# Para-dummies



## comiso90 (Dec 25, 2008)

I didnt realize that Para Dummies were so widely used:

THE DECOY PARATROOPER DUMMY HISTORY SITE !


This is interesting too:
*BRITISH PARADUMMIES D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944:*

_The British carried out the most famous of all paradummy missions during the early hours of D-Day June 5/6th, 1944. The paradummy operation was code-named "Titanic" and involved dropping hundreds of paradummies along the French coast to confuse and deceive the Germans as to where the actual Allied Airborne drops would occur.

Six brave SAS men jumped along with the paradummies to make a lot of noise on the ground, play combat recordings, make small attacks on German troops (like couriers) and generally help make the landings appear real to the Germans. The SAS men were Lt. Fowles, TPR. Hurst, TPR. Merryweather, Lt. Poole, TPR. Dawson, and TPR. Saunders. Days after the operation only two of these six men had returned to friendly lines. The other four were likely killed or captured but it is possible some survived so this web site is still trying to research their exact fate. Titanic is surely one of the best kept secrets of WWII involving sheer bravery amongst Allied Special Operations soldiers, out there on their own behind enemy lines. _

Paradummy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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## syscom3 (Dec 25, 2008)

Great Find!


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## evangilder (Dec 25, 2008)

The sheer audacity of it is amazing. Dropping hundreds of dummies is one thing, but jumping with a team of only 6 real troopers when the enemy thinks you have hundreds is either heroic if the bluff works, or a fools errand if it doesn't.


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## comiso90 (Dec 25, 2008)

Those SAS guys are true heroes... I love it when truth is more inspiring than what any screen writer can concoct!

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## Gnomey (Dec 25, 2008)

Certainly are. Was an amazing operation and very effective for what it achieved as well.


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## Freebird (Dec 25, 2008)

The British were fighting the war on such a shoe-string, they used every trick in the book to fool the Nazis.

A fake Battleship in the Suez, fake cities to fool German bombers, a fake army {Patton's} before D-day, fake tanks in the desert....

I read a book about Maskelyne, very interesting.

Jasper Maskelyne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## RabidAlien (Dec 25, 2008)

Many of the things that the Allies came up with were nothing short of pure genius. The deceptions involving Patton and his fake Army group, the body of the "courier" that was "washed up" on the beach with plans for the "invasion" (complete with movie ticket stubs in the pocket), the camoflage that was used to mask cities and factories and such....shoestring budget or not, these guys were innovative! 

Also read the book "Colditz" by Henry Chancellor for some truely heroic improv. And these guys didn't have funding, either!

Amazon.com: Colditz: The Definitive History: The Untold Story of World War II's Great Escapes: Henry Chancellor: Books


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## comiso90 (Dec 25, 2008)

RabidAlien said:


> Many of the things that the Allies came up with were nothing short of pure genius. [/url]



The link I cited has some great info... including that the Germans were first to use para dummies
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## RabidAlien (Dec 25, 2008)

I should probably broaden my post, then.....yes, both Axis and Allies came up with some crazy stuff!


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## Njaco (Dec 25, 2008)

The Axis used them in 1940 in Holland and again during the Ardennes offensive though I'm not sure if they actually deployed them.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 26, 2008)

I saw a few of these in the museums in Normany when I visited the beaches and surrounding area back in 1994.


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## Airframes (Dec 26, 2008)

Great find Comiso! Today, in the British Army, a slightly derogatory term for an officer, particularly a junior officer, is 'Rupert'. There are two schools of thought as to the origin of this nick-name. The first is that it is taken from a typical Christian name of an upper-class gentleman, from where the British officer corps traditionally evolved. It's often pronounced 'Woopert', to make it more of a p**s take! The second school suggest that the name originated in the Paras, as a result of the 'Rupert' para-dummies, and meant that the person so referred to was a dummy. Whichever, it's still used today, and is not as insulting as the term 'Rodney'!


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## Njaco (Dec 26, 2008)

or the name 'Mary'.


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## comiso90 (Dec 26, 2008)

Airframes said:


> Great find Comiso! Today, in the British Army, a slightly derogatory term for an officer, particularly a junior officer, is 'Rupert'. There are two schools of thought as to the origin of this nick-name. The first is that it is taken from a typical Christian name of an upper-class gentleman, from where the British officer corps traditionally evolved. It's often pronounced 'Woopert', to make it more of a p**s take! The second school suggest that the name originated in the Paras, as a result of the 'Rupert' para-dummies, and meant that the person so referred to was a dummy. Whichever, it's still used today, and is not as insulting as the term 'Rodney'!



Interesting... are you going to make me Google "Rodney" for disparaging connotations? or are you going to enlighten us??? 

I can probably guess...

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## Njaco (Dec 26, 2008)

The German operation in the Adennes was called Unternehmen Spielzeug and was conducted by TG 30 around Eupen about Dec 19 but *ell if I can find my references!!


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## comiso90 (Dec 26, 2008)

The site I referenced had an interesting part about how a load of para dummies were dropped w/o alerting coast watchers. The command wanted to gauge the coast watchers reaction but the coast waters spotted them as dummies right away saying they weren't lifelike.


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## Airframes (Dec 27, 2008)

Hi again, Comiso. Nothing particularly 'awful' about the term 'Rodney' for an officer; it's just that 'Rupert' became so common, rather like 'Hoover' when one means a vacuum cleaner, that it was no longer semi, or fully insulting! For example, one might say "We had this Rupert with us, a good bloke..." therefore, to really 'mean it' the name 'Rodney' is sometimes used, quite often pronounced with a lisp, 'Wodney'!!


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## Marcel (Dec 28, 2008)

Njaco said:


> The Axis used them in 1940 in Holland and again during the Ardennes offensive though I'm not sure if they actually deployed them.



I'm not aware that the Germans used dummies here in the NL, but they certainly did in the Ardennes, near the Elsenbornrug, east of Malmedy.


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## Njaco (Dec 28, 2008)

I'll try to find the reference Marcel but I seem to remember that they were used on a very small scale during the invasion in May 1940. I could be wrong and will post the reference or at least a retraction. I could be mistaken.


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## Marcel (Dec 30, 2008)

Njaco said:


> I'll try to find the reference Marcel but I seem to remember that they were used on a very small scale during the invasion in May 1940. I could be wrong and will post the reference or at least a retraction. I could be mistaken.



Hi Njaco, could be interesting, thanks.


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