WWII British Army Using Illusions to Clear Villages In Italy

Sounds pretty made-up to me.

What kind of illusion could possibly be more effective than a platoon of troops walking in and saying, "Get the fuck out,"? I mean, it sounds like a whole lot of effort with a questionable payout, when you could just forcibly eject people if that's your goal. Weeks or months researching local legends, more weeks to reproduce those legends and get the populace spooked, when 90% of the time it wouldn't work anyhow. Who's going to wander off into a war zone when you have a relatively safe home and a roof over your heads simply because someone claims they saw a werewolf in the moors? "I don't know about no werewolves, but I've seen a Nazi submachinegun, so I'll take my chances, thank-you-very-much!"

Never heard of it! As Drachen said, things were bit too harsh by the time the Allies got into Italy to be fannying about with that kind of thing.

And why would the Brits be clearing villages? According to my Grandad, who was there, they were treated like welcome guests by the Italians. In fact, one lady made my Grandad so welcome, he carried her photo in his wallet for the rest of his life.....

The man you're looking for is Jasper Maskylene. It was his program, i cant swear to the clearing entire villages with illusions but i have seen a program on the history channel about the subject. If that program is true they did use illusions to mess with the germans extensively. From cardboard tanks and airplanes to putting blinding lights in front so you cant see whats behind.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Maskelyne

http://www.magictricks.com/war-magician.html

I never heard of this specifically, but I was aware that fake tanks, etc. were used in some places. Make the enemy think there are three times as many attacking than there are, and the enemy will be readier to withdraw.

Oh! Oh well that's different. I thought the OP meant ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night.

There's been quite a few docs about the wooden tanks and what not but I'm not sure the idea really worked.

I would be very careful with the claims about Jasper Maskelyne's war record. He made most of them up. Although.... he would make a good basis for a character in a story, I suppose.

I suspect that Drachen Jager is right. What's going to strike people as scarier than an invading army, that would cause them to flee, instead of barricading themselves safely in their homes? After all, not many monsters can bomb a village to the ground from the air.

To add to his

"I don't know about no werewolves, but I've seen a Nazi submachinegun, so I'll take my chances, thank-you-very-much!"

Click to expand...

, I offer " The Nazis have just arrived. The werewolf has terrorized the village for years. Whether it kills the Nazis or they kill it, I say we light a candle for the victor after the blood dries."

I would think an illusion more likely to get villagers to leave their homes would be a large image of the Virgin Mary, pointing to the woods/hills/place of refuge, and saying 'Go in peace, you will be safe'.

It's the old fable of the sun and the wind, competing to get a man to take his coat off. Sometimes the gentler way wins.

The Allies never cleared civilians out of villages in Italy, so the story is false. They did get Italian soldiers to surrender by air dropping leaflets that were "Tickets to Surrender."

But. it's fantasy. Write what you need.

Jeff