The tangled web of lies that fooled Hitler
The story of D Day is a story of selfless bravery, brilliant planning, and superb logistics—but also the story of a complex set of tricks and fakes which confused the enemy and contributed greatly to the successful invasion. Here are just some of them.
Operation Fortitude South
The Allies planned to invade the coast of Normandy. In order to disperse the German forces waiting to repel the invasion, the Allies created the impression that the main invasion would come over a hundred miles away in the Pas-de-Calais and that the Normandy landings on D-Day were just a diversion.
To do this they created an entire paper army group, FUSAG, headquartered in Dover, across the channel from Calais. FUSAG was composed of no less than two imaginary US armies and one imaginary British army and commanded by George Patton. FUSAG ‘existed’ because it created several ‘headquarters’ generating a vast amount of radio traffic (more than the real 21st Army Group,) had large quantities of dummy tanks and landing craft, had a real commander in George Patton, and its existence was confirmed by German spies operating in England, (see XX below.)
Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, the German commander responsible for repelling an invasion, believed the deception and kept his largest force, the Wehrmacht 15th Army, waiting for FUSAG to invade in the Calais area. So convinced was he that the 15th Army waited seven weeks after D-Day before finally moving to repel the real invasion.
XX
An Oxford professor named John Masterman organized a brilliant deception run by the ‘Twenty Committee,’ which caught and turned German spies into double agents. The Twenty Committee took its name from the Roman numerals for 20, XX, which was a play on the words ‘double cross.’
Glimmer and Taxable
The D-Day invasion fleet, containing hundreds of ships, would create a huge, unmistakable radar image, warning Rommel’s armies that the Allies were on their way. The solution: create two more fleets headed toward other beaches on the same night.
And so much more …
I could write 20 blogs about the all the misdirection and brilliant deceptions that went into D-Day. I’d love to tell you about Operation Bodyguard, about COSSAC Ops B, and about Operation Copperhead. Then there’s the TWIST Committee, of course, and MI5-B1A, and David Strangeway’s R Force, and the great spy catcher Colonel Oreste Pinto, and then there’s … but I’m out of space.