ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

_____________________________________________

Remember the thread called THOSE AMAZING ADS IN THE BACK OF OUR COMIC BOOKS! and the ad for the cardboard tank?





Well, I found out today that America and England did something amazing during WWII to convince the Nazis that the Allies had even more tanks, trucks, and artillery pieces that looked extremely realistic.

To fool the Germans, they created hundreds of RUBBER tanks, trucks, and artillery pieces that were virtually indistinguishable from the real ones. Take a look at this video — one of several I found on YouTube.

THOSE AMAZING WWII DECOYS . . . MADE OF RUBBER!


___________

I'm sure that all the rubber that was used was recycled after that war. Or perhaps the deflated props just sat in a warehouse for years until the rubber deteriorated . . . . and then they were all discarded.

Unfortunately, the plan to use these fake vehicles in WWII was highly classified until the middle 1990s, so nobody even knew about these amazing rubber replicas until 50 years after the war!

However, if the military hadn't been so determined to keep the whole thing a secret, imagine what these rubberized vehicles and artillery pieces could have been used for!

Here's a few examples.
_____________________________________________

~ Hollywood would have paid big bucks for those realistic tanks, vehicles, and artillery pieces. These replications could have easily been taken to filming locations and then inflated, giving the scenes in the movies and TV series the appearance of being populated by military equipment.

~ On the other hand, imagine what these rubberized vehicles could do to jazz up parades! The video above shows a tank moving along the ground . . . propelled by the people carrying it from the inside.

So, what if a few of these vehicles were part of a parade — moving along slowly until it suddenly stops and lifts up on one side to disgorge a group of dancing gals in sexy versions of military uniforms, and they perform a snazzy routine to "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"!

The crowd would go wild!

~ And finally . . . imagine the comic book ads which offered kids these totally realistic rubber vehicles — for some ridiculously low price!

Any kid who got one of the tanks, for example, would be a little like that the lucky boy in the early 1950s when he won the Ralston Rocket in the contest which was held by the folks who sponsored Space Patrol.





Maybe I'm wrong, guys, but Army surplus items are sold for a dime a dozen. They're items which the governments just wants to get rid of — so I can't help wondering if an industrious individual could acquire all those rubberized war machines for a very low prices . . . and then sold them for a profit!

After all, back in the 1960s my buddies and I purchased several WWII bayonets which had been made for some European country.

I modified mine in my father's workshop, turning it into an ornate Greek "short sword" which I used when my friends and I pretended to be mythological heroes, fighting imaginary Harryhausen monsters.

BEFORE



after



So, imagine the devoted parents of countless monsterkids who could have purchased inflatable tanks, trucks, and artillery pieces for their beloved kids to play with in their back yards!

Any kid with a backyard filled with realistic inflatable tanks, trunks, and artillery pieces would have been the most popular guy on the block!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)