D0R • They have painted over the airfield, but the factory is still at the end of the built-up area when following the railway line. Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis. Looking down at night, a flyer might think he was over the center of Berlin. Before: Hiding a massive factory from the Japanese After: Shrubs and trees were planted on top of the camouflage netting Houses, fences, and pathways were all added. It was exceedingly realistic, and at night had dim, colored lights to represent signal boxes, signals, etc. Markdown Extra syntax via https://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/extra/. The army was not amused and had them take it down. Disney, Paramount, MGM, Universal, 20th Century Fox all came in to help and offered the services of their staff (painters, set designers, carpenters, landscape artists, prop men and lighting experts). I am a public-interest technologist, working at the intersection of security, technology, and people. Data Is a Toxic Asset, So Why Not Throw It Out? Lesser Whark • See http://www.historynet.com/japanese-bomb-the-continental-u-s-west-coast.htm. October 16, 2009 3:30 PM. John Moore • October 16, 2009 7:39 AM. Though the camouflage was removed after WWII, the factory remained in operation through the Cold War. Above, it could be mistaken for an idyllic residential area, so much so that it arguably looked a bit out of sync with its industrial surroundings. The military continue to use fake aircraft, but they need to be rather more sophisticated than during WW-II. The only targeting was via altimeter (and timer?). October 16, 2009 6:10 AM. The bombing radar was perfected against European cities which were made of brick and stone. Camouflage, in military science, the art and practice of concealment and visual deception in war. Seattle was one; they ordered the camouflage of their Boeing Aircraft complex (a whopping 26-acre site). October 16, 2009 4:41 AM. Camouflaged areas were tested, using aircraft which flew over these sites, and the outcome was positive – the pilots were not able to identify the areas that were camouflaged (factories, bases, and plants). With the US being so large and relatively sparsely populated you’d have thought it easier for them to go undetected – or perhaps the sparseness made it harder to go undetected. October 15, 2009 5:18 PM, US being so large and relatively sparsely populated. In February 1942 the United States Navy Monitors had been tracking a Japanese submarine lurking on the outskirts of San Francisco. During World War II, U.S. officials were worried that the Japanese would bomb Lockheed's aircraft factory in Burbank. The P-51 was capable with drop tanks of flying escort. I read about this in the paper books era for (as I recalled) the Boeing plant in WA. http://www.snopes.com/military/woodbomb.asp, Steven Hoober • The British responded by flying a mission – and dropping balsa wood bombs on it. Terrorists May Use Google Earth, But Fear Is No Reason to Ban It. Keeping up with this illusion took careful planning, as well as timing. The one attack from Japan on the U.S. mainland that resulted in casualties (6), was via hand-made paper balloons, carrying small bombs, that were released by the thousands into the jet stream to drift across the Pacific. A HIDDEN AIRPLANE FACTORY During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a Japanese air attack. During that war, deceptions on this scale sort went from being an amateur pantomime show run by enterprising local commanders to being a major military activity for the Allies, in that they became the responsibility of relatively senior officers with large budgets and staff and respectable command authority. • • • •

1. •

    I literally live right there and had no idea (I can identify the blurry spot that is probably my house in at least two of the photos). Unfortunately there’s some evidence that his great deceptions were… deceptive.