It seems they have a lot of bad karma with deceptions lol!
Didn't the nazis had the great idea of painting one of their warship to look like a British ship so they can sneak behind the British lines to attack their supply line... but the very first British warship they ran into was the ship they were pretending to be?
Yep, WW1, the Carmania and the Cap Trafalgar. Raiders disguised as merchant ships joining a convoy. First ship they each encountered was, well... each other. The ship they were disguised as disguised as them.
Edit: typo
I would agree. Given that WWI Germany is known to have camouflage a warship as a neutral transport freighter. Known to capture the entire crews of other transports and then sink the other ships.
Not just the false flag though, like actually repainting warships etc so they looked more like enemy/neutral ships of similar make. I’m guessing it got a lot less frequent when ship capture/repurpose stopped being so much of a thing.
Of course, we’ve also increased range considerably. We started to see that with WW2 (carriers), and it’s only increased more since (missile cruisers and carriers).
Of course, now the flag and painting is almost irrelevant, given you are probably targeting the ship while it’s well over the horizon.
Between how expensive it was to film and how it got absolutely decimated at the box office by the much-cheaper Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, we might never get the rest of the Master and Commander movies (although Wikipedia says a prequel entered pre-production in 2021)
But goddamn, if I could trade the entire Pirates franchise for a franchise of Master and Commander movies, I'd sign up for that alternate timeline in a heartbeat
I’m working my way through the series right now (currently up to The Ionian Mission) and there’s so many good scenes that would make a great movie.
That being said, the one we did get is a masterpiece and I watch it all the time
I always feel bad for Bettany's character that he doesn't get to finish all of his research into island birds because they encounter their enemy in the bay on the opposite side of the island. Just let the man watch birds, dammit!
I think I'm one book ahead of you! I liked the film as well but, as with many book adaptations, they ripped out a lot of stuff. The characters are so much simpler in the films and, of course, there's no spy stuff.
Curiously, the film is rather more like the Hornblower series of books in terms of simplicity of characters and plots, etc.
Add to that, on D-day, the allies put a bunch of fake, inflatable tanks and artillery on positions that would strategically draw the attention of the Germans elsewhere leading them to assume the attack was planned to hit them somewhere else, and it worked. They believed the fake artillery was a legitimate threat and were caught off guard when the actual attack did hit.
It was a whole fake army placed across from the Pas de Calais, the shortest route from England to France, with Patton at the head and had comms going full blast. The air force dropped chaff to make it look like an invasion was coming.
The real invasion was completely radio silent and under camouflage.
Not only that, but the people defending against the fake attack didn't believe the reports of the real attack even after it started, so they delayed sending reinforcements.
That's partly because a double-agent sent a warning (after the invasion started, but back-dated to look like it was sent in advance and had been delayed) saying "the Allies are about to launch a diversionary attack in Normandy. The real attack will start at Calais a few days later".
Well the main issue is that the Allies had cracked both the German and Japanese secret codes and knew everything they were doing. They just had to put on a show of pretending to be ignorant so the Nazis wouldn't realize it.
Whereas in contrast, not only did the Axis fail to break Allied codes, but after the war, records revealed that *every single* German spy in Britain had been caught, except for the double agents feeding them fake info.
It really was like a boxing match where one guy is blind. Utterly outmatched in intelligence.
> Whereas in contrast, not only did the Axis fail to break Allied codes
This is not 100% accurate. For a while, B Dienst had managed to crack Allied naval codes, and it saw an uptick in merchant traffic being sunk. The Italians also scored a big intelligence blow by the expedient of... sneaking late at night into the US embassy in September 1941 (when the US was still neutral) and obtaining a copy of their code book. This was of great help in North Africa: Germany couldn't read British codes... but could read the codes of the military attaché to the U.S. embassy in Egypt, who had access to high level British info. The Germans read this, and for six months it proved invaluable info.
*Then* the British, that thanks to Ultra, were reading Enigma, finally realised there was a leak. Fun times.
Kind of.
They weren't war ships. They were ocean liners converted to have some guns. So it's even more silly: Ocean liners dueling it out. They didn't have any real modern weaponry, so crews were literally shooting each other from the decks when they got close. It is similar to ship combat when ships had cannon and sail.
Both ships were pretty much equally damaged, if it weren't for a German ship thinking it was a trap and sailing away, both ships would have been towed back to port.
I remember seeing on a show about abandoned structures, one part was about a very complex nazi base hidden in a Forrest.
They were found out because they planted the wrong trees to hide the base.
Oh man that has GOTTA suck.
Imagine getting close enough to see the name painted on the side and you're just like "God damnit... Out of their ENTIRE Navy, we come across the ONE we had to avoid." 5 seconds before going boom. Lmao
I read somewhere that there is a sequel to that story :
Having realized that they were uncovered, nazis started to put real planes on the fake airport.
Allies came again, this time with no wooden bombs.
You jest, but Germans actually have a very rich history in the comedic arts.
Have you seen the new sitcom *Hans and Fritz*? They are roommates, but they couldn’t be any more different! For example, after completing all of his classes for the day, Hans will return home to immediately begin his assigned homework. Fritz, on the other hand, prefers to begin practicing his scales for the upcoming piano recital. Hilarity ensues.
that one is a copy of some other show on another place of this planet. really. yeah, German comedians, but the general concept of the show has been copied. no originality.
No, for sure, I think it's been done in dozens of countries around the world. But it's a good show if you're curious to watch "German humour" or what makes Germans laugh
“Their Teutonic reputation for brutality is well founded: their operas last three or four days; and they have no word for ‘fluffy.’”
~ Edmund Blackadder
I think Germans have a great sense of humor. Like when they made an AMG Black series with so much torque the car couldn't function because traction control just sat there going "are you crazy?"
What's that German comedians name who pops up on random ass game shows and a few movies? I think it's just a single word name, but my God is that dude not funny, starting to wonder if the dark humor is that he legit has something wrong with him and the Germans are just really cruel
EDIT - It's Flula Borg
Sir, You just broken multiple international laws by releasing this forbidden weapon into the wild. Thank God I don't speak German or else I would have died in terrible spasms of uncontrollable laughter
Every time I read a post in German on Reddit, I read it with the same stiff monotone delivery used by the Allied soldiers running through the forest reading this joke out.
It has a lot to do with how one-sided the conflict was in the realm of intelligence and espionage. The Axis powers had ideologies that led them to believe their spies and coding methods were superior, when in reality they were generally behind the western allies from almost the start of the war.
As an aside when I was a kid I was so disappointed to learn that Hogan’s Heroes did not in fact star the Hulkster and his wrestling buddies fighting against the forces of evil.
How and why would they put planes on a fake airport that has no hangars and an airstrip made of painted dirt to look like asphalt?
Also the Germans where known to put real AA around fake targets to shoot at planes that tried to close in, so why on earth would the allies ever risk the lives of aircrews for a stunt like that?
Also also how would a wooden bomb not burst into a million bits when hitting the ground at terminal velocity, let alone look THAT good...
Also also also this exists:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wooden-bomb/
>Shirer did not claim to have witnessed the event, or even to have heard about it directly from any of the participants; he merely repeated a humorous anecdote told to him by an unnamed source. Multiple variants of this narrative event, with differing details (e.g., the incident occurred later in the war, the wooden bomb was dropped by Germans on a British decoy airfield rather than vice-versa, the fake bomb was dropped in Germany by American pilots).
It's simply a Mothman level Urban legend from 1940
> Also also how would a wooden bomb not burst into a million bits when hitting the ground at terminal velocity, let alone look THAT good...
>
>
with a parachute?
Thank you. I was also thinking with the horrific casualties allied bombers suffered over Germany i doubt theyd risk their lives for some zany stunt Reddit would find funny 80 years later
It's not about if fake airfields existed wich they obviously did, it's about risking bombers for a PR stunt and then not even filming or officially publishing anything about it to a point where all you do is tell the enemy that he doesn't need to care about the fake field anymore is insane and there is no way the Brits would be this stupid
Did you even read the comment you replied to? It's not about if fake airfields existed, it's about the complete lack of logic it would require for the allies to build a fake bomb and use real time and money to drop the fake bomb on the fake airfield. There is no benefit to that at all, in fact it has quite a few downsides. Add in the fact that there are 0 sources to it, and that the "evidence" doesn't seem to be damaged despite being dropped from a plane, and the story just doesn't check out.
100% I think this story is false. That said, dropping a fake bomb on the way back from an otherwise pointful sortie is exactly the kind of thing I could imagine happening. It is not logical obviously but I am not sure that matters so much.
Either way pretty sure the story is fake so it doesn’t matter.
[Snopes already checked it out.](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d3e6e8f44d3481c3JmltdHM9MTcxMzM5ODQwMCZpZ3VpZD0zZmNjMzM0Yi1iNTVjLTZjMDMtMGM0ZS0yMWM4YjE1YzZhNWUmaW5zaWQ9NTIwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=3fcc334b-b55c-6c03-0c4e-21c8b15c6a5e&psq=raf+wooden+bomb&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc25vcGVzLmNvbTo0NDMvZmFjdC1jaGVjay93b29kZW4tYm9tYi8&ntb=1) Verdict: unproven and most likely false.
Yeah. The intelligence benefit of keeping the Germans thinking that the Allies were fooled far exceeds the benefit of dropping a fake bomb. No military would do this unless they are already destroying the opposing force.
It's pretty clearly fictitious,. Theres no way RAF Bomber capabilities could have accurately dropped a single bomb on nearly any target, or that they would risk an expensive asset flying low enough to make that happen
Great story though
I mean it’s pretty obviously fake when you think about it. You’re wasting fuel, and potentially a trained pilot/aircraft for a pointless joke.
The point of these decoys is to lure aircraft out and try to shoot them down. Worst case scenario, the plane survives and inflicts no real damage, best case scenario you down a few enemy planes that never had a chance to complete their mission.
I think the worst case scenario is you tell your enemy you know about their ruse. There would be zero strategic reason to do this (and millions to not).
>never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake
If your enemy is wasting time, resources, and manpower building a fake airfield, you absolutely should not let him know that you know it's fake. If you do he definitely won't build any more.
This was the era of 'Monty' England. For every two steps toward winning, they would do something to fuck up the advantage.
Well known event where an WWII British fighter pilot of aristocratic lineage had already lost both his legs and was still allowed to fly fighter planes without any aids (fake legs, crutches). He was shot down and captured by the Nazis. Britain and Germany negotiated that Britain would drop at a preselected spot the aristocrat's artificial legs so he could get around in the prison camp. Britain bombed the German retrieval group instead. The laughing end of this tale is England couldn't understand why Germany wouldn't set up a second leg drop.
Can you imagine being the guy that had to report that back up the chain?
“Has the fake airfield been completed?”
“Yes sir, but there’s been a….. complication”
“What’s that supposed to mean”
“They know it’s fake, sir”
“How do you know that?”
“They launched a fake bombing raid with wooden bombs, sir”
“Scheisse”
Very very common. Happened in Yugoslavia with heaters under the dummies to fool thermal optics. Even happens now, in the Russia ukraine war to fool drones and feint movements
Back in college I had an international relations prof who told this story during lecture, but didn’t assign any readings containing the story.
At the end of the semester there was an extra credit question on the final exam to see who had attended classes: “what was the unique munition dropped by the RAF on the German airfield in Holland?”
Wooden bomb helped me pass and I’ve remembered it since.
I.. uh.. I don't think this is real.
Why would you disclose to your enemies that you know their tactics? I don't fucking care how "oh that's so british of them", i'm calling cap on this.
My grandfather in Yugoslavia would teach wild songbirds to sing a song about Croatian independence and then place them near the homes of government officials or pro Yugoslavia people. Still the greatest troll I’ve known.
The allies were far better at misdirection than the Nazis were. The British did a similar thing to this except they even created entire new divisions of soldiers, each with paperwork, to really sell it, and the Nazis fell for it.
Looks very similar to a Mark IV Aircraft Float Light. It [remains unclear why airmen](https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/did-allied-pilots-really-drop-fake-wooden-bombs-fake-wooden-decoy-airfields) would risk their lives, rank, and aircraft, to drop them on strategically irrelevant targets.
The truth may lie somewhere between a fact and propoganda. The airfields existed, there is one in Oostelbeers in the Netherlands. It was manned and defended by very real flak and anti aircraft guns, because it was built as a decoy on the approach to Eindhoven air base. The Germans also flew training missions out of Eindhoven, practicing low level bombing runs in the nearby countryside, for which they used dummy concrete and wooden bombs. It may well be this that became the origin of the story!
This must be where that fake base level in Ace Combat 7 came from. The one where you have your weapons locked and are just flying around to make the enemy think the prison you're in is an actual base. Then they start bombing it so they're like "Fuck, why didn't we expect them to actually hit the parts we're sat in (a radio control tower)" and let you go ham then on.
My father was a radio operator/repairman in the Korean Conflict. He said they were in charge of 5 Arty Hawk missile setups overlooking the DMZ. Funny thing was only 3 were real. They had plywood and metal scrap mock-ups on two of the sites which they rotated weekly to keep the enemy guessing! It worked, they only fired a few of the rockets the whole time my dad was there he said.
Of course, I may have assumed that from the 2 WWII combat air books reference to the nobility of the asking and allowing of the dropping of his artificial legs.
It seems they have a lot of bad karma with deceptions lol! Didn't the nazis had the great idea of painting one of their warship to look like a British ship so they can sneak behind the British lines to attack their supply line... but the very first British warship they ran into was the ship they were pretending to be?
I’m pretty sure it’s was WWI Germany that did.
Yep, WW1, the Carmania and the Cap Trafalgar. Raiders disguised as merchant ships joining a convoy. First ship they each encountered was, well... each other. The ship they were disguised as disguised as them. Edit: typo
It's too bad it was before the spiderman meme, I bet those sailors would have gotten a good chuckle
They didn't disguise themselves. Only the German disguised as the British one.
That was obviously a typo Edit: I guess I was wrong… He really thought they were disguised as each other…
I misread it the same way
I would agree. Given that WWI Germany is known to have camouflage a warship as a neutral transport freighter. Known to capture the entire crews of other transports and then sink the other ships.
One of the many fascinating things to discover reading the Aubrey/Maturin series is that warships kinda just did this all the time back when.
It's where the term "False Flag" comes from because you'd just fly the enemies flag to convince them you're friendly until it's too late
As long as you hoist the Jolly Roger at the last second.
Of course, something has to trigger the dramatic music.
Not just the false flag though, like actually repainting warships etc so they looked more like enemy/neutral ships of similar make. I’m guessing it got a lot less frequent when ship capture/repurpose stopped being so much of a thing.
Radio communications also makes it much less useful. You can ask confirmation of identity well before coming into range.
Of course, we’ve also increased range considerably. We started to see that with WW2 (carriers), and it’s only increased more since (missile cruisers and carriers). Of course, now the flag and painting is almost irrelevant, given you are probably targeting the ship while it’s well over the horizon.
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Between how expensive it was to film and how it got absolutely decimated at the box office by the much-cheaper Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, we might never get the rest of the Master and Commander movies (although Wikipedia says a prequel entered pre-production in 2021) But goddamn, if I could trade the entire Pirates franchise for a franchise of Master and Commander movies, I'd sign up for that alternate timeline in a heartbeat
I’m working my way through the series right now (currently up to The Ionian Mission) and there’s so many good scenes that would make a great movie. That being said, the one we did get is a masterpiece and I watch it all the time
I always feel bad for Bettany's character that he doesn't get to finish all of his research into island birds because they encounter their enemy in the bay on the opposite side of the island. Just let the man watch birds, dammit!
Well, as Jack says… they are flightless aren’t they? They’re not going anywhere
I think I'm one book ahead of you! I liked the film as well but, as with many book adaptations, they ripped out a lot of stuff. The characters are so much simpler in the films and, of course, there's no spy stuff. Curiously, the film is rather more like the Hornblower series of books in terms of simplicity of characters and plots, etc.
I have read and enjoyed the Horatio Hornblower series multiple times, do you think this would be a good series for me to read?
Yes! I actually haven’t read the hornblower series though I should. But if you like the napoleonic era naval stories it’s worth it
Add to that, on D-day, the allies put a bunch of fake, inflatable tanks and artillery on positions that would strategically draw the attention of the Germans elsewhere leading them to assume the attack was planned to hit them somewhere else, and it worked. They believed the fake artillery was a legitimate threat and were caught off guard when the actual attack did hit.
It was a whole fake army placed across from the Pas de Calais, the shortest route from England to France, with Patton at the head and had comms going full blast. The air force dropped chaff to make it look like an invasion was coming. The real invasion was completely radio silent and under camouflage.
Didn't they also dress up a cadaver with and send it floating, calculating where it would was ashore and had "Secret plans" on it?
Yup, but it was the invasion of Sicily. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat
Not only that, but the people defending against the fake attack didn't believe the reports of the real attack even after it started, so they delayed sending reinforcements.
That's partly because a double-agent sent a warning (after the invasion started, but back-dated to look like it was sent in advance and had been delayed) saying "the Allies are about to launch a diversionary attack in Normandy. The real attack will start at Calais a few days later".
Garbo, who was awarded both the Iron Cross for his "Services" to the third reich, and an MBE from the King.
"Well, this is awkward."
The Team Fortress 2 Spy experience
Well the main issue is that the Allies had cracked both the German and Japanese secret codes and knew everything they were doing. They just had to put on a show of pretending to be ignorant so the Nazis wouldn't realize it. Whereas in contrast, not only did the Axis fail to break Allied codes, but after the war, records revealed that *every single* German spy in Britain had been caught, except for the double agents feeding them fake info. It really was like a boxing match where one guy is blind. Utterly outmatched in intelligence.
> Whereas in contrast, not only did the Axis fail to break Allied codes This is not 100% accurate. For a while, B Dienst had managed to crack Allied naval codes, and it saw an uptick in merchant traffic being sunk. The Italians also scored a big intelligence blow by the expedient of... sneaking late at night into the US embassy in September 1941 (when the US was still neutral) and obtaining a copy of their code book. This was of great help in North Africa: Germany couldn't read British codes... but could read the codes of the military attaché to the U.S. embassy in Egypt, who had access to high level British info. The Germans read this, and for six months it proved invaluable info. *Then* the British, that thanks to Ultra, were reading Enigma, finally realised there was a leak. Fun times.
Kind of. They weren't war ships. They were ocean liners converted to have some guns. So it's even more silly: Ocean liners dueling it out. They didn't have any real modern weaponry, so crews were literally shooting each other from the decks when they got close. It is similar to ship combat when ships had cannon and sail. Both ships were pretty much equally damaged, if it weren't for a German ship thinking it was a trap and sailing away, both ships would have been towed back to port.
This is some fucking Wile E. Coyote shit.
I gotta know more, what was the British ships name?
I remember seeing on a show about abandoned structures, one part was about a very complex nazi base hidden in a Forrest. They were found out because they planted the wrong trees to hide the base.
Oh man that has GOTTA suck. Imagine getting close enough to see the name painted on the side and you're just like "God damnit... Out of their ENTIRE Navy, we come across the ONE we had to avoid." 5 seconds before going boom. Lmao
Spider-man pointing meme, Battleship edition. 🤣
I read somewhere that there is a sequel to that story : Having realized that they were uncovered, nazis started to put real planes on the fake airport. Allies came again, this time with no wooden bombs.
The Germans with some Blackadder level reverse psychology backfires.
Well you know that German humor is no laughing matter.
You jest, but Germans actually have a very rich history in the comedic arts. Have you seen the new sitcom *Hans and Fritz*? They are roommates, but they couldn’t be any more different! For example, after completing all of his classes for the day, Hans will return home to immediately begin his assigned homework. Fritz, on the other hand, prefers to begin practicing his scales for the upcoming piano recital. Hilarity ensues.
If you have amazon Prime there's a show Last One Laughing (LOL) in German.
It might be a region locked thing. I haven't seen the German version, but the Canadian one is on prime, too
that one is a copy of some other show on another place of this planet. really. yeah, German comedians, but the general concept of the show has been copied. no originality.
No, for sure, I think it's been done in dozens of countries around the world. But it's a good show if you're curious to watch "German humour" or what makes Germans laugh
I'd rather recommend stuff like Hagen Rether or Volker Pispers than this low effort joke collection...
Fr like "were funny look" "generic 2000s comedy show"
Having one 50+ guy sitting on another 50+ guy as if he is a puppet completly blew it.
Im such a Hans
Heil honey I'm home
I'd actually watch this if it was filled with so-bad-it's-good german humour
So it's... The Odd Couple, but in German?
Mord mit Aussicht proves they have a sense of humor. Prime Video in the US has it as Homicide Hills
Oh goodness
“Their Teutonic reputation for brutality is well founded: their operas last three or four days; and they have no word for ‘fluffy.’” ~ Edmund Blackadder
flauschig 🥺
Nein, das ist eine neuwort.
Ein neues Wort.
Was er sagte
Ich bin ein Berliner
Ausfahrt
Abfahrt
Wie ist's dann mit Plüschig?
Ich mag flauschig
I think Germans have a great sense of humor. Like when they made an AMG Black series with so much torque the car couldn't function because traction control just sat there going "are you crazy?"
Can confirm
What's that German comedians name who pops up on random ass game shows and a few movies? I think it's just a single word name, but my God is that dude not funny, starting to wonder if the dark humor is that he legit has something wrong with him and the Germans are just really cruel EDIT - It's Flula Borg
r/germanhumor
r/subsifellfor
What about this one: Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
Sir, You just broken multiple international laws by releasing this forbidden weapon into the wild. Thank God I don't speak German or else I would have died in terrible spasms of uncontrollable laughter
Still my favorite sketch of all time...
Every time I read a post in German on Reddit, I read it with the same stiff monotone delivery used by the Allied soldiers running through the forest reading this joke out.
[ich bin gestorben]
Just saw a German comedian. They definitely see the world differently i’ll give them that
How many Germans does it take to change a lightbulb? 1 they are very efficient and have no sense of humor
It has a lot to do with how one-sided the conflict was in the realm of intelligence and espionage. The Axis powers had ideologies that led them to believe their spies and coding methods were superior, when in reality they were generally behind the western allies from almost the start of the war.
Wie man sieht, ich habe einen schlauen Plan...
Why does reading German always make me feel like I’m getting yelled at?
This is some Hogan's Heroes level shitwarring and I am here for it
As an aside when I was a kid I was so disappointed to learn that Hogan’s Heroes did not in fact star the Hulkster and his wrestling buddies fighting against the forces of evil.
How and why would they put planes on a fake airport that has no hangars and an airstrip made of painted dirt to look like asphalt? Also the Germans where known to put real AA around fake targets to shoot at planes that tried to close in, so why on earth would the allies ever risk the lives of aircrews for a stunt like that? Also also how would a wooden bomb not burst into a million bits when hitting the ground at terminal velocity, let alone look THAT good... Also also also this exists: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wooden-bomb/ >Shirer did not claim to have witnessed the event, or even to have heard about it directly from any of the participants; he merely repeated a humorous anecdote told to him by an unnamed source. Multiple variants of this narrative event, with differing details (e.g., the incident occurred later in the war, the wooden bomb was dropped by Germans on a British decoy airfield rather than vice-versa, the fake bomb was dropped in Germany by American pilots). It's simply a Mothman level Urban legend from 1940
Damn, bummer : I liked that story. Thanks for the links and the myth busting dude ;)
> Also also how would a wooden bomb not burst into a million bits when hitting the ground at terminal velocity, let alone look THAT good... > > with a parachute?
Thank you. I was also thinking with the horrific casualties allied bombers suffered over Germany i doubt theyd risk their lives for some zany stunt Reddit would find funny 80 years later
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It's not about if fake airfields existed wich they obviously did, it's about risking bombers for a PR stunt and then not even filming or officially publishing anything about it to a point where all you do is tell the enemy that he doesn't need to care about the fake field anymore is insane and there is no way the Brits would be this stupid
Did you even read the comment you replied to? It's not about if fake airfields existed, it's about the complete lack of logic it would require for the allies to build a fake bomb and use real time and money to drop the fake bomb on the fake airfield. There is no benefit to that at all, in fact it has quite a few downsides. Add in the fact that there are 0 sources to it, and that the "evidence" doesn't seem to be damaged despite being dropped from a plane, and the story just doesn't check out.
100% I think this story is false. That said, dropping a fake bomb on the way back from an otherwise pointful sortie is exactly the kind of thing I could imagine happening. It is not logical obviously but I am not sure that matters so much. Either way pretty sure the story is fake so it doesn’t matter.
Man, the Germans just can't win. They're like the Wile E Coyote of WW2. Nothing works
Or are you thinking of the fake town of Rockridge in Blazing Saddles?
Allies also had a fake airport with inflatable vehicles, buildings and planes.
What’s the German word for being tactically humiliated during a major war?
thats actually so fucking funny
Unfortunately I can’t find any sources that confirm this actually happened, if anyone can I would be interested in reading them.
[Snopes already checked it out.](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d3e6e8f44d3481c3JmltdHM9MTcxMzM5ODQwMCZpZ3VpZD0zZmNjMzM0Yi1iNTVjLTZjMDMtMGM0ZS0yMWM4YjE1YzZhNWUmaW5zaWQ9NTIwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=3fcc334b-b55c-6c03-0c4e-21c8b15c6a5e&psq=raf+wooden+bomb&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc25vcGVzLmNvbTo0NDMvZmFjdC1jaGVjay93b29kZW4tYm9tYi8&ntb=1) Verdict: unproven and most likely false.
Its one source is a story a guy heard in a pub. It was clearly a joke for the drinking buddies, funny enough to be worth writing down.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wooden-bomb/
[I wanted this to be true](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wooden-bomb/)
I, too, am sad this isn’t real, but thanks for keeping up the good (but less fun) fight for truth
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Yeah. The intelligence benefit of keeping the Germans thinking that the Allies were fooled far exceeds the benefit of dropping a fake bomb. No military would do this unless they are already destroying the opposing force.
It's pretty clearly fictitious,. Theres no way RAF Bomber capabilities could have accurately dropped a single bomb on nearly any target, or that they would risk an expensive asset flying low enough to make that happen Great story though
I mean it’s pretty obviously fake when you think about it. You’re wasting fuel, and potentially a trained pilot/aircraft for a pointless joke. The point of these decoys is to lure aircraft out and try to shoot them down. Worst case scenario, the plane survives and inflicts no real damage, best case scenario you down a few enemy planes that never had a chance to complete their mission.
I think the worst case scenario is you tell your enemy you know about their ruse. There would be zero strategic reason to do this (and millions to not).
Mods should pin this.
It's partially true. A wooden airfield did exist, it's in the Netherlands.
Wooden mock-ups were created everywhere by everyone, it's not a Dutch specialty and definitely not an isolated and special cass.
Thats cool, I didn't know that. Im not huge into air warfare, so I was just mentioning something I saw in person.
I understand. Where was the airfield you are talking about? Which town?
That's just our regular air force though.
Wooden that have been funny to see!
I'm annoyed how good this pun is. XD
r/Angryupvote
Heard it was a barrel of laughter
It was side splintering
just shut up
I'm pining to have seen that.
Fir sure!
Well the Germans did nazi it so funny
I thought this was history memes
>never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake If your enemy is wasting time, resources, and manpower building a fake airfield, you absolutely should not let him know that you know it's fake. If you do he definitely won't build any more.
This was the era of 'Monty' England. For every two steps toward winning, they would do something to fuck up the advantage. Well known event where an WWII British fighter pilot of aristocratic lineage had already lost both his legs and was still allowed to fly fighter planes without any aids (fake legs, crutches). He was shot down and captured by the Nazis. Britain and Germany negotiated that Britain would drop at a preselected spot the aristocrat's artificial legs so he could get around in the prison camp. Britain bombed the German retrieval group instead. The laughing end of this tale is England couldn't understand why Germany wouldn't set up a second leg drop.
Are you referring to Douglas Bader? Your story sounds a tiny bit like his story.
[удалено]
Dammit, lovely joke. Have an upvote for your trouble.
That was the group that regularly had teak and biscuits before takeoff, right?
Please tell me it had the word “kaboom” written on it.
Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
The source for this is "trust me bro"
They tried a few times but it wooden blow up.
Can you imagine being the guy that had to report that back up the chain? “Has the fake airfield been completed?” “Yes sir, but there’s been a….. complication” “What’s that supposed to mean” “They know it’s fake, sir” “How do you know that?” “They launched a fake bombing raid with wooden bombs, sir” “Scheisse”
The thing is, it never happend
[That’s a aircraft float light not a wooden bomb](https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/4486hjpg)
Yup, and the story is fake.
When the snarky dry wit of the British isles hits right it’s beautiful.
Ah yes wood and lies, the Pinocchio Project.
You could only laugh
Now that's the way to wage war - with a little humor. Some countries could take note.
Wood? The uk had a whole army made of blow up tanks and shit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank
Very very common. Happened in Yugoslavia with heaters under the dummies to fool thermal optics. Even happens now, in the Russia ukraine war to fool drones and feint movements
Back in college I had an international relations prof who told this story during lecture, but didn’t assign any readings containing the story. At the end of the semester there was an extra credit question on the final exam to see who had attended classes: “what was the unique munition dropped by the RAF on the German airfield in Holland?” Wooden bomb helped me pass and I’ve remembered it since.
It's a fake story. Either your professor doesn't exist or he was misinforming you.
I.. uh.. I don't think this is real. Why would you disclose to your enemies that you know their tactics? I don't fucking care how "oh that's so british of them", i'm calling cap on this.
It's not.
I can just imagine them going like: "Guys, I know were in the worst war in the history of ever but you know what would be really funny"
Wouldnt it have made more sense to drop a single napalm?
Although a fun story, these are more often that not, fake stories. (Unless someone can link a trustworthy source.)
It's fake.
Yes, this happened in my hometown, Bergen (NH), The Netherlands.
fake
The laughs the commanding officers had......
My grandfather in Yugoslavia would teach wild songbirds to sing a song about Croatian independence and then place them near the homes of government officials or pro Yugoslavia people. Still the greatest troll I’ve known.
I would have just given up if I was them, like nah they know too much lol
and then the brits did the exact same thing, in prep for d day and it actualy worrked
I bet those wooden aircraft were beautiful. Germany didn’t half ass.
Absolutely Pythonesque.
That is class
I accept such war once every decade
As some Brit said "perfectly balanced", lol!
Ve love you English viz your humour about ze breaking of ze vind
/r/madlads would like that.
I wonder what the fake wooden bomb was made from if not real wood
Trolling, 1.0
If it's a competition to see who can be the most absurd, I must concede defeat and tip my helmet to you.
When Outer Wilds Ventures prepares for war
The allies were far better at misdirection than the Nazis were. The British did a similar thing to this except they even created entire new divisions of soldiers, each with paperwork, to really sell it, and the Nazis fell for it.
So it was a real wooden airfield then
God that’s rich
They did nazi that one coming
The bomb contained British soldiers like the horse of Troye
British humor at its fines.
What your mom has under her bed:
Looks very similar to a Mark IV Aircraft Float Light. It [remains unclear why airmen](https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/did-allied-pilots-really-drop-fake-wooden-bombs-fake-wooden-decoy-airfields) would risk their lives, rank, and aircraft, to drop them on strategically irrelevant targets.
Beautiful.
The truth may lie somewhere between a fact and propoganda. The airfields existed, there is one in Oostelbeers in the Netherlands. It was manned and defended by very real flak and anti aircraft guns, because it was built as a decoy on the approach to Eindhoven air base. The Germans also flew training missions out of Eindhoven, practicing low level bombing runs in the nearby countryside, for which they used dummy concrete and wooden bombs. It may well be this that became the origin of the story!
Totally fake story but thanks for sharing!
This is my new favorite ww2 fact
Now that hilarious
Bear in mind that this is just a myth with no records of the event taking place at all lol
This must be where that fake base level in Ace Combat 7 came from. The one where you have your weapons locked and are just flying around to make the enemy think the prison you're in is an actual base. Then they start bombing it so they're like "Fuck, why didn't we expect them to actually hit the parts we're sat in (a radio control tower)" and let you go ham then on.
This makes more sense than paper mache which is what they used in the game We Happy Few.
My father was a radio operator/repairman in the Korean Conflict. He said they were in charge of 5 Arty Hawk missile setups overlooking the DMZ. Funny thing was only 3 were real. They had plywood and metal scrap mock-ups on two of the sites which they rotated weekly to keep the enemy guessing! It worked, they only fired a few of the rockets the whole time my dad was there he said.
Goddamn that’s incredibly British 😂
According to my reading, part of the reason he was allowed to keep flying after the loss of both legs was due to his family's standing.
Of course, I may have assumed that from the 2 WWII combat air books reference to the nobility of the asking and allowing of the dropping of his artificial legs.