Are superstitions a good or bad thing? Mostly they are just an inconvenience and actually do no harm whatsoever. But there was a time, during WWII, that one specific superstition cost lives. During World War II the German tank drivers thought it was good luck to drive over camel dung. So how could German tank drivers flattening camel dung lead to the loss of life? It happened when the Allies discovered their habit.
When the Allies discovered that the German tank drivers intentionally drove over camel dung for good luck they thought of a battle tactic to utilize their superstition. Before long the good luck camel dung would turn to bad luck for the Germans.
The Allies developed and planted landmines that looked like camel dung to trap the German tanks. It initially worked too. But it wasn’t long before the Germans caught onto the cunning plan and began to avoid what appeared to be fresh camel dung. Not to be outdone, the Allies developed a new battlefield deceptive landmine. This time they made a landmine that looked like camel dung that had already been run over by a German tank. It fooled the German tank drivers into thinking that the camel dung was safe to drive over. Isn’t that pure genius?
But one question remains. Why did German tank drivers think camel dung was lucky?
If you found this fact rather interesting you may also be interested in these:
- The most wanted person in NAZI occupied Europe was a 32 year old woman. Find out why here
- Find out why German pilots put Coca Cola bottles under the wings of their planes. Ingenious
- What was the popular board game that was used to sneak in maps to POW’s?
- Discover the surprising fact about the number of bombs dropped on Vietnam compared to the total in WWII
- Why did the NAZI’s run a brothel? Learn about their sexy secret here
