BRITAIN’S PHANTOM FLEET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 6 August 1945, Page 5

BRITAIN’S PHANTOM FLEET

TO lIOAX ENEMY RECONAISSANCE London, August 5. Ihe uuvy Lor nearly two years used a phantom fleet of wooden warships and dummy guns to hoax enemy reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. They were merchantmen fitted with elaborate superstructures of plywood and canvas, 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 oase ships at Scapa Flow. The dummy fleet 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 ftikeha became the battleship Revenge, the Wairr.ana became the Resolute, the Mamari was the aircraft-carrier Hermes. Mr Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty ordered the new dummy ships, known as tenders, at the outbreak of the war. The Pakeha and Waimana have now been turned over to the owners again "nd are running as merchantmen.