Spell It: How the French created a fake Paris to fool German bombers

The World Wars saw a number of novel strategies deployed from both the Allied forces and Nazi Germany. Some of them, however, were so outlandish, it’s still hard to believe they actually happened.

Click start to play today’s Spell It, where we learn about ‘novel’ strategies used in the World Wars.

The Nazis, for instance, didn’t hesitate to use innovative – if gory – ideas to defeat the Allied troops. One such tactic was dubbed Rommel’s asparagus, after the field marshal Erwin Rommel, who ordered their design and use. The idea was to set five-metre-long wooden logs in the fields and meadows of Normandy, France – they resembled asparagus, but their purpose was less innocent. They would impale or injure any Allied military gliders and paratroopers who tried to land in the area.

Although Rommel’s forces placed more than a million such wooden poles in fields, it didn’t turn out to be as effective as he’d hoped. Only about 300 casualties were attributed to Rommel’s asparagus, and the invasion of Normandy turned the tide in the war, in favour of the Allied forces.

Another out-of-the-box strategy came from the French during the First World War. In an effort to trick German bomber pilots, Fernand Jacopozzi, an Italian engineer, helped develop an idea to create a whole fake Paris just a few kilometres on the outskirts of the real city. Paris had been bombed by the Germans in 1914, and according to a December 2017 report in US-based news website The Daily Beast, the wild idea of a fake city took shape at the beginning of 2017, when further bombing attempts became imminent.

At the time, aerial bombardment was an imprecise affair. The introduction of radar on planes had not occurred yet, so pilots had to fly purely by sight. Jacopozzi thought it would be easy enough to divert German bombers, with a few well-considered visual effects. City officials agreed, and gave him the green light.

The project became a grand undertaking – not only would architects and artists have to replicate one of the best known cities in the world, they’d have to try to recreate famous monuments like the Gare du Nord, Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. But the French persisted. Streets were laid out, artists were called in to paint fake neighbourhoods, and there was even a wooden train built to move along a track.

But the highlight, and key, to the project was the lighting. Since the Germans had begun to conduct their air raids at night, to avoid anti-aircraft missiles, the city lights served as their guide. Jacopozzi’s idea hinged on imposing a complete blackout in the real city of Paris, and creating precise but dim lighting in the decoy neighbourhood – so that it would look like people were trying, but failing, to keep themselves undetected in the dark.

As ingenious and extraordinary as the project was, in the end, only parts of the decoy city were built. The war came to an end in 1918 – before the project could be completed – and the French government quickly proceeded to dismantle the fake city and all information about its existence, as part of state secrets.

Still, just the fact that it existed, gives new meaning to Paris’ nickname, City of Lights. Undeterred, Jacopozzi went on to brighten the real-world wonders of Paris, working to light up its beloved monuments, from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe.

What do you think of this project? Play today’s Spell It and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.