Editing Operation Bertram (section)

== Execution ==

The operation had two aims: creating the appearance of army units where none existed and concealing the real armour, artillery and ''matériel'' at the front. Barkas observed that "the concealment of the huge assembly of the Armoured Corps was essentially a piece of military planning by Army Headquarters, with Camouflage carrying out certain specific tasks". Since it would be impossible to hide the existence of such a large number of vehicles, especially of tanks in the Martello area, Barkas planned instead to make the vehicles there quite obvious, as trucks, well before battle. The tanks, too, would be openly displayed, far behind the battle front. When the enemy saw that nothing seemed to be happening, the trucks would be replaced by tanks, [[camouflage#camouflage by mimesis|masquerading]] as trucks. That meant that the tanks, too, would have to be seen not to move so they would all be replaced with dummies. An unprecedented and "formidable" number of dummies were required: more than 400 tanks, 100 guns, and nearly 2,000 soft-skinned vehicles.{{sfn|Barkas|Barkas|1952|pp=202-208}}{{sfn|Crowdy|2008|pp=176–182}}

Different techniques were used for each task. The British Army had intentionally recruited [[List of camoufleurs|designers, architects and artists for camouflage work]].{{sfn|Stroud|2012|p=31}} Tony Ayrton was a painter, son of the architect [[Maxwell Ayrton]]. [[Brian Robb]] had arrived more informally: he joined the army as a private, but Barkas noticed him and made use of his skills as an artist, teacher and illustrator by having him speedily promoted to Staff Lieutenant. Ayrton and Robb became Barkas's "GSO2"s, his senior staff officers, and they supervised the camouflage schemes used in Operation Bertram.{{sfn|Barkas|Barkas|1952|pp=186-187, 212}}

Three companies of Pioneers were assigned to Barkas's command to carry out the physical work of making the thousands of dummies. They came respectively from [[East Africa]], [[Mauritius]] and the [[Seychelles]]. One company worked the standard bed frame palm hurdles into the required shapes and fixed them together to make tank bodies, turrets and other dummy vehicle elements. The second company prepared hessian covers for the vehicle elements. The third company painted and prepared the dummies to the required degree of realism. Since the different Pioneer companies did not like one another, Barkas moved their camps as far apart as possible. To help maintain security, a [[NAAFI]] canteen was set up exclusively for the camouflage workers, to help keep everyone in camp.{{sfn|Barkas|Barkas|1952|pp=210–211}}

=== "Sunshields" for tanks ===

[[File:Wavell's idea for Sunshield tank camouflage.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wavell's handwritten note and sketch proposing the Sunshield, 23 April 1941|alt=The original idea for the 'Sunshield', a handwritten note from General Wavell himself]]
[[File:WO201-2841 Middle East Command Camouflage Development and Training Centre, Helwan 'Sunshield'.jpg|thumb|'Sunshield' half open at the Camouflage Development and Training Centre, Helwan, 1941|alt=A tank with its 'Sunshield' camouflage half open in workshops near Cairo]]
[[File:IWM-E-18461-Crusader-camouflaged-19421026.jpg|thumb|A [[Crusader (tank)|Crusader]] tank in open desert, [[Mimicry|masquerading]] as a truck in its 'Sunshield']]

Real tanks were disguised as trucks, using light "Sunshield" canopies. They were made in two halves, which hinged on the sides of the tank. A half could be lifted by two men and fitted or removed in a few minutes.<ref name=Stroud80/> Different models of Sunshield existed to fit the various types of Allied tank which included [[Crusader (tank)|Crusaders]], [[Valentine (tank)|Valentines]], [[Grant (tank)|Grants]] and [[Sherman (tank)|Shermans]], mimicking different kinds of truck.<ref name=Lucas123/><ref name=Barkas202/><ref name=IWM/>{{sfn|The National Archives|2012}}

A total of 722 Sunshields were deployed in Bertram. According to Peter Forbes, "Sunshields were the most successful and the most exhilaratingly [[Mimicry|mimetic]] of the deceptions practised in the desert."<ref name=Forbes165>{{harvnb|Forbes|2009|pp=165–166}}</ref>

The idea for the Sunshield came from Commander-in-Chief Middle East, [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|General Wavell]] himself. He sketched a tank mimicking a truck in a handwritten note:<ref name=Forbes165/>

{{quote|Is it a wild idea that a tank could be camouflaged to look like a lorry from air by light canvas Screen over top (sketch) It <s>might</s> would be useful during approach march etc. Please have it considered. 23/4 Wavell|Archibald Wavell<ref name=Forbes165/>}}

The note was passed to Barkas, in his words "not long after my arrival in Middle East... The whole idea was there. It was only a matter of design, development, and arrangements for manufacture."<ref name=Barkas202/> The first heavy wooden prototype was made in 1941 by Jasper Maskelyne, who gave it the name Sunshield.<ref name=Stroud80>{{harvnb|Stroud|2012|pp=80-81}}</ref> 12 men were needed to lift it, and it disintegrated on its first trial run on a Crusader tank. However, Barkas had enough confidence in the Sunshield to ask for a lighter version. The Mark 2 Sunshield was made of canvas stretched over a light steel tube frame. It was strong, light, and cheap to manufacture. And crucially, from as low as 500 feet, RAF pilots found that the Mark 2 convincingly resembled a truck.<ref name=Stroud80/>

The 722 Sunshields were carefully pre-positioned in the Martello tank-holding area near El Imayid railway station. Each was numbered. The crew of each tank was brought to Martello, told their number, shown where they would be parked and taught how to put up and take down the Sunshield, which they would have to do at night.<ref name=Barkas202>{{harvnb|Barkas|Barkas|1952|pp=202–203}}</ref>

=== "Cannibals" for field guns{{Anchor|Cannibal}} ===

[[File:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H20971.jpg|thumb|left|The distinctive shape of a "[[Morris C8|Quad]]" tractor pulling a limber and 25 pounder gun|alt=Photograph of a complete 25 pounder gun, limber and 'Quad' tractor crossing a bridge (in the British Isles)]]

[[File:Brian Robb's sketch of 'Cannibal' disguise of 25-pounder gun, limber, quad as trucks.jpg|thumb|Sketch by artist and camouflage officer [[Brian Robb]] of the 'Cannibal' method of disguising guns|alt=Sketch by Eighth Army camoufleur Brian Robb of the 'Cannibal' method of disguising gun, limber and 'Quad' as 2 trucks]]

[[Field gun]]s and their [[Limbers and caissons|limbers]] were disguised as British "[[Bedford truck|3-tonner]]" trucks, under the direction of Tony Ayrton and Brian Robb. They arranged for the long towing pole of the limber to overlap the trail of the gun and then put up a dummy truck canopy over both. The real wheels of both the gun and the limber added to the realism of the dummy truck, as they remained visible under the canopy, exactly where the truck's wheels ought to be. The technique was named "Cannibal" because the gun and limber were "[[cannibalism|eaten up]]" by the canopy.<ref name=Barkas201>{{harvnb|Barkas|Barkas|1952|p=200–201}}</ref>

The extremely distinctive [[Morris C8|Morris C8 four wheel drive tractors]], known as "Quads" that pulled the [[Ordnance QF 25 pounder|25 pounder guns]] and their limbers also had to be disguised, as their presence directly advertised the presence of artillery. They were more simply camouflaged, again as trucks with real wheels, by draping a net over four poles tied to the sides of the vehicle and braced with guy ropes.<ref name=Barkas201/>

A total of 360 Cannibals were deployed in Bertram.<ref name=Forbes165/> The rear artillery concentration area and the forward artillery barrage area near [[El Alamein]] station were named Cannibal I and Cannibal II, respectively, after the camouflage technique. In Barkas's own words<ref name=Barkas201/>

{{quote|the great concentration of 25-pounders... seems to have been quite undetectable right up to the instant when its disguise was thrown off and the gunners opened fire.|Geoffrey Barkas<ref name=Barkas201/>}}

=== Real and dummy ''matériel'' ===

[[File:IWM-HU-59572 Dummy tank frame over Jeep 1942.jpg|thumb|A mobile dummy: frame of a dummy tank over a truck chassis at the Middle East School of Camouflage near Cairo, photo by Captain Gerald Leet, 1942|alt=photograph of a wheeled chassis fitted with the frame of a dummy tank]]

Petrol cans were stacked along the sides of existing revetted trenches near El Alamein railway station. It was found by experiment that when they were hidden in the shadows in that way, they were invisible from the air and so 2,000 tons of petrol were thus stored. Over 100,000 four-gallon petrol tins{{efn|An [[Gasoline#Density|imperial gallon of petrol]] weighs about 7 pounds. A British [[long ton]] is 2,240 pounds. 2,000 tons would be 640,000 gallons or 160,000 four-gallon cans, not counting the weight of containers}} were stacked in the 100 stone-faced slit trenches.{{sfn|Barkas|Barkas|1952|p=198}}

Food was stacked in piles of boxes, and draped with camouflage nets to resemble trucks: a large box-shaped pile for the truck's body, and smaller piles for the truck's cab and engine. That meant that attractive materials including sugar and cigarettes were dispersed around the desert instead of being in readily-guarded camps. The most desirable items were therefore put in the "trucks" in the middle of the areas and hidden in the middle of each stack, and army command accepted the risk of theft.{{sfn|Barkas|Barkas|1952|pp=198–200}}

While the real supplies in the north were carefully hidden, matching dummy supplies had to be created in the south. In the area named Brian after camouflage officer Brian Robb, over 700 dummy stacks, representing food, petrol, ammunition and other supplies, were constructed.<ref name="Barkas 1952 p206">{{harvnb|Barkas|Barkas|1952|p=206}}</ref>

Static dummy tanks and guns were made mainly of local materials including calico and palm-frond hurdles.<ref name=IWM>{{harvnb|Imperial War Museum|2012}}</ref><ref name="Stroud 2012 p200">{{harvnb|Stroud|2012|p=200}}</ref> Some dummy tanks were mobile, consisting of light frames placed over [[jeep]]s.<ref name=Lucas123/> A total of 500 dummy tanks and 150 dummy guns were constructed.<ref name=Forbes165/>

One night shortly before the battle, a powerful dust storm destroyed many of the dummy vehicles. Ayrton worked throughout that night and all the following day to restore the "film set" to an appearance of reality. The Axis command did not notice the breakdown of the illusion. The Royal Air Force had established air superiority by 18 October and completely excluded German reconnaissance aircraft from the Bertram area from then until battle commenced.{{sfn|Richardson|1985|p=117}}

=== Double bluff ===

On the edge of the Munassib Depression, Bertram risked a double bluff. From 15 October 1942, a week before the attack, Camouflage constructed three and a half dummy field regiments of artillery.{{efn|A field regiment of artillery had twenty-four guns when at full strength: three batteries, each of two troops of four guns. Barkas thus implies 84 dummy guns at Munassib{{cn|date=August 2022}} }} They were carefully made to appear seriously camouflaged, but day by day, they were maintained less and less well, to allow the enemy to decide it was facing dummy guns at Munassib. When the real battle had begun, the dummies were replaced at night with real artillery, which then kept utterly still for a day. An Axis tank attack on Munassib was shocked to find itself being fired on by the massed "dummy" guns.<ref name="Barkas 1952 p206"/><ref name="Stroud 2012 p200"/>

=== Final stages ===

[[File:WO201-2023 Operation Bertram dummy vehicles at Diamond dummy pipeline October 1942.jpg|thumb | 300px | Operation Bertram dummy vehicles and filling station at Diamond dummy water pipeline, October 1942|alt=Photograph of the 'Diamond' dummy water pipeline showing dummy vehicles and filling station]]

To achieve the deception, trucks were parked openly in the tank assembly area for some weeks. Real tanks were similarly parked openly, far behind the front. Two nights before the attack, the tanks replaced the trucks and were covered with "Sunshields" before dawn. The tanks were replaced that same night with dummies in their original positions so that the armour remained seemingly two or more days' journey behind the front line. To reinforce the impression that the attack was not ready, a dummy water pipeline was constructed in "Operation Diamond", at an apparent rate of 5 miles per day. Two of Barkas's camouflage officers, Phillip Cornish and Sidney Robinson, supervised the work. Some days' worth remained to be built at the time of the actual attack. The pipeline was supported by dummy pump-houses, overhead tanks and filling stations, complete with straw men. Real traffic was made to drive nearby to create tracks.{{sfn|Barkas|Barkas|1952|pp=204–205}}