30. Using Stage Magic in Military Deception
To misdirect Axis attention and get it to focus on the southern part of the front instead of the northern, the British fed the Germans misinformation via turned spies. They also borrowed from stage magic, and built wood and canvass contraptions to fool German aerial reconnaissance by making concentrations of armor appear like trucks, and making transport trucks look like menacing concentrations of tanks.
To further misdirect about the buildup of supplies and munitions, the CDTC set up fake ammunition dumps. They also took advantage of the fact that water was the most precious resource in the desert, whose concentration offered strong indicia of intent, and built a 200-mile dummy water pipeline to the southern sector of the Alamein line.
