DUMMY TANKS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11860, 28 June 1919, Page 2

DUMMY TANKS.

HOW HUNS WERE HOODWINKED. Dapto, June 11. Sapper Armstrong, who has just returned from the front, after having served in Eabaul, Gallipoli and France, relates how the Auasies cleverly trapped the Huns on one occasion with dummy tanks. “Orders once came,”he says, “to make dummy tanks, and eight of these were constructed from wood and hessian. They were cleverly painted, and looked like the real thing. Two men were required underneath to push each one forward, and I volunteered. A number of the real tanks were placed among the dummies, and the advance began. The ruse succeeded splendidly, the Germans being terrified at the large number of tanks attacking. “The dummy tanks were abandoned after they had gone two or three hundred yards, the genuine article going right on. A large haul of prisoners resulted. It was decided to save a dummy as a curio, and one was placed on top of a loaded lorry going back. Imagine the surprise of the prisoner® on seeing what appeared to be a monster tank on top of a load passing to the rear. ’ ’