Monday, September 30, 2013

An army of 3ft-tall dummt paratroopers were dispatched over northern France on the eve of D-Day

Via WiscoDave

 Rare finds: A dummy parachutist that was one of 500 dropped over France on D-Day to confuse the enemy has been found in a garden shed with a number of maps, documents and artefacts

A rare dummy parachuted into occupied Europe to bamboozle the Germans on D-Day and draw their forces from the actual invasion has been found in a garden shed.

At least 500 of the 3ft stunt puppets were dropped along with SAS soldiers at four spots away from the Normandy beaches to take the enemy away from genuine drop zones.

Sent in the middle of the night, these canvas 'paradummies' - nicknamed Ruperts - were designed to burst into flames when they landed so the Germans could not find them.

But one has survived combat and has been discovered at the bottom of a British garden along with some once top secret maps and documents.

Six SAS soldiers were parachuted in with the dolls, with equipment playing the sounds of a loud battle to make the subterfuge even more realistic.

Although they were half the size of a human, they would have appeared lifelike to those looking up from the ground on a dark night.

More @ Daily Mail

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