How Allied Pilots Embarrassed the Nazis 

Even in war, humor is never tarnished It can be used as morale damage when you embarrass the opposing side

Imagine getting a job at a factory and you’re excited to build war machines and vehicles for the troops and then the boss is like, “the frontlines need 30 inflatable tanks by Tuesday get working”

I like how this dude turns a 3 minute story into 8 minutes of repeating himself but in slightly different ways

The people who specialized in making the fake equipment on both sides must have been the biggest shitlords and trolls imaginable. *salutes*

I think it was a good move to drop fake bombs on the fake planes. It sent a message that their tactics were pointless.

Trolling the Germans is such a British thing to do lol🤣

this man told the whole story in a minute and a half, then spent the next 6 minutes just rephrasing what he already said.

I find it so fascinating as well as haunting to think of all the untold stories from ww1 and ww2. Millions of peoples lives changed completely then ended abruptly, with the stories of what happened in between never being told. It was truly a time where you could see both the best and worst of humanity.

I believe decoys will make a comeback soon if they have not already. We have the technology to 3D print a fullsize replica of a tank. Not that anyone has specifically done this yet.

Imagine if they dropped the wood bombs a couple times, and once the germans were comfortable enough, they dropped real bombs and no one ran to cover.

A smart move would be a decoy base that wasn't a decoy.

The British really were the master of trolling during WWII 🤣

The fuel used on this raid would have been a drop in the ocean. The allies never had a problem with fuel supplies. The UK built up huge stocks of high octane petrol before WW2 started. The allies were able to secure stocks from the middle east and the United States. It was rationed for civilians, but there were rarely occasions when fuel supplies were short.

It is common for military men to do silly things in war. During Vietnam the U.S.S. Midway once launched a strike that used up it's remaining bombs and one of the aircraft didn't have a full load, so they found a broken toilet that had been replaced in one of the ships heads, and rigged it up to hang from the weapons station. They dropped it on North Vietnam.

This would also work against Magneto, he was once defeated by a wooden gun!

Reminds me of a part in a book series. They knew the enemy could hear them so they spread out and began giving orders for nonexistent weapons to be sent to nonexistent squadrons. Enemy sent half their forces to go get backup and ended up being defeated as a result.

Honestly I encourage anyone to look into British Intelligence services in WW2, it's renowned for very good reasons. Along with Alan Turing and the Enigma machine as well, good to look into.

"What did you do during WWII Grandad"? "Blew up a tank" "Wow that's cool" "A rubber tank blown up with air"

I can’t wait for someone write an SCP tale inspired by this so I can watch Dr. Bright troll people on the other channel.

6:05 . "French cost", proceeds to mark the north spanish coast

I've heard a retelling of this story which said that the bombers used were not the Lancasters shown in this short but Mosquitos. The important thing about Mosquitos is that, unlike other aircraft of the time, they were made of plywood. Wooden bomber dropping wooden bombs on wooden airfields.

As a society, we need to be cautious of history repeating itself.

The "wooden bomb" shown at 0:43 is a "Mark IV Aircraft Float Light" (look it up!) and was a mass produced signaling device, often erroneously linked with this story. As for story, stranger things have happened, so possibly true.

I wish the whole war would have been like that .

The same thing happened in Denmark at Karup Air Base (Grove). The Germans build a 1/3 scale air base south of the real air base. All with fake planes which the allies dropped wooden bombs on.

This video reminds me of how I used to write high-school essays that had to be a certain length but had no more information to write about. I really enjoy this content though! Keep up the great work!

How about a story about how certain battles were interrupted by troops from both sides honoring a truce and actually meeting each other. Like the Christmas day truce. I even heard that one battle was put on hold so that a ball game could be played by the troops.

Deception was a huge part of war. My last job in the military was PsyOps and its very interesting to study Battlefield Deception through history.

I can literally hear the British saying to the Germans: ‘emotional damage’

could you do a video on the night witches? they deserve much more respect than they've ever had

I think they found out when the planes weren't flying out at the base.

This has reached legendary meme status for decades

In the book Combat crew about a American B-17 bomber crew flying from England there is a story about dropping a bicycle. It seems the night before their final mission the other crews began fighting over who would get their bicycles after they left. The argument kept the crews up late into the night. Not appreciating this the crew about to fly their last mission loaded the bikes into the bomb bay and dropped them on Germany. That settled the argument

The British in ww1 and 2 were a funny lot, we had put out various songs and niches designed to be comical in a time of the worst possible place to be in, i.e. "We're going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried line" and the "Frey bentos" landship mkv, aka a tank named after a brand of canned meat. If all you do in war is stay all serious like, is how you'll lose. That's why our pilots had higher morale and rest during the BoB

One of the best pranks in history that's actually pretty funny.

That's one of the top 10 biggest pranks in the history

In that one moment, the British decided to play "got your nose" with the Nazis, and they won.

Imagine if this would have ended the conflict and started a trolling war where it was just both sides dicking with eachother, history would be a lot less depressing and a lot funnier if people had collective senses of humor.

It was so thoughtful of Britain to wait until the airfield was finished before dealing the final blow…….or in this case dealing “the final laugh”

The war was also about self-respect and respect, and dropping decoys in enemy decoys were a way of publicly showing and saying "we're way ahead of you" even when all the people in the world couldn't see it directly or know about it.

Good story, but I feel they repeated their talking points so often this video could have been a Short.

6:05 yup, that's France alright, no doubt, you couldn't possibly, in no way, be wrong (Anyway, loved to hear the story after seeing posts online, thanks for the effort)

“In World War 2 the average age of the combat soldier was 26, in Vietnam he was 19.” - Paul Hardcastle.

This is great. It's nice to see that people, even on both sides, were still able to laugh even in such a miserable time in human history. Many historians and other officials proclaim that the first half of the 20th century was arguably the most terrible time to be alive in known history. Generally speaking for humanity as a whole and individuals in general across the board/globe.

Nazis: build fake airfield Allies: "really, ni**a?" "Look at this duuuuuude!" 🤣🤣🤣

This is true I remember reading a book about ww2 decoys

Interesting as always. I knew about the fake landing at Calais to divert the Germans from Normandy on June 6, but I didn't know about this.

I'm just happy to hear that at least the narrator knows the difference between "might" and "may".

Early 20's or late TEENS?? Hasn't that always been the norm? I served from age 18- 24, the age at which we feel invincible and death is something that affects someone else?

Your video on what would it be like to be immortal really touched me I would love it if you can make it part 2

“A woody for your woody” 🤣

The inflatable tanks would be an AWESOME beach toy!

I like how the british still had humor during the war😂

It seems like a mistake to waste an entire bombing mission just to taunt the enemy. Especially since it gave the Nazis useful information: they would no longer waste effort on that field or tie up actual fighters waiting to ambush the bombers. I think this might be a case of ego getting in the way of good sense.

So this is the world’s greatest ‘finger circle’ gotcha moment in history? I love it

Those wooden bombs weren't useless. They dealt psychological damage in embarrassment.

They may have not struck a actual physical blow with the wooden bombs but from a psychological standpoint that's definitely a strike to the enemy in my book 👍 and getting your enemy to waste as much time and effort on a project just to tell them that it means nothing anyways... awesome 🤣

Apparently, the beaches of Normandy are in Spain..

Very funny. I just can't contain my laughter when I think about the conversation that took place with a few whiskeys before the plan was signed by the men in charge

It's a part of the true nature of war. Fighting sides always try out to deceive or trick each other. No matter which era happens, always the same goes for all wars.

Very good article apart from the rubber paradummies dropped on D-Day - they DID fire back! That was the whole point of them, when the hit the ground they triggered an electrical charge which set off a series of fire-crackers which looked and sounded just like gun fire in the dark. This was what prompted the Germans to send reinforcements rushing to the scene before they realised it was a trick.

Lol I've heard all of these, gotta love the pranks

Saying hey we could have had you son but decided to meme instead.

To be honest, building a fake airbase out of wood sounds kinda fun

“HelpedA the Allies capture the French coast” *marks the Iberian peninsula*

Why would it not have been sanctioned? Dropping that wooden bomb was a great morale booster, well worth the fuel and the risk to the plane and crew.

That ain’t embarrassing that’s straight up trolling and I LOVE IT

Germans: we do a little trolling British: we do a little trolling to a little trolling.

Allied knew it because Alan Turing broke Enigma.

No contest, this is the greatest troll in history.

I realized the immortal guy was in that line of 3 people lending a paper to someone

I was literally just looking at something about this the day before! What a coincidence!

I believe that it was in the war on Iraq that when America bombed airstrips there were 3 types of bombs. 1. exploded immediately 2. These bombs were Bobby trapped for awkward defusing 3. These bombs were on a timer and could explode at any time. Made things a lot more complicated than just filling in holes in a runway.

Just like how US soldiers threw rocks instead of grenades in (either Korean War or ww2 pacific theatre) so that the enemy would have to duck for cover, and throwing an actual grenade every so often, so the enemies didn't actually know which one was real. They (the US soldiers) started doing that because they were running low on grenades, among everything else, and were holding out on a ridge surrounded by the enemy.

Never underestimate the importance of humour. Many a nasty outcome has been avoided through good humour and hastened the end of unnecessary confrontation.

On the other hand... this is PRECISELY the humor Churchill had.

If I remember correctly, the British also used a Mosquito bomber for this. (Which was made out of wood) 😂

My opinion on why this might not be real (no hate): 1. There is no actual proof that it happened. We only know that it came from a journalist who might have been faking it the whole time. 2. If anyone knew that their enemy is plotting a plan secretly like making a base of wood, they would not respond to it with a wooden bomb, they would just wait and spy it so that the enemy keeps on wasting their resources. Why would the enemies try to finish it if their enemies already knew their plan. 3. Come on man, it's WW2, why would anyone try to make a joke while their friends are dying. A lesson that I've learned today is to not say anything without the proper knowledge of it.

I love your videos.I watch them the second there released

Kinda crazy how over looked decoys are... they played a massive role in many key points

And we all know how well Germans take jokes. Disclaimer: based on Southpark

Wouldn’t a wooden “bomb” just shatter upon impact when dropped from the height and speed of a bomber aircraft?

Haha, well done RAF, well done!

The first source listed concludes there is no hard documentary evidence this ever happened, and the airfield the video talks about is supposed to have been in Potsdam, and the wooden bomb evidence is in a French museum.

Sun Tzu approves.

6:05 ahhh yes Spain...The beautiful French coast

imagine repeating the first minute of the video over and over for 8 minutes. now i feel like i've been had!

Imagine you get drafted into a world war, and they tell you your job will be "coming up with snide remarks to be painted on wooden shells."

Fun story but I have my doubts. Snopes also questions it's veracity. What strategic advantage was there in giving away this Intel to the enemy? Also the idea that top brass probably didn't ok it implies lower level personnel we're making decisions about exposing allied intelligence? Also, also, isn't this kind of Intel highly restricted? This makes it seems rank and file knew all about it and came up with this scheme over poker.

The Japanese were masters at creating decoys? This channel is the master of making a 3min long video last almost 3 times as long. It was interesting but quite repetitive

"Blowing up tanks" takes on a whole new meaning!

Wooden airfield+wooden bomb+wooden plane=best prank in history

I have a first hand account from someone who wrenched on B-24's in England it seems in many runs to Germany the crews got a lot of flak from certain flak towers and the brass were not interested in bombing those well a crew took it on themselves to remedy this a plan was hatched a crew member set off a flare in a coffee can on a stick and held it our a port comunicatiins were made that the bomber had been hit and would have to return to England and they would drop their bombs on a target of opportunity well the series of flak towers was it, they bombed it and for the rest of the war no more flak from that series of flak towers as bombers flew overhead leave to the G I,s to take care of things in spite of the brass. I have no doubt of the veracity of this story as the man who told it to me was part of the ground crew of the unit involved.

Humor in times of Horror

Imagine even suggesting random bomber pilots would be allowed to take their planes and fly them over Germany just to play a prank, unless the RAF was fully on board with the plan.

One thing that helped was that RAF photo reconnaissance was done stereoscopically, so when viewed the heights of things could be appreciated - several things laid out to look like things from the air were easily appreciated to be fake.

6:05 that's Spain not France...

I love the Brits!!!!!

I think the ruse was up as soon as the British bomber crews noticed that none of the fighter planes even attempted to take off and fight them, not to forget the FlaK remaining completely silent.

Actually, there are books written about special forces dropping fake paratroopers in Afghanistan mountains to freak out local insurgents. It worked well and it put the enemy on edge, leading to false attacks and won battles on our part.