period of Feudal Wars, followed by domestic stability and then foreign conquest The Battle of Iwo Jima ( February 19, 1945 &ndash March 26, 1945) was the United States capture of the island of Iwo Jima A "tank" was surrounded by American infantry, which had been under artillery bombardment: they found it was not real, but merely a sculpture, carved out of volcanic ash. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine Volcanic ash consists of small Tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions less than in diameter ^[1]

The Red Army also employed dummy tanks to increase their apparent numbers, and mask their true movements. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya ^[7]

Modern era

During the Kosovo War, the Yugoslav Army regularly placed dummy tanks in Kosovo which misled NATO forces into thinking that they were destroying far more real tanks than actually occurred. The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo: 1996–1999 The Yugoslav Army ( Serbian: Војска Југославије - ВЈ Vojska Jugoslavije - VJ) was the name of the armed forces of the Federal Republic ^[8]

The United States Army has developed a modern dummy tank. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. It imitates the M1 Abrams tank not only in appearance, but also its heat signature, in order to appear real to infrared detectors. The M1 Abrams is a main battle tank produced in the United States. Infrared ( IR) radiation is Electromagnetic radiation whose Wavelength is longer than that of Visible light, but shorter than that of One of these decoys can take fire from the enemy and still appear to be operational, thus delaying the enemy by as much as an hour, as they are forced to destroy the decoy. These M1 decoys cost only $3,300,^[9] compared to $4. 35 million for a real M1. ^[10] The decoy is also practical: when dissassembled, it weighs only fifty pounds, and is roughly the same size as a duffel bag. A duffel bag (or duffle bag) is a large cylindrical Bag made of Cloth with the closure at the top often also referred to as a kit bag or Its generator—about the size of a 12 inch television—facilitates inflation, so that two men can erect the decoy in a few minutes. ^[9] Occasionally, real tanks carry a dummy on board, to deploy when needed. ^[11]

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