Sunshields and Cannibals

Many creatures in nature use disguise – sometimes by borrowing bits of the surroundings; some caterpillars stick petals to special barbs on their backs – in other cases the deception is organic, the Kallima butterfly with its wings folded giving a brilliant impression of a leaf. This principle was brilliantly applied to the largest and most daring wartime deception to date during the Battle of El Alamein (1942). Hundreds of tanks were disguised as trucks under detachable covers, while dummy tanks were assembled elsewhere to suggest an attack from a different quarter. Heavy artillery guns and their trailers also made a neat 4-wheel trucks under a special canvas cover. Churchill himself acknowledged the role of these deceptions  in the battle that marked the turning point of World War II.

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