The Catholic bulletin., 1920-11-20
THE CHILDREN'S HOUR,
WAR USES OF PLAsTE PAPER.

Since the close Of the war, we are
learning Of many new and ingenious
devices that were used and were zeal
ously guarded as secrets" says an
article in Boys Life, the Boy Scout
Magazine, for March. "One of the
most interesting of these was the use
oil plaste papier by the Camouf1age De-
partment for making up dummy
heads, horses, tree stumps, big guns,
etc.
'Plaste papier is really nothing
more than wrapping paper dipped in
plaste, which makes it plastic and
pliable while the artist is modelling
with it, and very hard and rigid after
it dries. 1t was very light, being mod
eled as hollow shell, and SO could be
carried about near the front line
trenches easily.
ITO make this substance even more
easily handled, Lieut.. A. 3. Jensen
has invented a superskill modelling de-
vice, which consists of aluminium
strips which describe the important
lines of the head, neck and shoulders
of a man and woman. This device
enables anyone to secure the correct
lines and proportions of the head,
without interfering in the slightest
with the modeler's originality. On the
same frame one can model the head
Of President Wilson, a portrait of him
self, the bust of Venus de Milo, Or
any other subject.
"A common use of the plaste papier
was the modelling Of dummy heads,
painted up SO that 20 yards away one
could not distinguish them from real
heads. They were used in the front
line trenches very effectively to draw
snipers' fire. Our men would hold
these dummies up over the parapet of
the trench, and the Hun sniper, think
ing it a real man, would fire. The head
would then be pulled down and ex-
amned; by observing just where the
bullet entered the head and where it
passed out, the angle from which the
sniper fired could be determined and
his location discovered.
"Plaste papier was used also for
making observation posts, in which
the observer could sit and watch the
enemy's movements. One of the clev.
crest Of these devices was the dup
lication OF some object lying near the
enemy trenches in the plaste papier
A dead horse lying in No Mans Land
was carefully duplicated in hollow
plaste papier and properly painted.
''One dark night the dead horse was
dragged in and the paper horse put in
it's place. The Germans never motto.
ed the difference, and one of our OBJ
servers crawled into the paper horse
before dawn each day, observed the
| movements of the enemy all day, day
| after day, and returned to our trenches
as soon as darkness would cover him
with much valuable information. Tree
| stumps, of which all but about five
| feet or so had been destroyed by ar
| tillery, were often initiated in paper
and furnished ideal observation posts
| for our men.
'Great guns were initiated in this
material and placed in the vicinity OF
real guns that were carefully con
| cealed through camoufiage. The enemy
| observers sent out to discover the 10.
cation of the real batteries that were
| doing the havoc to the enemy, would
discover the paper guns only, and sc
the enemy artillery would train their
fire on the dummy batteries and allow
the real guns to continue their fire
without being molested. The real guns
were concealed by having their out
lines painted out by means of broken
forms of various colors painted all
over them, and also by covering them
with foliage"