Sniper Decoys: Dummy Heads — Transcript

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1. 0:07The First World War saw extensive use of snipers in combat for the first time rifles with
2. 0:13telescopic sights were used on a large scale, which under the conditions of trench warfare, were considered very effective.
3. 0:20At first, the German Imperial Army were the only ones to seriously consider scoped rifles.
4. 0:25As soon as the British and French were aware of the German successes with scoped rifles, they also introduced them to the battlefield.
5. 0:33Even though sharpshooters existed before, it was the introduction of scopes that allowed them to shoot accurately at very long distances.
6. 0:40With a scoped rifle, a good marksman was able to acquire his target very easily.
7. 0:46He could kill an enemy that barely protruded his head over the trench parapet if he was fast enough.
8. 0:51With such horrifying capabilities, snipers became an object of fear for the soldiers in the trenches
9. 0:57especially because they fired from well-concealed positions.
10. 1:01Since the art of camouflaging was developing more and more as the war progressed, snipers became harder to detect.
11. 1:07For soldiers whose everyday life was weighted by the threat of snipers, it became a necessity to counter this danger.
12. 1:14With the awareness of the sniper threat widespread, soldiers paid a lot of attention not to expose themselves.
13. 1:21This forced snipers to act quickly and to use the shortest moment to fire at the enemy.
14. 1:26It was based on this hastiness that camouflage units designed their deception.
15. 1:31Their intention was to force the enemy sniper into making a flawed decision, and to draw out his fire, so his position could be located.
16. 1:39One of the most popular decoys of the war were paper mache heads.
17. 1:43Paper mache was a very popular material before the war and was used in making dolls and various components for amusement parks, carnivals and
18. 1:51expositions. It was very cheap,
19. 1:54but to make it, consisted of chopping down pieces of paper reinforced with any kind of bonding material whether it was glue or plain starch.
20. 2:02Besides the fact that it was cheap, it was also very good for modelling.
21. 2:07The job of making decoy heads out of paper mache was entrusted to camouflage units who were
22. 2:11working in their small improvised workshops on the frontlines.
23. 2:16Sculptors working in these workshops made a huge variety of decoy heads with great precision and resemblance to real human heads.
24. 2:24Special attention was given to shaping face details and colouring the face to look like real skin.
25. 2:29This push for realism was necessary because they were to be observed through scopes with magnifying lenses.
26. 2:36In order to increase the realistic look of the head, some of these were equipped with rubber
27. 2:40surgical tubes connected to the mouth with a cigarette in it by blowing air through the tube,
28. 2:45an impression of a soldier smoking a cigarette was made. This increased the possibility of attracting the attention of the sniper.
29. 2:52Paper-mache heads were usually stuck on a long stick in order to securely lift it over the parapet. If the deception was
30. 2:59successful and the dummy head was hit by a sniper, bullet holes were then used to locate the sniper with the help of a
31. 3:05triangulation method.
32. 3:07Or another method was to slide a periscope into the head and spot the sniper that way
33. 3:12Once the approximate location was established, the sniper's position was bombarded by artillery or counter snipers would focus on that area.
34. 3:20The technique of dummy heads was invented by the British, who at the beginning of the war had a lot of problems with German snipers.
35. 3:26This method was a result of their struggle to fight the hidden enemy.
36. 3:31The same method would also be used by other sides.