The attack of the “paradummies”

Deception on D-Day

The planes carrying paratroopers the night before D-Day also had their deceptive guardian angels, thanks to Operation Titanic, which revolved around “Rupert” (or called “Oscar” by the Americans), a dummy on a parachute one-third the size of a human. The objective was to create spoof airborne attacks in Normandy. The use of dummies for deception purposes was not new, since the Germans used them also in their airborne operations in the early stages of the war, for instance in the Netherlands. While the 1962 war movie, The Longest Day depicted Rupert as an elaborate rubber figure, the real deal was a rough construction of sackcloth filled with hay and sand. Officially named Device, Camouflage, No. 15, it was nicknamed Rupert, possibly after the derogative term Scottish soldiers used for English officers. Rupert was equipped with noisemakers, called “Pintail”, that simulated rifle shots and a small timed explosive. The explosive would ignite the dummy and parachute after a while, so German troops arriving at the scene would find not a dummy (which would expose the duplicity) but only the remains of the parachute which its user assumedly burned before hiding nearby.

The German commander in Le Havre believed that Operation Taxable was a real fleet and that he was cut off from Normandy. The massive efforts at misdirection, both in Operation Bodyguard and the tactical operation on the night before D-Day, paid off when they made it easier for the landing forces to take the beaches of Normandy. Even some of the Ruperts survived the battle. For instance, one of the original dummies, found in a house of a former British soldier, was sold for £2,500 (USD 3,500) at an auction in Stansted in 2017.