D Day Deception

Before landing in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies executed an elaborate deception plan designed to prevent the Germans from concentrating forces in Normandy. The lesser-known first part, Fortitude North, suggested a threat to Norway. The more famous Fortitude South indicated that the invasion would occur at the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy, largely by creating a fictitious army group under Gen. George S. Patton. While historians have generally praised Operation Fortitude, Barbier takes a more nuanced view, arguing that the deception, while implemented well, affected the invasion's outcome only minimally. A much-needed reassessment of the deception operation that preceded the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II Involves double agents, fake equipment, phantom units, and famous commanders

A much-needed reassessment of the deception operation that preceded the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II.

This declassified WWII report offers a detailed look at the Allied campaign to deceive the Nazis about the immanent attack on Normandy. As the conflict in Europe wore on, the Germans braced for an amphibious assault on France. The only question was where and when the Allies would strike. This required an intricate misinformation campaign to throw the Nazis off the scent. The objective of Operation Fortitude was to persuade the enemy that the long-awaited landings would take place in the Pas-de-Calais, and that any attack in Normandy would be nothing more than a diversionary feint that could be safely ignored. Hundreds of bogus agent reports were manufactured, an entire US Army Group was invented, false radio signals transmitted, and inflatable tanks, dummy bombers built of balsa wood and canvas landing craft were positioned where they could be photographed by the Luftwaffe. The elaborate ruse suggested an imminent amphibious assault from Dover, across the shortest stretch of the English Channel. Operation Fortitude was an extraordinary success. In this volume, the classified official history of the entire operation, written by Roger Hesketh as head of the team of D-Day deception specialists, has been declassified and released.

On 6 June 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy. The invasion followed several years of argument and planning by Allied leaders, who remained committed to a return to the European continent after the Germans had forced the Allies to evacuate at Dunkirk in May 1940. Before the spring of 1944, however, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other British leaders remained unconvinced that the invasion was feasible. At the Teheran Conference in November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill promised Josef Stalin that Allied troops would launch Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, in the spring. Because of their continuing concerns about Overlord, the British convinced the Americans to implement a cover plan to help ensure the invasion's success. The London Controlling Section (LCS) devised an elaborate two-part plan called Operation Fortitude that SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) helped to fine tune and that both British and American forces implemented Historians analyzing the Normandy invasion frequently devote some discussion to Operation Fortitude. Although they admit that Fortitude North did not accomplish all that the Allied deception planners had hoped, many historians heap praise on Fortitude South, using phrases such as, unquestionably the greatest deception in military history. Many of these historians assume that the deception plan played a crucial role in the June 1944 assault. A reexamination of the sources suggests, however, that other factors contributed as much, if not more, to the Allied victory in Normandy and that Allied forces could have succeeded without the elaborate deception created by the LCS. Moreover, the persistent tendency to exaggerate the operational effect of Fortitude on the German military performance at Normandy continues to draw attention away from other, technical-military reasons for the German failures there.

“A” Force explores an area of World War II deception history that has often been neglected. While older studies have focused on the D-day deception campaign and Britain’s infamous double-agents, this work explores the origins of Britain’s deception activities to reveal how the British became such masterful deceivers. This is the first work to focus exclusively on "A" Force and the origins of British deception, examining how and why the British first employed deception in World War II. More specifically, it traces the development of the "A" Force organization—the first British organization to practice both tactical and strategic deception in the field. Formed in Cairo in 1941, "A" Force was headed by an unconventional British colonel named Dudley Wrangel Clarke. Because there was no precedent for Clarke's "A" Force, it truly functioned on a trial-and-error basis. The learning curve was steep, but Clarke was up for the challenge. By the Battle of El Alamein, British deception had reached maturity. Moreover, it was there that the “deceptionists” established the deception blueprint later used by the London planners to plan and execute Operation Bodyguard, the campaign to conceal Allied intentions for the D-day landing at Normandy. In contrast to earlier deception histories that have tended to focus on Britain’s later efforts emphasizing Operation Bodyguard, this work clearly shows that this strategy was forged much earlier in the deserts of Africa under the leadership of Dudley Clarke, not in London. Moreover, it was born not out of opportunity, but out of sheer desperation, when in June 1940 the British found themselves completely unprepared for war.

Operation FORTITUDE, the D-Day deception plan, was a near perfect plan used by the Allies during World War II to deceive the Germans as to the time and place of the Normandy invasion. This short research paper studies the methods and techniques used by the Allies, specifically the British Security Services, in the near flawless execution of the deception plan. This paper also proposes that the plan was so well executed because it was a “closed loop” plan. That is to say that the British controlled not only the information going forward to the Germans, but they were also in the enviable position of being able to determine the exact extent of the Germans’ belief in the veracity of the information that they were given. This was due to two factors: the British had complete control of all German agents in England by the second year of the war, and the British were able to read encrypted German message traffic, often as fast as the intended recipients. In the final analysis, the Germans were completely outmaneuvered in the intelligence department during the Second World War. Through sloppy work on their part and the amazingly well manufactured deception story put forth by the Allies, the Germans were essentially blind while trying to defend the Normandy beaches. The research for this paper was conducted solely using open-source material. Many of these were secondary sources, though others were recently declassified operational documents from the British and United States historical records.

A new take on D-Day, showing that the successful deception of Operation Fortitude has received more than its fair share of credit for the Normandy invasions, obscuring not just the real invasion plans, but German weaknesses that contributed to Allied victory.

“A riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way—ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously.” —Tom Brokaw The first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives—now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—artists, designers, architects, and sound engineers, including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey—landed in France to conduct a secret mission. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, along with maps, official memos, and letters, accompany Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s meticulous research and interviews with many of the soldiers, weaving a compelling narrative of how an unlikely team carried out amazing battlefield deceptions that saved thousands of American lives and helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions also offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. This updated edition includes: A new afterword by co-author Rick Beyer Never-before-seen additional images The successful campaign to have the unit awarded a Congressional Gold Medal History and WWII enthusiasts will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.

The number one bestselling author of Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat exposes the true story of the D Day Spies.