Posted on 03/15/2011 12:49:24 PM PDT by Keltik
Impressive
In North Africa a whole harbor was moved to confuse the German airmen and the Suez Canal “hidden”. Not so easy today but deception is a powerful weapon still.
I believe Boeing did the same. Germany was also very prolific at these disguises. Very neat pictures BTW.
Yep. See: Serb Dummies Fool NATO Dummies
And, not just tanks, but dummy roads, bridges and soldiers as well as dummy MiG-29 Fulcrums, too. (See: "M-18" - the Serb "Trojan Horse")
Reginald Denny's Radioplane plant in Los Angeles. A pretty young lady named Norma Jeane is holding the propeller for the photographer.
http://www.suite101.com/content/magic-makeover-lockheeds-wwii-vanishing-act-a176694
Give proper credit to Walt Disney for the camo.
I’ve always been a sucker for bright red lipstick!
I believe that it was Ralph Story who showed aerial pictures of one of the major movie studios from that same period. The studio moguls recognized that with the facilities in Burbank camouflaged they looked like suitable targets. They actually put an arrow on the top of their studio buildings pointing towards Burbank!
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/flying/douglas_dream_in_santa_monica.htm
I worked next to the plant until it was pulled down (and parts blown up) in the 70’s. The older residents back then remembered the fake roads over the roof.
I did not learn about it until I was poring through archives of the company newsletters of that time. I was trying to find info of my Dad, who worked there then and later. I did not find him, but lots of other fascinating info. The Douglas plant was a community unto itself. My mother said, the job she loved best ever.
So Hollywood was full of lefty anti war SOB's back then as well!
That may have been the episode I recall, I was only about 12 then so I am weak on the details.
I do remember my Dad telling me that was all true, he loaded and then later drove trucks during the war ('42-'44) before enlisting when he turned 17 and said he remembers seeing that camouflage.
Ya they hired magicians to do it. They used lights in one circumstance to make the Germans think the target was “there” instead of where it actually was.
They used fake tanks etc, to fool Rommel into thinking the attack were coming from another area.
And it worked.
Wow.
At the International Harvester plant in Northern Libya, the Germans just painted trees on the factory.
It didn’t seem all that effective 20 years later; probably because the paint had faded by then...
I gotta agree with this sentiment - but then I grew up in Glendale about 10 blocks from the Burbank Border. This is common knowledge down there.
This picture of Norma Jeane is Norma Jeane Baker before Marilyn Monroe became famous. You can compare it to the picture of her in this link: http://www.aiolosfilm.com/highlights.html
Actually, at that time she was Norma Jeane Dougherty, having married James Dougherty at the age of 16. Norma was hired by Reginald Denny to work in his target drone factory spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and packing recovery parachutes.
See: A "Rosie the Riveter" is Discovered
In 1939, after developing a series of unmanned aerial vehicles, Englishman Reginald Leigh Denny and two Americans, Walter Righter and Kenneth Case, formed the Radioplane Company, which was to later become Northrop's Ventura division. During WWII, Radioplane built thousands of radio-controlled target drones, which were used by the Army for anti-aircraft practice.
In 1944, while working at Radioplane, Ethel Dougherty and her daughter-in-law joined the ranks of the millions of women known as "Rosie the Riveters" helping the war effort. During her 60-hour workweek at the nation's minimum wage of $20 a week, Norma Jeane's assignments included spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and folding parachutes.
As part of a publicity campaign to drum up support for the nation's war effort and to elevate the soldier's morale, the U.S. Army established the First Motion Picture Unit. Many movie stars were part of this unit, which soon became known as the "Celluloid Commandos." Those in uniform at the time included Alan Ladd and Clark Gable. The unit, whose base was known as "Fort Roach," was housed in the Hal Roach Studio in Culver City, Calif.
David Conover, an Army photographer, was assigned to Fort Roach. Actor Ronald Reagan was his commanding officer. In June 1945, Reagan, a friend of Denny, sent David Conover to Radioplane's Van Nuys plant to take pictures of women involved in the war effort.
As Conover moved down the assembly line, his attention was drawn to one particular blue-eyed "Rosie the Riveter," who was in the process of putting propellers on aircraft. Norma Jeane's curly ash-blonde hair framed her pretty but dirt-smudged face. He snapped her picture several times, and continued down the assembly line. But he later returned to ask if she had a sweater with her; he wanted her to pose for him during her lunch hour.
Conover noted that 19-year-old Norma Jeane's response to the camera was amazing. She seemed to "come alive" with an immediate and natural instinct. In fact, he was so excited by his discovery that he could barely hold the camera steady. He must have hidden his excitement from his subject, because the teenager timidly asked if she was photogenic.
After several photo sessions and with Conover's influence, Norma Jeane applied at the Blue Book Modeling Agency. There she was groomed in the art of modeling and encouraged to lighten her hair. She soon had the attention of every producer in Hollywood. In July 1946, Norma Jeane signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox Studios, and shortly thereafter became known as Marilyn Monroe.
Her marriage to Dougherty lasted almost four years. Dougherty later wrote a book about his marriage to Norma Jeane, entitled "The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe." And of course, Marilyn Monroe became a legend.
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