Somewhere along the way, German soldiers began to think that camel droppings were a sign of good luck, specifically driving over them with their tank.
And so, that became a traditional tactic for many tank drivers in the northern African campaigns.
After the Allies picked up on this, they began disguising mines by covering them with actual camel dung (camel dung was everywhere in north Africa at this time as it was a popular mode of transport, and there were lots of camels).
After a few successful mines went off, the Germans began to avoid the dung—unless it already had tracks on it.
In turn, the Allies began to put fake tank tracks on the dung that they placed over their mines. And again their mines found their targets.
It was one of the more bizarre cases of cat and mouse in the history of war.
