It also brought to mind this probably-apocryphal story (from Anton Braun Quist, "Excuse me... what was that?" (1982), a collection of engineering tall tales):

It also brought to mind this probably-apocryphal story (from Anton Braun Quist, "Excuse me... what was that?" (1982), a collection of engineering tall tales): "Secret Weapons" "The U.S. engineers perspired over their task, rapid development of several identical, extraordinarily complex machines. The work was finished on time, and the machines were flown away to be parachuted into various parts of Germany. It turned out that all the devices were discovered by the Germans." "Then the German engineers perspired, throwing heavy manpower and resources into examination of these new weapons. What were they for? They were designed to occupy a large number of German engineers; that's what. And they did."