A dummy four-engine bomber aircraft made of wood, with propellers and wheels made from planks and bamboo struts to support the wings. The illusion is enhanced by the use of plants and netting, as if a real aircraft were being camouflaged. This image, and several others below were taken by U.S. military photographers in captured Japanese territory near the end of World War II, circa 1945. From the U.S. National Archives, Records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, #

The Japanese painted a decoy B-29 with a 300-foot wingspread, so scaled that it appears to be flying at several thousand feet, on the Tien Ho airfield in China on March 9, 1945. From a great altitude the decoy gives the illusion of a B-29 in flight with flames streaming from its port inboard engine. The Japanese figured other planes would drop down to investigate and become targets for heavy concentration of flak. #

A U.S. marine rips a board from a wooden replica of a tank used by the Japanese in Okinawa to attract American fire toward the dummy rather than the real thing, photographed between April and July 1945. #

Bonus Mystery Photo #1. I have no idea what this vehicle or device is. It appears to be mounted on a set of steel tracks, and there is a U.S. Army Jeep directly behind it, for scale. It was photographed in Japan, circa 1945, and the photo is located in the U.S. National Archives, Records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Any guesses or ideas about what this might have been? #

Bonus Mystery Photo #2. A tracked vehicle outfitted with cushioning feet, attended to by several men in Japanese military uniforms, with several others observing from outside the frame (shadows at lower left). The sign mounted to the wall appears to say “第一組立エ場,” which a friend translated for me as “Assembly Plant #1.” It was photographed in Japan, circa 1945, and the photo is located in the U.S. National Archives, Records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Any guesses or ideas about what this might have been? #