World War 1: DECEPTION on the Western Front ???????? #ww1 #shorts

…during the First World War, amid the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front, both the Central Powers and Allies were keen to draw out the enemy with both sides finding a common solution by way of mannequins.

These fake soldiers were a mix of crude cardboard cut-outs, dummy heads on sticks, and more intricate models with moveable limbs to simulate movement.

Dressed in allied attire, the cut-outs could be used to trick the enemy into falsely believing troop numbers and locations, a strategy British and Australian troops used to great effect against the Ottomans on the final night of their evacuation of Gallipoli.

The dummy heads could be used to provoke enemy snipers into giving away their position or else divert attention away from other efforts.

The dexterous mannequins, meanwhile, dressed in captured uniforms, were routinely placed in no man’s land whereupon the arms or legs would be raised using a chord, with the intention of duping the enemy into a rescue mission, all the while luring the unfortunate rescuers into an easy kill zone.

So…