Rare WW2 British D-Day Deception ‘Rupert’ Decoy Paratrooper Dummy, mint condition example of the burlap sacking dummy with the silk parachute to the inside, brass eyelets and rope. Generally good example. These dummies were produced for the decoy operation, known as operation Titanic part of the larger operation for the deception of the allied landings, Operation Bodyguard. The allied forces dropped hundreds of these sacking dummies across parts of France on the 5th / 6th June 1944 to deceive the German’s to move their forces away from the actual invasion force on the Normandy drop zones. Although these dummies are much smaller than a human being, when at a height they did fool the German forces, they were packed with a incendiary which would ignite them when they hit the ground, in the hope to destroy the evidence of the decoy from the German forces. These dummies were given the nickname ‘Rupert’s’.