Erwin Rommel did crazy s**t in the desert of North Africa all the time for the logical reason of outsmarting the enemy.

When he first showed up in Tripoli he had all his tanks parade through the city, but then had them wrap around the city and go through again 10 times so it looked like he had 10 times the tanks that he really did. This way any spies in the city would report more tanks. The British left him alone long enough for him to build up his forces.
One of his more popular tricks would be to have a few tanks and a crap load of cars drive through the desert really fast. The cars would drag bushes and other things to kick up more sand. The big sand ball made the British think they had a HUGE tank force charging them so they ran the ******** away.