Nick notes that, during World War II, a bizarre episode by the British, as recounted in a Rand Corporation 1950 document (The Exploitation of Superstitions for Purposes of Psychological Warfare), was provided by a Jean M. Hungerford that involved the British military building a 12 foot scarecrow-like robot to frighten the Italians fighting in Italy's mountains.
The "scarecrow" - an imaginative creation of one Jasper Maskelyne -- supposedly emitted "frightful flashes and bangs" to scare the superstitious Italian soldiers who were allied with the Nazis, thus creating chaos and havoc on the lines.
(Yes, it's a silly tale, and, on its face, one that stretches credulity.)
The United State Air Force, however seems to have taken the idea and elaborated upon it, as part of that agencies psy-operations, and built their own 12 foot creature and tested it out in Flatwoods, West Virginia in 1952.
Here are two links about that episode, for those who need a refresher course:
http://www.ufocasebook.com/Flatwoods.html
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/fw-code/
You can read about both convoluted affairs in Nick's book. And see how Nick comes to the conclusion that the U.S. Air Force was responsible for the Flatwoods sighting, which had nothing to do with an alien visitation and a monster extraterrestrial but was only an elaborate psy-op of the U.S. military, one of many in the time-frame.
