The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-04-17
PLASTE PAPER
 USEFUL IN WAR
Played Important Part in Deceiving Hun
 Snipers.

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 of plaste papier by the Camouflage Department for making up dummy heads, horses, tree stumps, big guns, etc. B
 "Plaste papier is really nothing more than wrapping paper dipped in plaste, which makes it plastic and pIiable while the artist is modelling with it, and very hard and rigid after it dries It was very light, being modelled as a hollow shell, and so could be carried about near the front line trenches easily.
 ''To make the substance even more easily handled, Lieut. A. E, Jensen has invented a superskill modelling device, which constE:S- 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 slishtes. the nodeIer's originality, On the same frame one can model the head of President Wilson, a portrait Of himself, the bust of Venus de Milo, or any other subject
 "A common use of the plaste pa pier was the modelling of the 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 eff fectve1y to draw snipers' fire Our men would hold these dummies up over the parapet of the trench, and the Hun sniper, thinking it real man, would fire The head would then be pulled down and examined; Lv 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 To- cation discovered
 "Plaste papier was used also for making observation posts, in whicf the observer could sit and watch the enemy's movements One of the cleverest of these devices was the duplication of some object lying neal the enemy trenches in the plaste pa pier. A dead horse lying in No Mans Land was carefully duplicated in hol low p1aste papier and properly paint ed
 "One dark n1gat the deSto morse was dragged in and the paper hors' put in it's place The Germans nevel noticed the difference, and one of ou! observers crawled into the pape horse before dawn each day, observe the movements of the enemy all day day after day, and returned to ou trenches as soon as darkness woult cover him, with much valuable infor nation Tree stumps, of which al but five feet or so had been destroyet by artillery, were often initiated il paper and furnished ideal observation posts for our men.
 Great guns were initiated in thi material and placed in the vicinity O real guns that were carefully con cealed. through camouflage. Tn Roche observers sent out to discove the location of the real batteries tha were doing the havoc to the enemy would discover the paper guns only and so the enemy artillery woul train their fire on the dummy bat teries and allow the real guns to con time their fire without being molest ed. The real guns were concealed b having their outlines painted out b means of broken forms of variou colors painted all over them, and als by covering them with foliage"