1. Antony Maxwell Ayrton known as Tony Ayrton, was an artist and camouflage officer.
13 Facts About Tony Ayrton
1. 2.
Tony Ayrton is best known for his work on the large-scale deception for the decisive second battle of El Alamein, Operation Bertram.
3.
Tony Ayrton was born in 1909 into a creative family of some merit.
4.
The Ayrton family originated in Yorkshire, though Tony descended from a branch long-resident in Cheshire.
5.
Tony Ayrton was gazetted an officer in the Royal Engineers, on 3 December 1939.
6.
Tony Ayrton was responsible for forming No 85 South African Camouflage Company, and in early 1941 he was one of only five fully trained camouflage officers in the whole of the British middle east.
7.
On 17 September 1941, Barkas and Tony Ayrton were called to Eighth Army headquarters, out in the desert near Borg el Arab, between Alexandria and El Alamein.
8.
Tony Ayrton planned and supervised the building of the "Diamond" dummy pipeline, which ran southwards to help give Rommel the impression that an Armoured Corps was massing in the south.
9.
Tony Ayrton convinced Richardson that Camouflage could implement this despite the shortage of time and materials.
10.
Tony Ayrton's plan was to flatten and join thousands of the non-returnable 4-gallon petrol cans to make 5 miles of dummy pipe, which was laid in a trench and left for one day.
11.
Tony Ayrton worked all that night and the next day to restore the "scene" to a semblance of reality.
12.
Tony Ayrton died on active service, on 4 April 1943, of meningitis.
13.
Tony Ayrton is buried in Tunisia, in the Medjez-el-Bab Commonwealth War Cemetery.