Device, Camouflage, No. 15 - a.k.a. Rupert / Paragon

The ‘Device, Camouflage, No. 15’ was a simple dummy paratrooper figure, complete with chute, that was developed during WW2. It is far better known by its unofficial nicknames – the Rupert or Paragon (Para Gone) – and was most famously used as part of OPERATION TITANIC on the night of 5th/6th June 1944.

The Rupert was about 36 inches in length and was fabricated from hessian sackcloth stuffed with sand, straw or wood shavings to represent a human figure. No.15s were equipped with an explosive charge that burned away the cloth after landing to prevent the immediate discovery of their true nature. Some were also fitted with a BATSIM device known as a Pintail that simulated small arms fire upon landing.

The No.15 was first manufactured by the Interstate Manufacturing Company (IMC) of Massachusetts to a UK specification. But producing a new item of kit and bringing it safely into service were two separate things, requiring support from the innovators of Airborne Forces.

Falling With Style

The Central Landing School was set up at RAF Ringway near Manchester in June 1940. A Technical Unit was part of the original establishment and researched and developed the use of gliders, rotary wing aircraft and the dropping of personnel and equipment by parachute. This included undertaking loading trials to determine safe and efficient methods of stowing military stores and equipment within different aircraft types.

The Technical Unit went through several reorganisations and relocations and moved from Ringway to Sherburn-in-Elmet in Yorkshire and then to Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. By 1943 it had become the Army Air Transport Training and Development Centre (AATDC). The AATDC and its predecessors investigated loading techniques for the Horsa, Hamilcar and Hadrian gliders and later extended their scope to include other aircraft such as the Dakota.

A large amount of work was also done on the packing and dropping of stores and equipment specifically needed to support Airborne Forces as well as resistance movements in occupied Europe and the Far East. This must have included TTPs for carriage and delivery of the ‘Device, Camouflage, No. 15’ on operations, since I was lucky enough to find an AATDC training manual for No.15s on the Air Assault Museum website.

From looking at the document, it seems that the AATDC was allowed to innovate and improvise in order to achieve its mission. Until now I had understood that all Rupert drops from modified RAF bombers were made through the Joe hole in the floor of the aircraft. However, the AATDC images below also show a clever re-purposing of the RAF’s existing Small Bomb Container or SBC, which were used by the HP Halifax bombers of 138 SD Sqn and 161 SD Sqn flying from RAF Tempsford.

Small Rupert Container

The SBC was originally designed to facilitate the safe loading, carriage and delivery of many small incendiary devices in RAF bombers. When the bomb aimer pushed the bomb release button, the bottom of the SBC would open and the incendiaries would drop away. Intentionally light in construction and with relatively complex electrical and mechanical fittings, the SBC apparently needed careful handling and storage. A complete SBC could also be jettisoned in one go in an emergency, such as the premature ignition of the incendiaries on board.

Personnel at the AATDC obviously realised the SBC could be put to a new use in support of Special Duties. It’s worth remembering that the consequence of prematurely triggering a Pintail BATSIM inside an aircraft could be catastrophic so the logic of developing the SBC for use with Ruperts was probably one of flight safety as well as practicality.

Rupert Decoys - Costs and Benefits

No.15s were used several times on operations during WW2 but OP TITANIC is their most famous run-out. As well as Rupert decoys, there were also two small parties of SAS parachuted into Occupied France on the night of 5/6 June 1944. They were dropped to reinforce the intended deception with ambushes and by playing sounds of battle on portable record players, in order to divert German troops away from the real Allied drop zones. It is fair to say that the SAS missions did not go as planned. Two Shorts Stirling aircraft from 146 Sqn RAF were also lost to enemy fire while dropping dummy parachutists for TITANIC III.

At the time there was considerable scepticism from within the SAS as to the utility of the TITANIC mission and it was not easy to show a specific measure of effect on the Germans amongst the chaos of the Normandy lodgement. However, the Allies later discovered that at c. 04:30 on 6th June 1944 Field Marshall von Rundstedt himself ordered half of the 12th SS Panzer Division to contain the parachutists to the north of Lisieux – in other words the Titanic fakes caused the Enemy to dissipate one of his strongest armoured formations in Normandy on a wild goose chase.

 

Thanks FP. I will add this info to the excellent detail you gave on the subject back in January on the LRPG/Indian Archives thread.

 

No problem - here to share the knowledge.

As an aside, I went to see ‘Pressure’ at the cinema last weekend. Among the things that were ‘off’ was a brief mention of using Ruperts - great, someone watched ‘The Longest Day’ - but actually using a US Oscar decoy on screen instead. In fact, watching this film you would think only Muricans had landed on the beaches or descended from the skies. For some bizarre reason, the script writers couldn’t even bring themselves to mention GOLD, SWORD or JUNO. “The other beaches” was the best they could do. Most odd. Oh, and the inflatable Shermans…

 

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The Technical Unit went through several reorganisations and relocations and moved from Ringway to Sherburn-in-Elmet in Yorkshire and then to Amesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. By 1943 it had become the Army Air Transport Training and Development Centre (AATDC). The AATDC and its predecessors investigated loading techniques for the Horsa, Hamilcar and Hadrian gliders and later extended their scope to include other aircraft such as the Dakota.

Just a small correction. When CLE split the part that went to Sherburn-in-Elmet became the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE), staying there until moving to RAF Beaulieu in late 44. The AFEE would be absorbed into the A&AEE at Boscombe Down in 1950 becoming that establishments Aerial Delivery and Helicopter Section..
The AATDC emerged out of the Airborne Forces Development Centre (AFDC) which formed at Amesbury Abbey in May 43 only becoming the AATDC in late 44. The unit that was the AATDC exists today as the Joint Air Delivery Test and Evaluation Unit (JADTEU) at RAF Brize Norton.
The AFEE Report P23 (AVIA 21/62 in the National Archive) was issued in March 1942 and covers the development and trials of the parachute dummies during 1941, starting with stuffed full sized overalls before the realisation that size didn't matter.

 

Much appreciated. Thank you also for the file ref to the dev / trials rabbit hole down which I will now fall….