The Phantom Fleet


Printed:	1977	Author:	A. Cecil Hampshire
Publisher:	White Lion Publishers Ltd	ISBN:	7274 0263 3
Copyright:	Kimber 1960
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Publisher's blurb:
The story of a masterpiece of deception - the dummy warships whose movements baffled and deluded the Germans.
Cover notes:
For nearly two years during the Second World War, the Royal Navy used a "phantom fleet" - dummy warships, built up with wood and canvas, armed with wooden guns. Three of these were old merchant ships dressed up to resemble an aircraft-carrier and two famous battleships; the trio posed as a powerful striking force. In fact they could do little more than puff smoke at the enemy. The phantoms were used asbait for U-boats and they drew on to themselves the weight of enemy air attacks; they helped to keep the enemy guessing as to how our capital ships were disposed. The idea was thought up by Winston Churchill and was used with success in both world wars.
The officers and men who crewed the phantoms did not lack for courage - their ships were vast helpless sitting-ducks, and it was their duty to attract the attention of the enemy; they could not hit back for their guns fired nothing more lethal than black smoke.
The greatest of the phantoms was the ex-battleship Centurion. Over thirty years old, she was disarmed after the First World War and used as a target ship; in 1941, in full war-paint, she sailed from Devonport, brilliantly disguised as the brand-new battleship Anson, which had not yet been commissioned. Her armament was only a few machine guns, but she looked formidable enough. She sailed round the Cape unescorted and on to India - she had a bad moment on the way when one of her "gun turrets" was washed overboard. She took part in the most savagely attacked Malta convoy and was singled out for special attack by Stukas, but she not only kept afloat, she successfully kept up her impersonation.
In 1944 she went to her last resting place - as a blockship off the Normandy Beachhead. Here for the first time is told the full story of the dummy warships and their gallant crews - the men who faced the enemy from canvas warships and fought them with fireworks.
Personal remarks:
A very entertaining well-written book, a must for all naval buffs!