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Source:http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/05/29/parade-of-the-rubber-army/
来源↗

Source: Der Spiegel Online, article “Aufmarsch der Gummiarmee” by Christoph Gunkel (20.4.2010)
真·来源：↗

原标题：Parade of the rubber army 

Originally sent to me and translated by Muff99 (EU server), thank you
由欧服的Muff99进行翻译并把它发给了我，谢谢你。 

Video: (English) http://www.spiegel.de/video/video-1061212.html
视频（英语）↗ 

After D-Day, a top-secret U.S. special unit went to war without any protection but inflatable tanks and trucks to lay traps for the Wehrmacht.
在诺曼底登录日后，一个被视为机密的美国特种部队在没有任何防护的情况下进入了战场，他们有的只有充气坦克和充气卡车，去给国防军下套。 

Even today this “ghost army” is still a mystery: Did they rescue tens of thousands of lives – or did they fool their own troops?
时至今日这个“幽灵之军”依然还是个谜团：他们到底是拯救了上万条生命—还是把自己人都耍了一遍？ 

The two French civilians could not believe their eyes. In September 1944, they were stopped by U.S. soldiers at the border to Luxembourg. The GIs asked suspiciously what they wanted here, but the French hardly listened. For what they saw behind the patrol, left them speechless:
两名法国群众无法相信他们的眼睛。在1944年的⑨月，他们在去卢森堡的边境上被美国军人拦了下来。 这群美国大兵用怀疑的态度询问他们要干什么，但是这两个法国人根本没往脑子里听。他们在巡逻队后方看到的东西让他们的下巴都掉到了地上。

Four U.S. soldiers walked towards a Sherman tank, bent down, lifted the tank effortless, turned it around and put it down again.
四名美国大兵走向一辆谢尔曼坦克，弯腰，毫不费力的把坦克扛了起来，转了个圈，放了下来。 

Those Americans had neither used magic portions nor superhuman powers – the tank did not weigh more than 40 kilograms, since the “iron beast” was entirely made of rubber. The french civilians had accidently caught a top secret U.S. unit at work – the “23 Headquarters Special Troops.” This unusual unit was internally called “The Ghost Army” or “The Rubber Army”, since almost everything was inflatable: Artillery, planes, tanks, jeeps, trucks. The “ghost army” was meant to fool the Germans in believing that their 1100 soldiers looked more 30,000. This was one of the almost completely hidden attempts to win battles without firing a single shot.
这些美国兵既没吃大力丸，也不是什么超人—这辆坦克的重量不超过40公斤，因为这个“钢铁巨兽”全部是用橡胶制成的。法国群众不小心看到了一个机密美国军方单位在干活—“第23司令部特种部队”。这个不寻常的单位一开始叫做“幽灵军队”或者“橡胶军队”，因为所有东西几乎都是充气的：火炮，飞机，坦克，吉普车，卡车。“幽灵军队”的作用是给德国人下套，让他们认为这个只有1100人的军队其实有30000人还多。这是美国人想要不战而屈人之兵的最隐蔽的尝试之一。 

Hours of tank inflating
在坦克充气的时候 

“Never, under any circumstances, should we lift a tank and carry it over the street”, says Jack Masey under a laughter. “That could have given us away.” The now 85-year veteran from New York was responsible for the maintenance of the rubber arsenal – knowing that this rule was ignored quite often. “For every maneuvers we had to let out the air, to pack everything into backpacks and inflate them again elsewhere.” Too laborious, too time-consuming – especially when there was no compressor available. Sometimes, as reported by Masey, the soldiers had to use bike pumps or use their lungs for hours to re-inflate the tanks.
“在任何情况下，千万不要扛着坦克招摇过市”，Jack Masey一边笑一边说。“这样会让我们暴露的”。这名从纽约来的已经85岁的老兵曾经是负责维护这个橡胶军团的—他知道那条规定其实经常被违反。“每次转移我们都要放气，把东西装进背包，然后在下一个地点充气。”太费事费力了—尤其是在那个没有空气压缩机的年代。有的时候正如Masey所说，士兵们需要用自行车打气筒或者用嘴，画上好几个小时来给坦克充气。 

What sounds like Hollywood was the way of World War II, which was also a battle of the intelligence services. Misleading messages, false trails and manipulated documents were used by all sides alike. In May 1940 the Germans successfully hid the fact that their focus of attack was on France – this way winning the campaign against France, breaking through the front near Sedan.
二战听上去很像好莱坞大片，但同时它也是一场智慧的较量。盟军和轴心国都在利用误导信息，错误的指示图，以及被篡改过的文件来迷惑对方。在1940年五月，德国人成功的隐藏了他们要重点对法国进行进攻的事实—他们通过这种办法来赢得了对法国的胜利，在赛丹附近的前线取得了突破。
译注：赛丹，或称色当，色当之战是第二次世界大战中导致法国沦陷的因素之一。德国军队在攻占色当之后继续北上，到达英吉利海峡。

The British in turn duped General Erwin Rommel in North Africa, being a master of feints himself. They disguised tanks as trucks and trucks as tanks or deceived the german aerial reconnaissance with decoys of airfields. Before the D-Day 1944 the British emulated whole nion-existing divisions by using extensive radio communications. This legendary “Operation Fortitude” was one of the reasons rwhy the Wehrmacht believed that the invasion would take place at Pas-de-Calais – and not in the Normandy. In war, truth need a “a bodyguard of lies” as Winston Churchill remarked proudly after this coup.
英国人随后在北非给“沙漠之狐”隆美尔摆了一道，隆美尔本人也是佯攻的大师。他们把坦克伪装成卡车，把卡车伪装成了坦克，或者以机场为诱饵使得德国空军侦察机上当。在诺曼底登录日之前，英国人通过使用大量的无线电交流来模仿一整个并不存在的师。这个传奇一般的“坚忍行动”使国防军相信盟军会在加莱海峡入侵，而不是诺曼底的原因之一。在战争中，真相总是需要“以谎言为掩护”— 温斯顿·丘吉尔将军在行动后如是说。
译注：丘吉尔此处所说的”A bodyguard of lies”有两层含义，其第一层为字面意义，指以谎言来掩盖真相。第二层则是指的是“Operation Bodyguard”，既“保镖行动”。上述的“坚忍行动”其实是“保镖行动”的一部分。“保镖行动”的作用在于使德国军方认为盟军将会从诺曼底之外的地方进行登陆。根据文章内容推测，文章叙述人Jack Maesy应该隶属于“保镖行动”的南部部分。

To date, however, its almost unknown to the public that the U.S. Army operated by such methods even months after D-Day. The “ghost army” was so secret that many veterans didnt want to talk about it for decades. Official U.S. documents were not released until the mid-nineties, and literature on the subject is rare.
时至今日，公众依然不知道美军当时采取过这样的办法。“幽灵军队”的存在过于隐秘，以至于许多老兵在很长时间内都不愿提起它。美国官方的文献直到90年代中期才得以发布，而关于这个话题的文学作品也是少之又少。 

Army of artists
艺术之军 

Fascinated by the incredible history of this forgotten tale, the Americans Rick Beyer is researching witnesses and documents for over two years now. He wants to make a documentary about this army, that fought by peaceful methods – and possibly saved the lives of 40,000 soldiers by deceiving the Wehrmacht and prevented them from attacking …. according to U.S. journalist Jack Kneecem, who published this estimates in his book “Ghost Army of World War II”.
美国人Rick Beyer由于被这段被遗忘的历史所吸引，他现在已经在搜索证人以及文献的路上走了两年多了。他想要给这个军队做一部纪录片，因为这是一只和平作战的军队—也许他们还通过欺骗国防军以及阻止他们的进攻拯救了四万名士兵的生命……这个数字是由美国记者Jack Kneecem在他的书中“Ghost Army of World War II”估测的。

Historian John Zimmermann of the Military History Research Institute in Potsdam has serious doubts with those: “The German war reports did not contain any indications that the Wehrmacht knew something of such an army or the ghost army had an impact on German war effort.” Was the camouflage a little too perfect? Were the maneuvers ultimately ineffective? This remains unknown: By the end of 1944, the germans were almost unable to fly aerial reconnaissance, argues Zimmermann. The use of dummies therefore really does not make much sense.
波茨坦的军队历史研究学院的历史学家John Zimmermann对此有着极大的怀疑：“德国的战争报告并没有包括或指出任何有关国防军对这个军队表示知情或者幽灵军队对德国战争有着影响的内容。”难道说他们的伪装成功过头了吗？ 他们的转移难道一点用也没有吗？这些都是未知数：Zimmermann表示在1944年年末，德国人很少还能够派出空中侦察机了。使用这些充气玩具真的就说不通了。

For Jack Masey this surreal army became reality quite quickly when the army called him in in 1943 shortly after the 18-year-old was admitted to the prestigious High School for Music and Art in New York. Now the military wanted to benefit from his creativity.
对于Jack Masey来说这个不存在的军队在军方把这名18岁的纽约艺术高中的学生找去谈话后很快就变成了现实。现在军方想要从他的创造力中获益。

The “ghost army” recruited sound engineers, illustrators, photographers, actors and other creative people. Some became famous later on, like the painter Ellsworth Kelly or fashion designer Bill Blass, who bcame friends with Masey in his unit, the “603D Engineer Camouflage Battalion”. Masey made good careeer after the war, too: He designed museums and coordinated the building of pavilions at the World Expo for the U.S. government.
“幽灵军队”招募了声效工程师，画家，摄影师，演员以及其他有创造力的人。这些人中的一部分日后出了名，栗如画家Ellsworth Kelly，或者时尚设计师Bill Blass，曾经和Masey在他们的单位中，“第603D工程伪装连”成为了好朋友。Masey在战后的仕途也很不错：他设计了一些博物馆，还帮助美国政府在世博会上建造了一个展览馆。 

Vulnerable to war
战争的弱点 

The United States started training their first artist warriors in a conventional way, then the recruits were sent to England. The British had experience with the use of false weapons of war and finalised their training. For weeks, the soldiers not only crawled through ditches or practiced assaults – but also created harmless dummies until they looked real by a distance of 100 meters.
美国开始对他们第一批的艺术战士进行了常规的训练，之后这些新兵被送到了英国。英国人对使用战争中虚假的武器有一些经验，于是终结了他们的训练。在几周时间内，这些士兵不仅需要爬过壕沟或者模拟突击—他们还需要创造一些无害的假人，直到这些假人在100米的距离上看的跟真的一样。 

A few weeks after D-Day, most of “ghost army” companies were shipped to France. “It was all pretty calm,” Masey reports on his arrival at the legendary Omaha Beach, where the Allies landed on June 6, 1944. “But I still was afraid. We were in the midst of war – using nothing more than inflatable weapons. And our task was to draw enemy fire on us.”
在诺曼底登陆后几周，“幽灵军队”的大部分人被运到了法国。“一开始挺平静的，”Masey在他到达传奇的奥马哈海岸后如是说。在1944年6月6日，盟军在该处进行了登陆。“但我还是很害怕。我们处于战争的中央—除了充气武器以外一无所有。我们的目标是吸引敌军火力。” 

For in their total of 21 operations,the “ghost army” followed the same procedure. They took the role of various divisions of the 12th U.S. Army, which really existed. In this way, scope for surprise attacks presented themselves. The false army units should keep German forces buy and distract from the true focus the maneuvers.
在总计21次的行动中，“幽灵军队”用的都是一套路子。他们伪装成了真实存在的美军第12军的不同师队。通过这种方法来找出他们自导自演的突击行为的机会。这只虚假的军队应该能让德国人忙活一阵，还能分散他们对于掩盖在充气坦克下的转移行动的注意力。

This was a dangerous undertaking: If they would have been uncovered, the pseudo-army would be defeated instantly. Although they had several trucks and sometimes even a real tank – which left track marks as visible as possible. But the soldiers were neither battle-tested nor equipped for war. “For our defense we only had our standard rifle,” says Jack Masey. “That was all.”
但是这么做是有危险的：如果他们被发现的话，这只假军队会瞬间被击败。尽管它们有几辆卡车，甚至一辆真实的坦克——让履带的痕迹看上去越逼真越好——还是不行。这些士兵既没有受过战斗的考验，也没有相应的装备。“我们的防守力量只有标配的步枪”，Jack Masey这么说，“再就没了。”

Too good a deception
过于良好的骗术 

The dummy army trusted their own smart weapons, which got applied at nightfall. Huge speakers roared noise, simulating a flurry of activity: Moving tanks, braking trucks, loud and many voices. Light and sound effects simulated artillery fire. Half-tracks left behind many tank tracks in the dust. Massive radio communications, often unencrypted, was used to simulate powerful divisions.
橡胶军队相信着他们的智慧武器，在夜幕时分得以应用。大喇叭开始播放噪音，模拟某种骚动或者行动：移动中的坦克，刹车的卡车，又响又复杂的声音。声效和光效用于模拟火炮的炮击。半履带车在灰尘中留下了许多坦克的履带痕迹。大量的无线电通讯，几乎都是未经加密的，用于模拟一个强大的师队。 

Its difficult to assess how well those operations worked out. At least sometimes the Germans fired repeatedly in the direction of speakers and dummies or reinforced their troops for defense. The deception worked so well that even U.S. units who did not know of a nearby “ghost army”, got confused. A U.S. Major asked soldiers where all his vital tanks were that he heard at night – and couldnt find at day.
很难判断这些行为的收效如何。至少有的时候德国人会对喇叭和假人的方向开火，或者加强了他们的守备力量。这种骗术如此之高明，甚至把自己人都摆了一道。一名美军少校询问他的下属，他在晚上听到的那些坦克都到哪去了—因为白天找不到。 

Jack Masey, however, did not unconditionally trust his own camouflage work. On one of his first missions near the coastal city of Brest, his company got fired at. But not nearly as strong as he would have expected. “It looked as if the Germans would have seen through everything, but did not take us seriously.”
Jack Masey并不是无条件的相信他的伪装工作的。在他在布雷斯特附近进行第一次任务时，他们受到了火力打击。但是并没有想象中那么猛烈。“看上去德国人好像能够看穿一切，但是就是不把我们当回事”

There was another reason why “Operation Brest” was not a success. The deception was indeed “outstanding,” as praised by an internal report later on. But “unfortunately” a unit of the “ghost army” made the Germans believe an attack was imminent at a place where shortly after the real divisions were attacking. The Americans lost nearly ten thousand men during the storming of the fortress.
“布雷斯特行动”未能成功还有另外一个原因。如同内部报告所说的，伪装本身确实很“出色”。但“不幸的是”，“幽灵军队”的一个单位让德国人相信攻击即将到来，而不久之后真正的军队就来开打了。美军在对要塞的突击中损失了大约一万人。 

Trick at the Rhine
莱茵河的戏法 

For Jack Masey, it was a bizarre, bloodless war. Overall, only two soldiers of the “ghost army” were killed by German attacks, confirms journalist Kneece. No unit lived safer, after all, a direct front line manouever was impossible. Therefore the GIs played a kind of professional theater most of the time. They tried to outwit potential Nazi collaborators and spies. They drove to the cities, talked to locals, went to bars, scattered rumors – always wearing the army badges for the division they tried to fake, changing the markings on their army jeeps accordingly.
对于Jack Masey来说，这是一场没有硝烟的战争。纵观全局，“幽灵军队”只有两人被德国人的攻击所杀害，记者kneece肯定道。但是总的来说，没有人能在战争中安稳的活下去，在前线进行直接转移是几乎不可能的事情。于是这些美国大兵一直在上演一出年度大戏。他们试图瞒骗那些纳粹分子和间谍，他们开车进城，与当地人聊天，去酒吧散布谣言—总是戴着他们试图伪装的师队的军队徽章，还需要为此对吉普车上的标记进行更换。 

They joked about living a constant identity crisis, pointing at the fake badges. For fun some of the artists designed their your own logo, which of course was never allowed to be used, featuring a ghost with lightning emerging from its hands. Below the mottot: “Lets pretend those that do not exist”
他们一直在对生活在身份危机中开玩笑，还指着自己的假臂章。为了娱乐，有些艺术家会设计他们自己的Logo，当然从来没允许被使用过。Logo上画的是个幽灵，手中迸发出一些闪电。Logo下面是他们的格言：“让我们成为不存在之人吧。” 

The biggest success was their final operation. Near Viersen, they used almost the entire arsenal of inflatable dummies at once in March of 1945. An army of 600 rubber tanks and artillery faked an assault across the river Rhine. Even roadworks sounds of pontoon bridges were imitated. In fact, the Rhine-attack happened on March 23 further north near Wesel. Perhaps the Allies encountered only little resistance because the “ghost army” had previously bound German units in the south.
他们最大的一次成功应该是他们最后一次任务。1945年5月，在菲尔森附近，他们几乎用掉了所有充气坦克。一个由600辆橡胶坦克和火炮组成的军队开始假装向莱茵河进行突击。他们甚至还模仿了浮桥的声音。事实上，真正的莱茵河突击发生在3月23日，在更北边的维塞尔附近。也许盟军只受到一点点抵抗的原因是“幽灵军队”把德国军队都困在了南边吧。