Second Paris war German
Details of the incredible creation emerged as the French capital prepares to commemorate the 93rd anniversary of the Armistice.
According to archives unearthed by Le Figaro newspaper, military planners believed German pilots could be fooled into destroying the dummy city rather than the real one.
It was situated on the northern outskirts of Paris and featured sham streets lined with electric lights, replica buildings and even a copy of the Gare du Nord - the station from which high-speed trains now travel to and from London.
'Nearly a century after the start of the First World War, very little is still known about this incredible project by the French Army,' writes Benjamin Ferran, of Le Figaro, highlighting the work of the DCA air defence group (Difense Contre Avions)
'In 1918, as the conflict was coming to an end, the DC, which was responsible for defending territory against air attacks, embarked on the building of a replica Paris designed to fool the German pilots.
By recreating a dummy city including a myriad of bright lights, the French thought they could attract night raiders to the wrong target.'
Radar was in its infancy in 1918, and the long-range Gotha heavy bombers being used by the German Imperial Airforce were similarly primitive.
Their crew would hold bombs by the fins and then drop them on any target they could see during quick sorties over major cities like Paris and London.
French planners chose an area around the commuter town of Maisons-Laffitte, some 15 miles from the centre of Paris, and on a stretch of the River Seine similar to the one in the capital.
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