The Age Old Tradition of Deploying Fake Artillery
A clever trick as old as modern warfare itself
Few things are as scary as facing down well-entrenched artillery as an infantry squad. Artillery has the ability to decimate small groups of people with just a couple of rounds of ammunition. This has been the case since the invention of the cannon hundreds of years ago. The earliest cannons were inaccurate and designed to knock down Medieval stone walls but as warfare evolved, so too did artillery.
The presence of defensive artillery became such a psychological factor that shrewd commanders of undermanned units began deploying fake artillery to deter enemy movements and attacks. Ever since its inception, the plan has worked beautifully.
The first successful use of fake artillery occurred during the American Revolution when an American commander forced the surrender of an enemy force with a log painted to look like a canon.
But that was just the beginning of a trend that would persist until the modern era.
