Sham Paris

I read an article in the Telegraph about how the French Army had deceived the German Army by building a life-sized decoy city. During WW1 the faux City of Light was built towards the end of the war, in 1918. The whole purpose of this decoy was to draw the German pilots away from real Paris before radar was invented. When I first read about this article, to me it seemed really far-fetched. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how on earth the French army managed to create such an elaborate decoy. But you have to keep in mind the enemy; a German Gotha bomber, an open-top wooden and fabric biplane in which the crews clung on to, to aim and drop bombs by hand. 

The military planners had a grand and impeccable vision of how to deceive the German airmen; they went to such lengths of recreating one of Paris’ most iconic and famous quartiers and buildings. Along these landmarks included the iconic Arc de Triomphe, a wooden replica of the Opera house, Gare Du Nord and Champs-Elysees. The French wanted to make sure that this decoy would be as realistic as possible, otherwise it wouldn’t fool the Germans so they added translucent paint to mimic dry glass roofs of factories. But they also constructed life like industrial suburbs.

This fake city was built 15 miles outside of Paris along the River Seine, but unfortunately was never put to use. The German bombing raid ended before it was completed. Lucky enough, the real Paris was unscarred. But sadly the secret Paris was dismantled rapidly and built over and the only imprint that has been left behind is seen only in pages of forgotten archives.