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FROM THE SUMMER of 1944 until the end of World War II in Europe, the US fielded a unique ‘Ghost Army’ throughout France and the Rhine Valley in order to deceive the Third Reich into overestimating the strength of the Allied forces.
The Ghost Army, which consisted of 1,100 hand-picked men and a number of phony inflatable tanks and weapons, was part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.
The unit’s sole responsibility was to create illusions and spread incorrect information about the strength and location of Allied forces.
According to PBS documentary ‘The Ghost Army’, these masters of deception saw action dangerously close to the frontlines in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany throughout the war.
In total, the unit was responsible for over 20 illusions that befuddled German military planning and masked actual Allied troop movements and deployments.
To the Nazis, the Ghost Army appeared as real units and soldiers.
However, these men were a combination of artists, audio technicians, actors, and designers who, through a commitment to their craft, created inflatable mock-ups of military vehicles, tanks, and artillery.
Arriving in France just after the D-Day invasion, the Ghost Army set to work creating numerous illusions both on and off the battlefield.
On the battlefield, the unit fielded imperfectly camouflaged tanks, planes, and guns in order to convince the Nazis that there were 30,000 more Allied troops on the field than were actually present.
These visual illusions were compounded by the use of audio recordings that could be heard over nine miles away.
The recordings featured sound effects that mimicked the movement of large armoured divisions.
Off the battlefield, actors within the Ghost Army would impersonate US generals and officers in towns throughout France.
These actors, aware that German agents may be spying on them, would flippantly discuss fake military plans and deployments over wine in order to better spread false information.
Earlier this year, American Sniper actor Bradley Cooper announced he will produce Warner Bros. upcoming Ghost Army film.
Below is the trailer to the PBS documentary on the subject from 2013.
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Similar mock ups were used in the fens area of eastern England to convince. The German high command that the invasion would be launched against Calais and would sail from the Dover London areas
The deception only partly worked though. High Command in Germany certainly bought the deception although Hitler himself played a major role in this.
The commander of the Atlantic Wall, Rommel, was already quite experienced with Allied seaborne invasion tactics due to his time in North Africa and Sicily and he correctly predicted that the Normandy beaches were the planned landing zone. He had those areas reinforced despite Hitler’s constant interference. Had Rommel taken command of the ‘wall’ in ’43 as opposed to early ’44 it’s likely that the Normandy beaches would have been even more of a killing zone.
I’ve a desert rat as my neighbour. Do love his war stories.
What really would’ve turned DDay around for the Germans was Hitler releasing the Panzer Div’s which were held off, convinced that the Normandy invasion was a ruse. Had the panzer’ been given the order to roll, the map of Europe could have been be very different.
If Rommell was not gone on holidays and somebody had the balls to wake up Hitler things could have been very different too.Tigers were released too late
Hitler was just a tool of the Vatican whose goal was to defeat atheist Russia so religion could thrive in that land once again and his attack on the Jews was also Vatican inspired because for centuries the Christian onslaught against the Jews was always led by the pope the people of Europe have had their eyes opened to the religious fraud so the roadshow is moving on to Africa and Latin America with their pregnant virgins and and sham cures and lust for loot
Most German military planners new the game was up when the yanks entered the war because they were now up against the Soviet Union the us and the British empire they could not possibly win. The mystery is why did they carry on for another near four years fighting a battle that the top brass new was a lost cause what kind hypnotic hold did hitler have over top army officers seeing that he himself only ever reached the rank of corporal whe was in the military? It was equivalent to a hospital porter instructing a heart transplant team how to carry out their job. There must have been a serious lack of backbone in the high command when none of them had the bottle to do the obvious thing and put mad Adolf to sleep
Technically Hitler was offered a promotion to ‘Feldwebel’ or Sergeant on three separate occasions but turned them down each time. According to available historical records he refused to accept these as the promotion would mean he would have to be redeployed to another unit. He had, by all accounts, formed a strong bond with the other soldiers in his unit and didn’t want to ‘abandon’ them.
As to the acceptance of a lost war, it actually didn’t become clear to many German commanders until much later than you think. This had a lot to do with the fact that much of the Wehrmacht’s most talented leaders came from Prussian aristocratic backgrounds and Prussia had a long and distinguished history of winning wars against the odds.
Hitler was bonded to a cushy job as a unit HQ runner a job that had its own dangers and many advantages over life in the forward positions. He did not bond closely with his fellow soldiers and he was seen as an odd character who did not seem have much in common with his fellow soldiers. That is not to say he was not liked by his comrades, because he was, he was also an animal lover and fed and adopted many stray dogs at the front. He was wounded twice and decorated for bravery however reports from his superiors never specified that they saw any leadership potential in him, ironic, how mistaken they were, either they were bad judges of character or Hitler hid his potential well.
hitler had no potential only an idiot would try to wage a war on two fronts plus if he’d been nice to the Jews they’d have given him the atomic bomb in the early 40s , Adolf wasnt around when the brains were being distributed thank heaven for humanity
The Germans were not always fooled by the dummy army.
One brave German pilot famously dropped a dummy bomb onto a dummy tank.
(Deception did indeed work on D-Day as Steve Tracey correctly pointed out.)
@Stephen Murphy would ya ever get a life you bitter old man. This has nothing to do with the government go take some antidepressants or something.
These mockups were first used by the Allied Forces in North Africa and Ethiopia to mislead the Italians and the Germans in the beginning over WW2
The ghost army did nothing , Hitlers inaction on d day did.
^myopic
He was busy looking the other direction.
Actually they did do something. Hitler firmly believed that Calais was the main target for the landings due to the dummy army (he was partly right, the plan was to land at Normandy, gather strength and then make a push to Calais) and he kept an entire Panzer Corps in reserve there when it was desperately needed at Normandy to counter-attack the Allied beachhead.
Had the panzer reserves been made available to Rommel it’s likely that the Allies could have been pushed off the beaches or at least contained.
Panzer’s weren’t at Calais they were held in reserve across all the beaches. Majority sat behind the landing beaches hence why it took weeks for the allies to push fully inland after securing the landing areas. Hitler didn’t actually believe the Calais thing at all, he initially agreed with Rommel but kietel managed to convince Hitler due to concerns over allied air power. The reality is no one can say that one major military decision was made in relation to this dummy army by the Germans.
Dave, you’re only partially correct. Rommel did indeed have a panzer division available to him at the beaches of Normandy but this was only 1/3rd of the tank force supposedly available to him. Another 2 panzer divisions were held in reserve at Calais and were not approved to deploy by high command until it was too late.
This was also only about half of the total panzer force stationed in France and Belgium during the initial invasion. The remainder was stationed in the Paris region and had to be scrambled north under constant air attack.
Well I’m sure the movie will make plenty of exaggerated claims about it anyway
Correct Jason hitler seen a hole lot of things in advance…in his dreams. We’re lucky he wasn’t too clever, in fact he was the German forces greatest handicap
You’re right in that one Paddy. One interesting fact is that Hitler refused to fully mobilise the powerful German industry for war until 1943 after the loss of the 6th Army at Stalingrad which by that point was too late in the war to have an effect. He also fancied himself as a talented general and constantly meddled in Wehrmacht plans and affairs, which ultimately created numerous avoidable disasters for the German military.
He was a talented orator and statesman but he was an altogether awful general. Mind you Stalin suffered from the same handicap until he was finally convinced around mid 1943 to back off by Red Army commanders. One has to wonder why the top brass of the Wehrmacht didn’t try to do the same.
Germany lost the war in June 1941 with the launch of Barbarossa and compounded the defeat by declaring war on the US in Dec 1941.
Shhh, it’s the Americans that did it first, just like the capture of the Enigma.
Hollywood never lies
I think they were wooden tanks, never heard of inflatable tanks
Who cares?
You’d probably be a right wing facist today, If Hitler had won and probably are anyway? FG/Renua are recruiting, get yourself a Blueshirt and join!
Even worse the Imperialists won , and the peace loving Americans (at war for 200 years)
Dave, are you implying that the Allied victory was worse for the world than an Axis victory?
Dave, are you seriously believing if Hitler had one that would have been better?
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