The Ghost Army

[KOM.Nausicaa]

I am looking forward to see this upcoming documentary:
The Ghost Army (http://www.ghostarmy.org/)

Dummy M4 Inflatable (!) Tank:

5475

[Toastmaker]

Sounds interesting. Wasn't George Patton put in charge of false units and deceptive operations further north in England just prior to D-Day ? The intent was to convince the Germans that the invasion would take place at the Pas de Calais ??

[Terry]

Sounds interesting. Wasn't George Patton put in charge of false units and deceptive operations further north in England just prior to D-Day ? The intent was to convince the Germans that the invasion would take place at the Pas de Calais ??

He sure was, and he wasen't the least bit happy about it either. He thought Ike was punishing him, and perhaps to an extent he was.

[Pauke! Pauke!]

That sounds like a very interesting documentary. Many of the camouflage techniques and deception tactics were developed by Force A and Jasper Maskelyne in the desert war prior to and during El Alamein.

Here's a quick Wiki:

Maskelyne joined the Royal Engineers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Engineers) when the Second World War broke out, thinking that his skills could be used in camouflage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camouflage). He convinced skeptical officers by creating the illusion of a German warship on the Thames using mirrors and a model. He was eventually deployed to the African theatre in the Western Desert, although he spent most of his time entertaining the troops.
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In January 1941, General Archibald Wavell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Wavell) created A Force (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MI9) for subterfuge and counterintelligence. Maskelyne was assigned to serve in it and gathered a group of 14 assistants, including an architect, art restorer, carpenter, chemist, electrical engineer, electrician, painter, and stage-set builder. It was nicknamed the Magic Gang.<o:p></o:p>
The Magic Gang built a number of tricks. They used painted canvas and plywood to make jeeps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep) look like tanks — with fake tank tracks — and tanks look like trucks. They created illusions of armies and battleships.
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His largest trick was to conceal Alexandria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria) and the Suez Canal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal) to misdirect German bombers. He built a mockup of the night-lights of Alexandria in a bay three miles away with fake buildings, lighthouse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse), and anti-aircraft batteries. To mask the Suez Canal he built a revolving cone of mirrors that created a wheel of spinning light nine miles wide, meant to dazzle and disorient enemy pilots so that their bombs would fall off-target.
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In 1942 he worked in Operation Bertram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bertram), before the battle of El Alamein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein). His task was to make German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel) think that the attack was coming from the south when British General Bernard Montgomery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery) planned to attack from the north. In the north, 1,000 tanks were disguised as trucks. On the south, the Magic Gang created 2,000 fake tanks with convincing pyrotechnics. There was a fake railway line, fake radio conversations, and fake sounds of construction. They also built a fake water pipeline and made it look as if it would never be ready before attack.
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The Magic Gang was disbanded after the battle and, although Winston Churchill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill) praised his efforts, Maskelyne did not receive the appreciation he desired. Maskelyne tried to resume his stage career after the war without much success. He also published a book about his exploits, Magic: Top Secret in 1949. In 2002 The Guardian said: "Maskelyne received no official recognition. For a vain man this was intolerable and he died an embittered drunk. It gives his story a poignancy without which it would be mere chest-beating."
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Maskelyne later moved to Kenya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya) and founded a driving school. He died in 1973.<o:p></o:p>



http://www.maskelynemagic.com/

http://home.earthlink.net/~billhill1/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/paukepaukenew2.jpg

[txnetcop]

I agree that this is a great story that here-to-for has never received enough attention! Thanks for the H/U
Ted

[Bjoern]

Ghost units were popular on the other side as well. :d

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_7th_Panzer_Division#.22Ghost_Division.22_.2 F_.22Phantom_Division.22_under_Erwin_Rommel

[Jagdflieger]

A good spy novel that revolved around this massive deception (First US Army Group: "FUSAG") was "Eye of the Needle" by Ken Follet.

It was later made into a movie in the early 80s staring Donald Sutherland in one of his best performances as a German spy trying to get the news of his discovery to his masters in Berlin.

[Pauke! Pauke!]

The Abwehr, SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe all had special deceptive programs. Perhaps not as extensive or decisive as the Allied efforts prior to the Normandy Invasion. If you can read the book by P.W. Stahl " KG200: The True Story" It had some facinating stuff about the use of captured Allied aircraft among other missions flown by the group.

Hmmm....now I've half a mind to rummage amongst my stored boxes to find the book again.

:jump:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfgeschwader_200

http://home.earthlink.net/~billhill1/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/paukepaukenew2.jpg