Today I Learned

That story may actually be true. It matches with the mentality of that generation.

One time the allies set up a fake army on a British beach coast. These "tanks" were inflatable, like balloons. The soldiers were made of wood. It came at a time a few months before D-Day.

Now, the fact that D-Day was coming was in itself not a surprise. It's really hard to move that much equipment, and that many soldiers in that fast of a time. Everybody saw the influx of military movement. What WAS a surprise is the where and when.

There's actually a beach very very close to France. Shortest distance to the coast. It's a really obvious jumping off point for where to invade. So obvious in fact that it's the worst possible jumping off point. Germany had their side of the beach heavily fortified. They had air support ready at a moments notice.

So when Germany checked the coast, and there was no army, the coast looked clear. But then 15 minutes later on his return trip, the German pilot saw an entire army of tanks that came out of nowhere.

So when he radios the main nazi army and says they're over there, Germany was caught offguard. They had just been radio'd 15 minutes earlier that there was no sign of the allies.

Now suddenly, hundreds of tanks, trucks, support vehicles. The invasion was here. And now nazi bombers take to the sky, and drop bombs. Only to see the tanks pop and deflate. Only now do they realize they wasted fuel, and bombs on inflatables and wooden soldiers.

So a few weeks later when allied planes were checking German they spotted a whole nazi army that came out of nowhere.

So the allies sent a single bomber. And dropped a bomb. Which hit it's target perfectly. Except there was no explosion. When the nazis felt it was safe, they went to extract the bomb from the dirt it was stuck in. Only to find a wooden bomb, dropped on their wooden nazi soldiers, and on the bomb it said "wood 4 wood".

Essentially the allies fooled the nazis into bombing their fake army, but when the nazis tried the same trick weeks later, not only did the allies see through it, but the british anticipated it. Already having a fake wooden bomb ready.

Dropping the wood bomb was essentially flexing the fact that they weren't fooled, and they knew they were wasting their own fuel. But fuel wasn't an issue for the allies. It was a HUGE issue for the axis. So before the allies even set up their fake army, the whole thing was just a long con to get nazis to waste fuel, and then mock them for having done so.

Now looking at your story, it really has the same vibes.