The grand deception around D-Day

Operation Bodyguard

If you’ve never heard of this invasion, that’s because it never happened. The 12th Army only existed on paper, and Operation Zeppelin was a fake invasion plan hatched by the Advanced Headquarters ‘A’ Force, Britain’s deception department in Cairo, Egypt. It was designed to keep German forces in the East Mediterranean and away from Normandy. It used a variety of tools to misdirect the enemy: double agents reporting about nonexistent troop movements, fake radio messages, dummy troops and vehicles, and Allied intelligence agents looking for maps and guides of the region – as they would prior to a genuine landing.

Fortitude North, implemented in Operation Skye, was supposed to make the Germans believe that an invasion was being prepared against German-occupied Norway through the creation of the fictional British Fourth Army in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was done mostly via fake wireless traffic and leaking false information through double agents.

Fortitude South, implemented in Operation Quicksilver, had one of the most important objectives, namely to convince the Germans that the landing will take place through the Strait of Dover around Pas de Calais in France which has the shortest sailing distance from Britain and which was heavily fortified by the Germans. This involved the famous fake First US Army Group (FUSAG) based in southeastern Britain around Dover led by General Patton who was temporarily sidelined and withdrawn from actual operations for his slapping incidents during the invasion of Sicily (he slapped and verbally humiliated soldiers suffering from ‘battle fatigue’- PTSD in hospitals). The Germans considered Patton one of the most talented Allied generals whose aggressive style would be ideal to lead an invasion. Deception techniques included fake radio traffic, troop movements, display of dummy wooden landing craft, bombing raids around the Pas-de-Calais area, construction of decoy airfields, etc. Most of Fortitude South was executed by the British Force ‘R’ led by Lieutenant Colonel David Strangeways. Their American counterpart was the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, which was later nicknamed the ”Ghost Army”. After D-Day, both special units were sent to Europe where they implemented further deception operations close to the front. For example, with the help of high-performance loudspeakers and pre-recorded sound effects, they imitated the movement of entire armored divisions within 15 miles / 24 km of their operations. Their existence and activities were held top-secret for several decades after the war.

Operation Copperhead revolved around a British actor called M. E. Clifton James. Masquerading as Field Marshall Montgomery, James made several public appearances in Gibraltar and North Africa, suggesting an impending attack in that area. A heavy drinker and smoker, James had difficulties portraying the teetotaler, non-smoking Montgomery. Hoping that the operation drew the Germans’ attention, the deception was ended after five weeks.

The web of military deception was supported by diplomatic maneuvers. Operation Graffham in neutral Sweden and its continuation Operation Royal Flush in Sweden, Spain and Turkey both involved Allied diplomatic overtures towards these neutral countries. These requests included access to Swedish airspace and airfield repair facilities, closing down Turkish territorial waters to German ships, and using Spanish ports to evacuate the wounded. These were all sure to reach the ears of German Military Intelligence and designed to be suggestive of invasions in their respective areas.

All in all, Operation Bodyguard was a mixed bag. Some parts, such as the diplomatic deception of Royal Flush, had little impact, but others were rather successful. Due to Ferdinand, the invasion of Southern France caught the Germans as a total surprise. More famously, Fortitude South, with Patton’s fictional Army Group managed to convince Hitler that the invasion of northern France would have two prongs, rather than just one. Even though some of the plots were largely dismissed by German intelligence, they did manage to tie up German troops all over Europe, which could have been thrown at Normandy, had they had a clearer vision of things.