# Wood for wood ???



## ccheese (Dec 2, 2012)

Has anyone heard the story of the Brits bombing a dummy Germain airfield with dummy wooden bombs ??

More here: Wood For Wood > Vintage Wings of Canada

Interesting, if true....

Charles


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## fubar57 (Dec 2, 2012)

Pretty cool story Charles, thanks for the post,

Geo


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## vikingBerserker (Dec 2, 2012)

I've never heard of it, but it's a great story if true.


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## meatloaf109 (Dec 2, 2012)

I remember hearing a story like this, but it was Canadians that did the wooden bomb thing. Much more suited to their "National", (or natural), sense of humor, don't you think?


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## Airframes (Dec 2, 2012)

Good story and pics.


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## Crimea_River (Dec 2, 2012)

We're dropping wooden bombs now - like Justin Bieber.


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## Airframes (Dec 3, 2012)

The problem with those wooden bombs is, they wooden explode. I'll get me coat ....


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## stona (Dec 3, 2012)

A more serious problem with those wooden bombs is that someone might have got killed delivering them,for the sake of a joke. That would be very unfunny indeed. It's a great story but I have my doubts. 
Thiel seemed convinced so who knows.
Steve


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## Airframes (Dec 3, 2012)

There's a possibility they _may_ have been dropped, if it really happened, en-route to a nearby target. But whatever did, or didn't happen, I would have thought that such a 'mission' would only be undertaken in conditions of air supremacy, and at a relatively 'safe' area, perhaps in the later stages of the European war?


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## R Pope (Dec 4, 2012)

I suppose it made as much sense to the crews involved as the Bumph raids dropping leaflets all over Germany. The feeling was that all they did was supply the Germans with outhouse supplies!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 6, 2012)

I've heard this story before; the Germans painstakingly built an airfield entirely out of wood in either Belgium or the Netherlands - depending on whose telling the story and British spies followed its construction with photo recon supplying images, so on its completion, a British aircraft - dunno which type dropped a single wooden bomb on it! According to a book I read recently, the story is told in a book called Deception in War by John Latimer.

Take a look at this link:

http://airminded.org/2005/11/01/levity-through-airpower/


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## stona (Dec 7, 2012)

So now we're to believe that the wooden bombs were dropped on "fake" airfields reported by local intelligence sources,potentially compromising the source.
I'm not convinced about this I'm afraid.
Steve


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## Readie (Dec 7, 2012)

Shhhhhh....you'll let the latest defence cuts secrets out of the bag....


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## Matt308 (Dec 9, 2012)

You have to imagine that such a decoy field would not have been constructed solely to waste Allied bombs, but rather to be a AA trap. Thus dropping wooden bombs in such a scenario would result in huge risks for little actual humorous reward, right? Makes for a great story though if intelligence discovered the ploy during its construction and risked a bomb run knowing the defences were not yet complete. Makes for a great book.

Then again sometimes facts are stranger than fiction.


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## hedge hopper (Jan 4, 2013)

I too have read about this 'Joke' raid. From what I remember, the reason for dropping a wooden bomb on this dummy airfield, was to let the enemy know that we knew it was a ''dummy'' wooden site.
Don't forget the RAF also dropped a ''Dummy'' leg for Douglas Bader on a 'normal' raid.


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## tyrodtom (Jan 4, 2013)

I read about it years ago, but never believed it.
If the enemy believed something was working, why if the heck would you tell them different. That would be helping them.


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## daveT (Jan 16, 2013)

Pupukea-Paumalu Dummy Airfield Oahu Hawaii.
After Pearl Harbor the US constructed a complete dummy airfield on the North west coast of Oahu. Photos of the airfield show blown up B-26 Marauders and a real 90 mm AA gun battery. It was in use from 1942 through 1943


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