The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-16
DUMMY SOLDIERS
TO DECOY GERMANS
Long Lines of Them in ''Toy
Shop of Camouflage
Station in France
ARE
USED JUST AT DAWN
Are an Effective Means of Drawing the
Enemy Fire and Thus Locating Bat
teries-Imitation Tree Stumps Con-
tain Places for Shippers.

BEHIND AMERICAN LINES IN
FRANCE, Sept. 30 Correspondence of
the Associated Press Heads of dummy
soldiers made of papier mache and
mounted on long poles peer with staring
eyes over the tops of imitation parapets
in the American camoufage station here.
They are decoys for the German sniper
to shoot at and thus disclose his hiding
place.
Long lines of these dummy figures lean
against the walls of the ''toy shop" as
the soldiers call it, huge building where
companies and regiments of imitation
soldiers are manufactured. Soldier
heads, some bareheaded and others wear
ing helmets, are first modelled by sculp-
tors working in soft white clay. This is
repeated in papier- mache.
! A big oven bakes the PAPER mache
heads to the required hardness. Then
they pass to the artists, who put on the
natural tint of flesh, uniform and he'll
met. Finally they are mounted on stout
poles and are ready TO be held up as
deeoys along the trenches, to draw the
fire of the enemy. Very often an enemy
sniper win disclose his whereabouts by
taking shot at one of these papier-
mache soldiers peering over the trench
front.
Turning from the plaster decoys the
correspondents were suddenly confront
ed by whole regiment of soldiers armed
and in full field equipment, and thrown
out in open order as the men go forward
in the early morning raids. But instead
of being real soldiers, this was a regi-
Iment of ~silhouettes." Each figure was
life size painted on thin board, and cut
tout much a. children cut out paper dolls.
Some were kneeling and firing Others
were firing from the shoulder; and others
stood at rest They were fine looking
''men,' every one of them, and the work
of the best artists.
These silhouettes are one of our most
effective means of camoufiage, it was
explained. They are used in the early
, dawn when there is a mist which makes
it difficult TO detect the deception. Dur
ing the night they are posted in open
order far in front As daylight breaks
the enemy sees this array dimly out
! lined through the mist. 1t usually draws
the fire of machine guns and batteries
, AID gives in advance the main lines OF
, enemy resistance. With this disclosed
: the men leap forward and living figures
take the place of the painted silhouettes
Near the silhouettes. artists were turn
ing out number OF most artistic tree
stumps. The stumps looked very natu
raj, covered with moss, but each was !
handy box from which a sniper coult
/, work with his gun. One OF these hand,
boxes was inside pile of old tin cans
and in another, the observers looked
through an orifice of helmet which ha'
apparently fallen on the battlefield. Blu
the cans and the helmet were not real
all camoufage.
Q i very effective camouhage, used alon
the top of trenches is a simple box o
rough irregular shape, painted to re
! semble earth and covered with grave
and twigs. This is set upon the edge Q
g the trench and looks Just like the res
Il of the earth, but inside there is roor
: for the head and shoulder of a soldier
I who can look about as though head an
G shoulder was above the trench.