Curiosities 17 - An Entire Factory Camouflaged in War

João Henrique Barboza Jorgetto • Oct 07, 2023

Camouflage, inspired by nature, has always been used on the battlefield. Soldiers and weapons are hidden among landscapes, waiting for their time to take action. But there are also cases where deception was not used to hide something but to show it clearly, to deceive the opponent. A famous case is the American ghost army in World War II.

The American "ghost army" division operated for much of the war in the European theater of operations, deceiving the eager eyes of axis pilots. His strategy consisted of simulating the movements of troops, tanks and cannons so that the enemy could capture these false actions and direct their strategies, thus allowing the actual movement of soldiers in another direction. One of the most outstanding achievements of this team of twelve hundred soldiers was precisely to attract the enemy's attention with an immense movement of tanks, trucks, tents and inflatable planes to suggest that the allies were concentrating troops to attack the Callais region in France, at the contrary to the actual attack that took place on the beaches of Normandy, on D-Day.

Axis planes passed by and photographed the Allied ranks from above, believing they were facing an imminent invasion action. The day passed, and the soldiers moved the tanks again, always making it appear that a troop was seen from above preparing for the attack. These actions lasted until the war's end, always very close to the combat front.

But what about when you need to hide something immovable? And when this immovable something is a gigantic factory responsible for the main production of bombers for your Air Force? How to mislead?

This story fell into the hands of the American armed forces shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fears that the Japanese could hit targets on the American West Coast put the more than 150,000 square meters of the Boeing factory in Everett, Washington state, at risk. It was home to the mass production of the excellent B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, one of the most responsible for the success of the American Air Force in battles(and with a very high production cost, something around US$ 3 million per plane nowadays ). With the support of Hollywood set designers, Boeing created no less than an entire neighborhood on the factory roof. Houses, trees, cars, bicycles, all in perfect harmony in a typical city neighborhood, pulsing alive with the intense movement of employees and parts so that Boeing production would not stop. All are mainly made of cardboard and wood. People were wandering around there in the most complete simulation of normality. Boeing's more than 30,000 employees manufactured an average of 300 B-17 planes per month, a fantastic feat for the time. Check out some images from the time:

The Japanese never managed to attack targets on the American West Coast and the fake neighborhood lasted until two years after the war, when it was finally dismantled. The Boeing plant in the city also changed location in the 1960s, bringing the story of this mythical camouflaged factory to an end.