32 Comments

One of my favourite examples of wartime deception is Operation Mincemeat, when Britain used a floating corpse with fake papers to convince German Intelligence that they were about to attack Greece when in fact they were going for Sicily. It's brilliantly described in the book "Operation Mincemeat" by Ben MacIntyre (and also in the movie with Colin Firth).

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Very good example! I love this one.

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If we stretch the definition of 'battlefield', I think the use of click-farming and bots on the internet fits the theme. It's a lot like the Ghost Army - making the audience of a post/video appear much larger than the reality. Although, in the case of the internet, it's designed to attract real people through false confidence, rather than deter them.

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Man, that's a really good one!

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I'm now wondering how they transported the terra cotta warriors all the way to Virginia without breaking them. I can't even get a book to arrive from the UK without it getting all bendy, if it arrives at all.

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VERY carefully is my guess.

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"It's a'right, Ernie. We'll just go to Hobby Lobby and get some clay and make another one. No one'll notice."

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All those unique noses and whatnot? Now we REALLY know why!

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Mystery solved. Now we can move on to how they moved the giant heads around on Easter Island.

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Oh, those? that's all an illusion created by super-advanced aliens. but I'm not supposed to talk about that.

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👽👽👽

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While Quaker Guns is an ironic term, and no doubt meant that way, the evolution of their (and society's) understanding of guns and violence is fascinating. See Priya Satia's Empire of Guns, which chronicles a large Quaker arms concern in 18th- century Birmingham, the changing understanding of guns and violence that came with the French Revolution, and what that contributed both to empire and banking.

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I've seen videos of the 1944 ghost army and it was so interesting to see them picking up tanks and cars and learning about what was really going on.

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The Germans probably felt like they were the stars of a surreal episode of Jackass or Candid Camera!

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What good memories you've brought back! The Terracotta Army is incredible! As a child I was fascinated by a story my father told me. He explained that building the huge palace and the army that defended it took the work of over 700,000 men for 40 years.

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Mind boggling, to say the least.

It was really something else to see these dudes up close! I do wish I had taken some pics back then.

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Well, a little trip to China for some pics might be worth it ;-)

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It's just a hop, skip, and jump away!

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:-P

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During the Battle of Cannae in 2BC, the Numidian cavalry under the command of King Syphax switched sides, abandoning the Roman forces and joining Hannibal's Carthaginian army. This is betrayal of the highest level. But then in a war, permanent interests determine military alliances.

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That's definitely one type of subterfuge!

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The odd association of Quakers with guns continued in the 20th century with advertisements for the Quaker cereal company's Puffed Wheat cereal- which, because of the means of its creation, was called "The Cereal Shot From Guns".

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That's such a random connection! Love it.

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Very interesting commentary on historical incidents that I don't think most people are aware. Using the Terracotta Army as a way to get into the subject of military deception was a nice touch.

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Thanks, Bill! I realized I had a lot of ground to cover, and I realized the things I wanted to talk about were connected, but not explicitly. I needed to be kinda careful, in other words.

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deception is half the battle. dropping fake paratroopers to deplete flak gun ammo is a good example, too,

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Good one!

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Imagine being so badass that you get to roll with an army of bodyguards even in the afterlife. VIP treatment.

Not to be nitpicky, but why are Allied soliders in the image inflating a tank with German symbols? Are they trying to convince the Germans that they're already there and therefore don't need to send more troops to that location?

My favorite example of treachery on the battlefield is shooting an AFK friend during a Battlefield free-for-all match. I don't have friends anymore for some reason.

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I think Dall-E was playing 4D chess with us this morning by inserting German symbols! OTOH, maybe there's something about history that image generators know that we don't.

I played paintball once. Is that kinda like Battlefield?

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It's nothing at all like Battlefield because your stupid friends don't even get to leave the computer and let you snipe them in the head while they're immobile at the spawn point. Stupid rigged paintball.

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Imagine being so terrified that you have to have a whole army of bodyguards to protect you from whatever karmic retribution is waiting for you in the afterlife.

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Apr 8
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Tell me more. Is this original music you're making that incorporates those old tapes, or are you listening to them a la carte since they're super duper macabre?

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