History is cyclical. This Tuesday it has been confirmed that Vladimir Putin boasts of having destroyed tanks and anti-aircraft vehicles that, in reality, were nothing more than inflatable replicas manufactured by the Czech company InglaTech for the Ukrainian army. Amazing? Don’t believe. In 1944, the Allies already used this curious trick to convince the Germans that the landing in France would not take place in Normandy, but in other points of the Gallic coast. Thus, they built hundreds of inflatable replicas of Sherman tanks and Dodge trucks, among others. And boy did they do well to win World War II.
This army was located at various strategic points on the map to disperse the German forces along the entire French coast and thus weaken the defenses of Normandy, where the real assault would take place. The creation of this false unit began to be considered around 1943, the year in which it was already decided to end Hitler’s power throughout Europe through a great invasion; need that increased after the dictator invaded Yugoslavia and Greece and the so-called ‘Operation Barbarossa’ began, the conquest of the Soviet Union.
fake army
Con Iósif Stalin Demanding the opening of a second front, the Western Allies decided that the point of entry into the Reich should be northern France –and more specifically Normandy– due to its proximity to Great Britain. However, the high command soon realized that although more than a million men and hundreds of armor would participate in the attack, it would be difficult to break through the defenses set up by the Nazis. They were right. Under the umbrella of Erwin Rommel, the ‘Desert Fox’, dozens of bunkers had been built and the coasts reinforced with Czech urchins, mines, asparagus and a long etc.
Some stratagem had to be devised for the Germans to disperse their forces along the entire north coast Thus, and according to authors such as historian Martin Gilbert, on February 26, Eisenhower issued a top-secret directive on the deception plan designed to convince the Germans that Normandy was not the only destination for the Allies. In this way, it was established that they would make the Nazis believe that the bulk of the troops would disembark in the pas de calais, located a few tens of kilometers from Normandy. It was logical since, after all, it was the closest point between Great Britain and France.
The idea was simple: if Hitler understood that the huge number of men, tanks and ships that had gathered in the south of Great Britain intended to land at the Pas de Calais, he would move the bulk of the forces away from the Normandy area. This is how the researcher Pere Cardona explains it in ‘What they have never told you about D-Day’ (Main). In his words, this is how Operation Fortaleza was born; a colossal amalgamation of deception, spying and baffling missions that had to work like a well-oiled engine to baffle the Reich.
And, precisely, one of its tentacles consisted of creating the fiction of a great ghost army, divided in turn into two commandos. One based in Scotland to hint at an invasion by Norway, and the other in East Anglia and South East England, to make the Germans think of the Pas de Calais.
Ghosts in Britain
The deception was hatched, all that remained was to put it into practice. First, the ghost army was formed at an official level, which received the name of ‘First US Army Group‘ (‘FUSAG‘ for its acronym in English). Next, its members were recruited: actors, special effects experts (those of the time), scriptwriters, communication specialists and, of course, a couple of real military units to give more credibility to the deception. The details of this gigantic contingent are listed by Cardona in his essay. Thus, in the established locations, authentic false military camps began to be built and contained nothing but air. Inside the tents there was not a single soldier, the wooden crates did not contain any bullets, the drums did not contain a drop of gasoline.
In turn, the military authorities commissioned the construction of replica Sherman tanks and field artillery pieces. This prop material was originally made from wood by experienced carpenters, but was eventually made from rubber to save time and money. After a month, huge amounts of armored vehicles, Dodge trucks, light and heavy field artillery began to arrive in England… And the most striking thing is that they arrived in boxes that were no bigger than a suitcase. However, when inflated with an air compressor, they became such perfect imitations that they even had rivets on the turrets.
perfect ruse
But the ruse did not end at that point. The military thought of even the smallest detail so that the Nazi reconnaissance planes would take the bait when flying over the camps. As the fake vehicles did not leave tracks when moving, the soldiers were ordered to make grooves in the earth similar to those caused by the tracks of the armored vehicles. Everything was thought of. Many local priests wrote to the newspapers complaining about the bad behavior of the foreign troops; Specific insignia were designed for ghost divisions, and would-be soldiers on leave were dispatched to publicize the unit.
Such was the precision in the lie that a group of the Army Signal Corpsor that it broadcast all kinds of messages (encrypted and unencrypted) by radio, simulating everything from orders to false notifications informing of the arrival of foreign units. In addition, the ghost camps also received visits from King George VI and the Mayor of Dover. The final straw in this deception, and what probably convinced the Germans that the ghost army was real, was the commander given the curious honor of leading FUSAG: George Patton.
The choice could not have been more accurate, as this officer had a service record that was remarkable enough to generate some respect among the Nazis. Once the decision was made, the soldier was commissioned to carry out a European tour in which he was photographed. What was not revealed was that that honor was a punishment for his bad behavior with some soldiers in Italy. Command stuff… In any case, on January 26, 1944 Patton was taken to England to command the fictitious FUSAG. And all of it was nothing but smoke.
Knowing that the Germans had taken the bait, all that remained was to put the last part of the plan into practice: to make the Nazis believe their own Day D that they would receive three major attacks at various points on the north coast of France. To do this, on the night of June 5, a few hours before the invasion, several units were prepared to simulate the mobilization of a huge number of men and boats.
“Several bombers dropped aluminum strips to simulate on the radar screen the approach of an invading convoy to the coast of Cap d’Antifer. This measure was accompanied by a naval ruse consisting of using motor boats and torpedo boats that towed reflective balloons, so that they would appear to be large ships on the radar”, points out the researcher and writer Antony Beevor in his book ‘D-Day. The Battle of Normandy ‘. Once again, Cardona recounts this and many other deception missions that were concocted during the Normandy landings in ‘What they have never told you about D-Day’; among them, the collaboration in this framework of the Spanish spy ‘Garbo’.
The operation worked perfectly. The Germans sent notifications that a large Allied fleet was expected to arrive at Calais and Dunkirk, a port city far from Normandy. In fact, the bait was taken in such a way that they even fired on the ghost fleet of the invisible army. After this deception began the bloody landing of Normandy. But, as they say, that is another story.