I have read lately being mentioned that the Russians were quite good at camouflage and faking the enemy of its troops“doings. This is called "maskirovka".
The first time it was used with succes to my knowledge is Stalingrad and later on in Kursk. I am not sure if they needed the "maskirovka" in larger detail with their later operations as they were so powerful they just needed to gather the troops and attack. With the huge artillery first kicking the **** out of the German soldiers...
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Stalingrad:
Using deceptive tactics, known as Maskirovka, the Soviets managed to place five armies to the north of the city, and two armies to the south. All this without raising too much of a stir at German Headquarters. Only the supposedly useless Roumanians noticed what was brewing, but, there concerns were simply thrown away. When the attack finally came on November 19th, the Germans had realized how careless they had been.
http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resour.../ARMSTRONG.asp
Maskirovka is actually a very broad concept that encompasses many English terms. These include: camouflage, concealment, deception, imitation, disinformation, secrecy, security, feints, diversions, and simulation. While terms overlap to a great extent, a complication is that the Russian term is greater than the sum of these English terms. Thus, those in the West should attempt to grasp the entire concept rather than its components. Maskirovka is not a new concept in the USSR. Its roots can be traced to the Russian Imperial Army. Several Soviet authors trace it back to Dmitry Donskoy's placing a portion of his mounted forces in an adjacent forest at the Battle of Kulikovo Field in 1380. Seeing a smaller force than anticipated, the Tatars attacked, only to be suddenly overpowered by the concealed force.
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a...j88/smith.html
http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/aul/aup.../Text/wf05.pdf
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In Kursk the Russians made several ( some 40 ) dummy air fields that the Germans bombed.The Russians had made even dummy planes everywhere..
As well dummy defence lines which were right in front of the real one. Dummy defence post, dummy soldiers etc You name it. Troops travelling all around the place so the Germans would not know where they are posted.
Germans had some fakes as well. Von Manstein was in Rumania just before the operation Zitadelle started and arrived the day before, I think. As well they had truck going in the opposite direction from the front just before the operation. Too bad the Russians were informed by "Lucy" and the British as well on the operation and its wherabouts...
