The Phantom Army of Alamein

Initially formed to hide British towns, factories and airfields from enemy bombers, the Camouflage Unit, led by Major Geoffrey Barkas, joined the war in the Western Desert in 1940. At Tobruk they used their skills to weave intricate webs of deception to deceive the enemy. In August 1942 the Unit was ordered to to hide the preparations for the Battle of Alamein. In six weeks two divisions, with armour, field guns and supporting vehicles, were conjured from the sand, while real tanks and lethal twenty-five pound field guns vanished from sight. Then, on the eve of the battle, the unit performed the biggest conjuring trick in military history, making 600 tanks disappear and reappear fifty miles away disguised as lorries. Rommel had been bamboozled by an army made of nothing but string and straw and bits of wood.