Scheinanlagen

Scheinanlagen is the German name for "dummy installation".

As early as July 1940, General Hugo Sperrle (Commander of Luftgau III) ordered the construction of dummy installations throughout his command.



General (soon to be Field Marshal) Sperrle directed the construction of Scheinanlagen, "without consideration to personnel, materials or capital expenditure"

Details of other Air Districts are limited but, before the end of August 1940, Air District VII had nine codenamed dummy installations.

Venezuela............Hardtwald, north of Karlsruhe
Columbia.............Söllingen
Brazil...................Stuttgart/Lauffen
Peru....................Stein am Kocher
Argentina............Stadt Augsburg
Bolivia.................Augsburg Messerschmitt factory
Costa Rica..........Schwabisch Hall dummy airfield
Panama..............Karlsruhe (south)
Guatemala.........Göppingen



At 'Venezuela' the distinctive fan layout of Karlsruhe was cut into the forest and, for 'Columbia', the nearby Baggersee was made to appear as Karlsruhe's Rhine port

The Luftwaffe originally went to great lengths to deceive the RAF that these were actual targets.
There were replica buildings, factory facilities, railway stations and tramlines including devices which produced electrical sparks.
Flak batteries and searchlights were placed around these installations and the not too enthusiastic use of these together with some 'sloppy blackout lighting' drew the attention of the approaching RAF bombers.

Later in the war there was less emphasis on dummy buildings and more effort was placed on creating fires and lighting false target indicators to attract the British bomber.

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, there are no images of Scheinanlagen as they appeared in WW2.