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Galveston Island still has some WWI or WWII beach and artillery bunkers if you know where to look. Who did they think was going to invade Galveston Island?

They had multiple fake anti air encampments around the country during WW2. They'd guard and man them as normal so they would appear used; you'd have armed soldiers guarding cardboard guns.

However if the enemy thought it was real then that's a whole area they won't pass through with their aircraft. For the cost of a few men in uniform and some cardboard you might protect a town or factory from bombing runs.


If you can deceive your enemy you can win before you'd have to commit any actual forces. I forget its name but there was one RTS PC game that did this in having dedicated deception options to throw at the opponent to confuse them.

Oh, and ‘carrots are good for your eyes’?

A complete lie, invented to stop Germany discovering it was actually Radar allowing the RAF to detect sorties.

Far as I’m aware, that naughty fib was actually believed!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Oh, and ‘carrots are good for your eyes’?

A complete lie, invented to stop Germany discovering it was actually Radar allowing the RAF to detect sorties.

Far as I’m aware, that naughty fib was actually believed!

That naughty fib is still going around to this day.

Amazingly, I'm sure there are scientific studies in nutrition that have been performed in recent decades that amazingly confirmed it (in a roundabout way) until fairly recently it was absolutely debunked.

It likely perpetuates easily because ultimately carrots are not bad for you and are generally good for you. So its encouraging good eating habits, if for the wrong reasons. So it takes ages to filter out of the system because there's no powerful backlash.

Yea I thought that carrot story was apocryphal, the Germans knew about our radar system and even had one of their own called Freya so seems unlikely they would have believed the carrot story.

However I do kinda hope it is true, it makes a nice story that we tricked Mr Hitler with a good ol'fashioned British wheeze!

Flame throwers on the beach,,, here in the uk that was a thing during ww2 due to the fear of invasion by Germany. Not sure if there’s evidence of the fuel rigs at some sites still.
There is the pipe line that was put down to supply the forces on D-Day from here to Normandy but that’s off topic.

Simple defense against invasion?




Nuclear weapons

 Easy E wrote:
Simple defense against invasion?




Nuclear weapons

Well that's got to be the first time someone considers nuclear technology and rocket science to be simple

 Overread wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Simple defense against invasion?




Nuclear weapons

Well that's got to be the first time someone considers nuclear technology and rocket science to be simple

Simple..... in theory at least.....

Seems to work 100% of the time so far.....

Surprised no one's really mentioned one of the more common defenses against invasion: scorched earth. Whatever resources your retreating forces can't eat or use are simply destroyed. The Russians did this to great effect when Napoleon invaded.

Scorched earth policy is fine if you have somewhere to fall back/ retreat to. Imagine doing that in ww2 on the south coast of the uk, i mean we could of ended up taking drastic measures and having to live in some barren place like hmm Scotland. Lol.

 xKillGorex wrote:
Scorched earth policy is fine if you have somewhere to fall back/ retreat to. Imagine doing that in ww2 on the south coast of the uk, i mean we could of ended up taking drastic measures and having to live in some barren place like hmm Scotland. Lol.

Yeah. It only really works in Russia because there's a lot of Russia. You could fit another Austria between the Polish/Russian border and Moscow.

Lets not also forget that it works in Russia under Soviet rule because not only is there a lot of Russia, but Soviet Russia doesn't really care if the peasants don't have enough food at the end of the scorched earth tactics. Or homes, or jobs or towns or anything.


Scorched Earth is a very valid tactic, but for it to work long term its only going to be valid when you've got an opposing force that is making a very single attack into your nation through a narrow band (comparable to your nation). At that point you can focus your resource denial whilst leaving the rest of the country functional.

If its a broad invasion sweeping across large areas then, whilst it can also work, you also run the risk that you deny the invaders one year; but you cripple your own food and survival for the following year.

Yeah I dont really see scorched earth as a defensive strategy..its more an area denial thing once youve finished your conquest of an area. at best a tactic to protect your rear flank.

If my memory serves me, William the Conqueror used the scorched earth policy after his conquest over the English by burning a lot of the farmland around York to deny the populace of food production.
His way of keeping the English under his so called control plus making them rely on the Norman occupation to provide food and resources.

 Overread wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Simple defense against invasion?




Nuclear weapons

Well that's got to be the first time someone considers nuclear technology and rocket science to be simple

You don't need a rocket delivery system for defense. A car or motorboat will do. Nowadays even a megaton warhead will fit comfortably in the trunk of a car.

Then all you need is a volunteer to deliver it, either with a timer or a manual detonator.

Having said that... yeah, making a nuke isn't as groundbreakingly difficult as it was in 1944. But it's not even as simple as rocket science even today. But if you HAVE the nukes, they become the best defense there is, because no one wants to assemble an overwhelming invasion force within range of those nukes for the obvious reason.

 xKillGorex wrote:
If my memory serves me, William the Conqueror used the scorched earth policy after his conquest over the English by burning a lot of the farmland around York to deny the populace of food production.
His way of keeping the English under his so called control plus making them rely on the Norman occupation to provide food and resources.

Yup. he paid the vikings to go home, then starved the remaining rebels out, although accounts describing the scale of the devastation caused may be somewhat exaggerated.

As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Russia's Perimeter defense, because we can't have a mineshaft gap!

This thread made me chuckle, thinking if Dad’s Army episodes.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Hell, the 20-odd miles of English Channel have worked pretty damn well for us. A good old ditch or moat is incredibly effective against pretty much everything.

Ignoring a bit off Investment there pals.

Just a bit though.

 Jadenim wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Hell, the 20-odd miles of English Channel have worked pretty damn well for us. A good old ditch or moat is incredibly effective against pretty much everything.

And you can even pump gallons upon gallons of filth and waste into it, just like a real moat (seriously from what I've read some moats - like the one around London Castle - stank like crazy when they were siphoned off a main riverway of water because it wouldn't always flow enough to carry it all away - esp a tidal one like the Thames)

Moats were also about focussing the enemy onto a single area, so even sparsely populated defenders could hold the gatehouse.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Shame about the 2 massive land borders you do have though, best hope the Mexicans and Canadians dont decide to invade!

 Jadenim wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Hell, the 20-odd miles of English Channel have worked pretty damn well for us. A good old ditch or moat is incredibly effective against pretty much everything.

Yup, it's how we Dutch defend our country as well.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Shame about the 2 massive land borders you do have though, best hope the Mexicans and Canadians dont decide to invade!

I'd totally agree with natural defences perhaps being the simplest and most effective... but I did have a little chuckle at the irony since every nation (to my knowledge) in the Americas can trace their roots back to invading powers!

 Kroem wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
As a north american, we have a simple two step system.

1. The Atlantic

2. The Pacific

Fallow these simple instructions and you rarely must worry about invasion.

Shame about the 2 massive land borders you do have though, best hope the Mexicans and Canadians dont decide to invade!

I'd totally agree with natural defences perhaps being the simplest and most effective... but I did have a little chuckle at the irony since every nation (to my knowledge) in the Americas can trace their roots back to invading powers!

Well, natural barriers don't help much if there is no actual organized resistance. Plus thanks to the diseases they inadvertently brought over by the time any serious colonization was happening they were mostly settling in empty lands. Millions of natives died without seeing a single European settler because they died from a disease that got sent along the various trade routes.

The entire Mound Builder civilization in the central US was gone without a trace a couple centuries before any Europeans began exploring the area.

Truthfully, there wasn't much invading being done during the colonization of the Americas, especially North America. It was mostly just moving into unoccupied territory.

Rumors, lies, and misinformation.

Popular quote (erroneously) attributed to Yamamoto, and promoted frequently: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."