{"id":45,"date":"2022-10-11T15:19:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T15:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2022-10-19T18:48:53","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T18:48:53","slug":"the-us-secret-weapon-to-beat-the-nazis-inflatable-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/2022\/10\/11\/the-us-secret-weapon-to-beat-the-nazis-inflatable-tanks\/","title":{"rendered":"The US\u2019 Secret Weapon to Beat the Nazis? Inflatable Tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Before used car lots were using inflatables as decoy salesmen, the US army was using inflatables as decoy military tanks to trick Hitler\u2019s army.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, you read that correctly. These were not your typical blow-up kids\u2019 party bouncy houses. These were realistic looking blow-ups that replicated military tanks and armored vehicles. Add in some fake radio sound effects and you\u2019ve got the US\u2019 greatest, most artistic asset to fight in WW2 \u2013 their \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalww2museum.org\/visit\/exhibits\/traveling-exhibits\/ghost-army-combat-con-artists-world-war-ii\">Ghost Army<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Inflatable tanks used during WW2 as decoys <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qkPIqCMpS5\">pic.twitter.com\/qkPIqCMpS5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/historyinmemes\/status\/1576272090143281153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 1, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While the idea of inflatable units sounds like it was created by the props department in a war movie, it was actually the brainchild of American military planners Colonel Billy Harris and Major Ralph Ingersoll. The team bringing this\u2019 idea to life included engineers, artists, designers, architects, radio operators, and truck drivers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ghost Army began during the last year of the war in 1944, and made history as the \u201cfirst mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit.\u201d The main goal was to use these units to trick the German soldiers into thinking they caught Allied troops, thus giving the US with the actual units time to move and attack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/09\/13\/obituaries\/03xp-ghost-army-1\/03xp-ghost-army-1-superJumbo-v2.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>Image via National Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The decoy tanks allowed the US military to successfully navigate various missions throughout the war, including D-Day. These blowups were instrumental in distracting enemies, drawing fire away from soldiers, and saving thousands of lives. This group of unsung heros thankfully got some long-overdue recognition. President Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/kuster.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4272\">signed a bill<\/a> this year granting the Congressional Gold Medal to Ghost Army members for \u201ctheir unique and highly distinguished service in conducting deception operations\u201d during World War II.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And hey \u2013 if typical inflatables aren\u2019t doing it for you these days, don\u2019t fret. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/i2kdefense.com\/inflatable-tanks\/\">cop one of these historical, inflatable tanks<\/a> for yourself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before used car lots were using inflatables as decoy salesmen, the US army was using inflatables as decoy military tanks to trick Hitler\u2019s army.&nbsp; Yes, you read that correctly. These were not your typical blow-up kids\u2019 party bouncy houses. These were realistic looking blow-ups that replicated military tanks and armored vehicles. Add in some fake [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/inflatabel-ank.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historyinmemes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}