WWII Sizaire-Berwick Wind Wagon - photo

[desbromilow]

In thinking about my first post I may have struck upon its intended use the Navy used to use fog generators to mask their positions and movements. why couldn't this have been used as a dust cloud generator for land based operations to do much the same as the fog generators did? The problem with that analogy though is one vehicle would be useless it would require possibly 100 of more to hide a brigade sized unit and dust is 100 times more destructive and detrimental than the oily diesel laden artificially generated fog. So all in all I'd say there is probably a real good reason why only 1 was ever built it just wasn't practical as a reconnaissance vehicle it could not be relied on to traverse loose sand as in the dunes due to the narrow tires, even as a dust cloud generator it would better serve the enemy as a locator beacon than to camouflage a units movement it wouldn't be able to tow an artillery piece or even a trailer with supplies so what good was it.

- Or maybe use it in reverse - use one car to make enough dust to make the enemy believe 100 cars were in a particular location, and then have that one car as a diversion/ feinting force, and allow your main column of troops to engage from a unforeseen vector of attack.

[Frank S]

- Or maybe use it in reverse - use one car to make enough dust to make the enemy believe 100 cars were in a particular location, and then have that one car as a diversion/ feinting force, and allow your main column of troops to engage from a unforeseen vector of attack.

The desert Patrols of N Africa in WWII used similar tactics sending out Jeeps dragging long poles behind them with chains bolted to them to create a dust cloud as a diversion while a tank unit very slowly made its way across the desert into a firing position