Developed in the late 1930s/early 1940s, the parachute decoy was designed as a diversion and misdirection tool, to create the appearance of an airdrop where none was planned, or to make an actual airdrop look like a bigger, wider affair to mislead the defenders. Both the Americans and British had their own designs, the Americans the early cast metal "Oscar" decoys and the self-inflating rubber "PD Pack" models, while Britain had "Rupert". Reportedly designed in Britain and made in America by a manufacturer who was never told the true purpose, "Rupert" is a stuffed burlap doll about 31 inches tall with an appropriately scaled parachute attached to the back. Used during multiple airborne operations, "Rupert" was deployed for D-Day as part of the "Operation Titanic" deception scheme, which called for multiple squadrons of the Royal Air Force to drop a mix of "Rupert", noisemakers, chaff, and a small number of SAS troopers outside the true target area to make it look like a major airborne operation was going off; at the cost of two planes, 8 SAS men, and countless "Ruperts", the operation caused mass confusion in the prelude to the Normandy landings. A number of "Rupert" dummies, possibly leftovers from Titanic, were found in a storage facility after the war. The canvas is plain brown, with white cloth trim to the parachute flaps and some red ink stamping. Provenance: The Putnam Green/Sycamore Collection