“DUMMY” TANKS

Opunake Times, 21 February 1939, Page 4

“DUMMY” TANKS

xiAHJ*. ivIANAGER'S iiXl'JtiitiilJNO^

IN GERMANY

MOTOR-CAR SMASHES Ox\E

Suggestions that the armed might oi' Germany is not as great as the .Nazi leaders would have the world

relieve are supported Iby an account oi an unusual experience brought to the Dominion by Mr. A T . P. Walker, of Auckland. Mr. Walker has returned aitor a trip abroad, in the course of which he visited Sheffield, where he' learnt of an English bank manager's encounter with "dummy" tanks made of painted wood and manned by German soldiers. A visitor to Germany at the tirno of the international Crisis last (September, the bank manager was touring near the Chechoslovakian frontier when the incident occurred. Mr. Walker said the visitor was driving his motor-car along one of Germany a famous high-speed motor roads when, on rounding a bend, he encountered a number of cumbersomei-looking German tanks.

"He was uuable to pull ui>, as ho Xiamo ou theiu. too suddeuly," Mr.

Walker said. "There was a crash and

his car struck the leading tank heavily. The motorist expected to 'be killed, but found himself unhurt, and was amazed to see that his ear had ploughed three-quarters of the way through the tank." A glanco assured him that it would cost only about 5/ to repair his motor Car, so little damage was done to it in the collision with the tank. The vehicle his car had struck, and apparently all the others, were made of plywood painted in the regular military colour and camouflaged, Right up to the time of the collision the whole thing had looked real. The motorist then became frightened as to whether or not he would be held by the Germans after having penetrated the disguise of the tanks, Mr. Walker said. "It appeared, however, that the officer had no instructions to arrest him in the circumstances and he lost no time in putting the greatest possible 'distance between himself and the tanks.