BRITAIN'S PHANTOM FLEET

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 211, 6 August 1945, Page 5

BRITAIN'S PHANTOM FLEET

DECEPTION OF LUFTWAFFE,

(N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Rec. 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 5. The Navy for 'nearly two years used a phantom licet of wooden warships and dummy guns to hoax enemy reconnaissanco aircraft and Dombers. '

They were merchantmen fitted with elaborate super-structures of plywood and canvas and painted to transform them into replicas of battleships and aircraft carriers. They were used as bait for U-boats and as decoys to draw away bomber attacks from the base and ships at Scapa Flow. A dummy licet was also used in the Firth of Forth when the fleet was away or to dilute the scale of attacks against the Fleet when it was in port. They kept the enemy guessing on the strategic disposition of capital ships. The steamship Pakeha became the battleship Revenge, tho Waimana became the Resolute and the Mamari ivas the aircraft-carrier Hermes. Mr Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered the new dummy ships known as tenders at the outbreak of tho war. Tho Pakeha and the Waimana have now been returned to their owners and arc again running as merchantmen.