Air Fronts: Air Defense FM 5-20F; Camouflage of Antiaircraft Artillery - 5. Use of Decoys

Decoy positions contribute to the concealment and protection of real positions by attracting the enemy to false objectives and by causing him to misinterpret our strength, our disposition, and our intentions, and to waste ammunition and effort. They are most effective when employed on a large scale. Decoys must not be constructed indiscriminately, but must be sited tactically by the AAA commander and operated under a controlled plan. To prevent fire intended for the decoy positions from falling on the real ones, decoys must be sited at least a quarter of a mile away from real positions. Serviceable or valuable equipment should not be used in decoy positions.

To be successful, a daylight decoy gun position must be a representation of a true gun position, including tracks, foxholes, special trenches, and a certain amount of litter (fig. 53).

Enemy observers must see that a serious, though inadequate, attempt has been made to camouflage decoys. Flash simulators (page 50) resembling real gun flashes in volume, color, and brilliance, should be used, but only when other guns are firing. Daily maintenance of decoy positions is essential to make them look actively occupied.

When a true position is abandoned, if its camouflage is left intact it may both conceal the departure of the occupying unit and serve as a decoy. Decoys may also be located in positions chosen as alternates to real positions.

FIGURE 54.

In this case, positions may be switched when it is suspected that enemy reconnaissance has identified the real installation. This maneuver has proved invaluable in actual warfare.

Figure 54 is a decoy installation with an emplacement made of cloth and covered with a thinly garnished net to give it a convincing appearance. Figure 55 (1) is an aerial view of this type of installation. A method of making frames to support the false parapet is shown in figure 55 (2). Frames are staked in ground, encircling simulated gun, and covered with earth-colored cloth or cloth upon which dirt from the site can be scattered.

CONSTRUCTION OF DECOY WEAPONS AND ACCESSORIES

Ingenuity in the selection and use of available materials is largely responsible for successful construction of improvised decoys in the field. The decoy construction illustrated on these two pages makes use of tin cans, logs, scrap lumber, cloth, and wire. Other materials, such as are found among debris and ruins, are equally adaptable to decoy construction. It must be borne in mind that decoys, to be effective, require revetments, signs of activity, and maintenance so that the entire position in which decoys are situated bears a close resemblance to a real AAA position.

FLASH SIMULATORS

To give an illusion of realism, a decoy gun position must give the appearance of firing during an attack. The flash simulators suggested here are field expedients. They may be altered in various ways to suit local conditions, or other types and arrangements may be improvised, depending on the kind of display it is desired to show the enemy.

FIGURE 61.—No. 2½ can containing cardboard disc on top of 4 to 6 oz. of either black gun or blasting powder. Charge is set off by electric cap.

FIGURE 62.—Firing circuit for flash simulators. Three dry-cell batteries furnish current.

FIGURE 63.-One method of arranging flash simulators in front of gun toward probable direction of enemy approach. Note simply made gun and director.

FIGURE 64.-When flash devices are attached to decoy gun barrel in this way, outermost charges must be fired first.

FIGURE 65.—A hand grenade or small detonating charge covered with sand, dry earth, or other local dust materials resembles flash and smoke of gunfire.