The Inflatable Tank

The inflatable tank was a strategic decoy created by the Ghost Army, a unit that was kept secret for 40 years after the war and was responsible for the creation of these types of decoy in order to deceive german air scouts. These tanks had a multitude of uses of increasing numbers, positions, next to real artillery to fool which ones are real, and also attempting to seem like the Red Army was closing in. These dummy tanks became crucial as it created doubt in the German reconnaissance. These tanks were also equipped with fake radio transmissions detailing their movements straight to the Germans and used huge microphones to simulate tank tracks are approaching which could be heard almost 15 miles away, causing chaos and confusing within the german ranks and putting all of their forces to an area where not a single Allied soldier was present. These dummy tanks saved and spared the lives ten's of thousands of allied forces as the Germans were caught up in the deception, especially with Ghost army's deception tactics to divert german attention from Normandy and the nine crossings of the line, both in heavily fortified places where possibly hundreds of thousands of men could have died. Even today many countries still use these inflatable tanks to their advantage of creating more numbers and drawing ariel fire away from real forces.


Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/ghost-army-the-inflatable-tanks-that-fooled-hitler/276137/

https://mashable.com/2017/03/04/dummy-tanks/