The original Australian War Memorial caption to this image reads: 'Scarecrow over Essen during a 1000 bomber daylight attack [11 March 1945] by RAF Bomber Command. This is a device fired into the air by the enemy to simulate one of our aircraft to frighten the aircrew'. It was widely believed by aircrew that the Germans were using such a device to simulate the explosion of a bomber hit by an enemy shell. German flak records reveal, however, that no such device existed or was ever fired by them. What was seen by aircrew was in fact a bomber blowing up with all its bombs on board, hence the significant size of the cloud created by the explosion. The general consensus today is that this dramatic sight, undoubtedly a terrifying one for bomber crews, was caused either by a hit from a night fighter using the Schräge Musik technique or the faulty fuses causing the bombs to explode. With Schräge Musik, because the fighter's cannon was firing a short burst from directly below the bomber, no tracer fire was ever observed from other aircraft and the plane just seemed to suddenly explode. [AWM SUK13978]
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