"I honest to God didn't think they would believe it. But they did. Those Japs actually thought our P-39s were B25s! I never even thought for a second anyone would, or could, be THAT stupid!" I'm over here! Well, maybe...... Follow the ghost, if you can ©
Delta6
Army P-39 captain after tricking the IJN into attacking his squadron.
Deception is a part of war, we all know that. The question is, how far do you want to take it? Do you want to feint them, thinking you're a hundred miles from where you really are? Or would you prefer to sneak in near an enemy field, then decimate it with B-24s from above? You can have a LOT of fun with this, since they get mad and you get a good laugh. Tricking the enemy is fun, I've done it. I never thought someone would fall for a simple trick like saying "I'm over here, near F4" when in all reality I was close to landing at F12. You're right; they fell for it.
I know of quite a few tricks I just love to play on people. There's the old fighters- playing- bombers trick. All you need is a group of fighters and stack them up in standard bomber formation. When the enemy takes a look at their radar guess what they'll spot. Bombers! Nope, it's just you in a fighter group looking for trouble to come to you. That's the fun of it. The enemy swears they see a bomber group approaching them, but you know where they launch from so you know where trouble is coming from.
All you have to do is sit and wait. If your fuel holds out, you can sit there nailing fighter after fighter until the word gets out that the "bomber" formation is just a horde of fighters. Another favorite trick I love to pull is to get a plane built for speed to fly between a friendly and enemy field. Then, over a radio channel everyone can read, fake a damaged aircraft that needs help. In all reality it's a normal Fw-190D9 or P-47D that's playing possum. The enemy comes looking for an easy kill, instead they get a whole squadron of your aircraft diving in on them.
Since you can't remove the enemy fuel supply, you'll just have to limit how far they can go which is why you attack their farthest field. Pick the enemy field farthest from enemy lines and hit it with everything. B-25 Hotels, rocket weilding P-47Ds, bomb toting P-51Bs anything and everything you've got. Just level the place. Where's the deception? It's not at the field you're looking to attack. It's a thousand miles away. This is part of a three-phase plan to really throw 'em off.
Use the fighter group feint and fly, nice and level, to a phony target. We'll call this one A14. You're flying over there to get their attention and make them think you're on the warpath. Otherwise known as Phase One. On the other side of the map and behind enemy lines, your B-17s are leveling several fields the enemy bombers can lift off from. Restricting their range and bombloads so they can't get in the way of Phase Three. Your fighters, meanwhile, are blasting every fuel bunker they can find on enemy fields close to your target. No gas available means very limited range, especially for gas-guzzling fighter engines. That's Phase Two, and here's Phase Three. While the enemy looks in ten different directions for where you'll strike next, you send a small force in to capture the field closest to their HQ. Send this in as a complete strike package: ten fighters for cover, five bombers, and three Goons. All at the same altitude, all at the same airspeed.
Here's one of the best tricks I've ever used. The ghost aircraft trick, and all you need is a single plane. First, you send out some recon aircraft to scout a few fields. Pick the one that's the most heavily defended and send an aircraft right over their heads. This gets their attention; they know you've got recon aircraft out roaming around. Now that you've told them recon aircraft are snooping around their fields, they will try to find them. Here's where the trick comes in.
Tell every recon pilot to pop-up so the enemy can spot them on radar, but only for a moment. When the enemy spots this mess of enemy planes in their territory they will try to kill them. Provided they can find them. Once your recon planes go NOE again, have them fly back to base. Enemy aircraft will be roaming all over the place for your aircraft, but since you told them go fly home NOE they won't get spotted.
Now you really have the enemy where you want them. They are hunting for ghosts, which expends pilots and aircraft to track them down. Plus any enemy planes that can respond can't stick around long; all that hunting burned up their fuel. You could have them exicute their pop-up right near enemy fields, which would really get their attention and most likely create havoc. They are trying to stop you from taking one of their fields, but you just exploited a pilot's natural desire for a kill. Most enemy pilots that are up will start hunting for these ghost aircraft.
Now is when you strike your target of choice. Enemy fighters are all over the country attempting to track down your recon aircraft. Which means they are spread out, unorganized and completely out of position. Again, only strike a field with few aircraft near it. Fewer casualties for you and more damage done to the enemy. About the only thing you've got to worry about is the enemy not taking the bait.
If the enemy doesn't fall for it, you're finished. You will have accurate intelligence on what the enemy is doing, but you can't strike if the enemy pilots don't take the bait. You might try and see if you can find a group of pilots that will take the bait. Granted it isn't much if only 5 or 6 fighters come after your recon planes, but you might take them out with a fighter strike. When those 5 or 6 enemy planes spot that little recon plane, have your fighters above them. All it takes is a simple call from that recon pilot: "HELP!!". And guess what, every one of those friendly fighters comes screaming down to deal out death.