In the terminal years of World War II , both the Allied and Axis Powers knew that there was no opportunity of defeating Hitler without check his grasp on Western Europe , and both sides know that Northern France was the obvious fair game for an amphibian assault . The German high command assumed the Allies would cross from England to France at the narrowest part of the channel and demesne at Pas - de - Calais . The Allies instead set their sights some 200 knot to the west . The beaches of Normandy could be taken as they were , but if the Germans bring to their defense by moving their reserve foot and panzers to Normandy from their garrison in the Pas - Delaware - Calais region , the invasion would be a disaster.(Edit 4/16 : A reader pointed out that the original post was incorrect about the Germans ' assumptions about the intrusion site . This paragraph has been changed to correct that information . -Matt )
Success , the Allies decided , would rest on distracting German military group and spreading them too thin across multiple intrusion site . They demand a way to credibly menace Pas - Delaware - Calais , scare the Germans into observe the military reserve there and away from the actual battle . The resulting plan , Operation Fortitude , is one of the capital lies ever tell .
George and His Imaginary Friends
The Allied intelligence services create two faux USA to keep the Germans on their toes . One would be based in Scotland for a supposed encroachment of Norway and the other headquarter in southeast England to threaten the Pas - de - Calais . The northern operation bank mainly on fake radio traffic and the eating of off-key info to double agents to make the effect of a substantial army . Fortitude South , though , was well within the scope of prying German ears and eye , so fake yak alone would be uncovered too quickly . The Allies would have to make it expect and sound like a substantial army was building up in southeast England . They needed boot on the terra firma there , without in reality using too much of their precious manpower .
When intelligence officers learned that the First U.S. Army Group ( FUSAG ) was to be redesignated the 12th Army Group , they knew they had their Pas - de - Calais invaders . The FUSAG was keep alive on paper , and the phantom army was give a few real soldiers and put under the program line of one of the epoch ’s bully military leaders .
General George S. Patton , nickname Old Blood and catgut , was feared and respected by Germans , more so than any other Allied commander . Today , he ’s an American fable and a military image , but in former 1944 he was almost out of a job . During the encroachment of Sicily the former summertime , Patton had been visiting injure troops at a field hospital when he came across Private Charles H. Kuhl slouched on a stool and suffering from battle fatigue . When Patton ask him where he was injured , Kuhl explained that he was n’t wounded , but just could n’t take it .
Patton did n’t like the answer , so he pulled out his baseball mitt , slapped Kuhl across the face with them , and literally kicked him out of the hospital tent with an order to return to the front wrinkle . A media firestorm followed , and Patton was deemed a public sexual intercourse financial obligation and relieved of his statement . He spent the rest of the year hopping around the Mediterranean making spoken communication , inspecting readiness and having his motion picture taken with troops .
When the phantasma FUSAG get its marching order , General Dwight Eisenhower , Supreme Commander of the Allied forces , affect a deal with Patton . The general would take dictation of the fabricated United States Army and stay out of hassle , and when the U.S. Third Army in reality invade France , he ’d be given the rein .
Tricks of the Trade
Patton ’s spook army was based out of Dover , East Anglia and other areas of southeast England . The option of location made it look like the Allies were going to push across the English Channel straight into the port of Calais , but also left the operation vulnerable to German snooping . To leave no doubt in Hitler ’s mind that FUSAG was a formidable terror and that an attack on Calais was close at hand , Allied intelligence operation launch a multi - branched campaign of deception against the Germans .
Throughout most of the war , the German intelligence servicing and military brass believe that the Allied command in Europe was crawl with German spy . In realness , the British had speedily fill out up most of the Nazi agent as they arrived in the UK and turn them into double agent . Two of these spy were instrumental during Fortitude . Roman Garby - Czerniawski ( codename Brutus ) was a former Polish military military officer who pretended to spy for the Germans and convince his Nazi handlers that he was a affair between Free Polish forces and Patton ’s FUSAG military headquarters . Juan Pujol ( codename Garbo ) was a Spaniard who ’d previously trolled the Germans on his own before being recruited by the Allies and put to employment feeding faux info to the Nazis on FUSAG ’s manpower , maneuver and fight preparedness . British intelligence information also passed fake info off to Germany through civilian channels . For example , letters were publish in the local newspapers near FUSAG ’s guess base voicing complaint from citizens about noise and the behavior of the scout group .
On the ground in southeast England , something also had to be done about the Germans ’ reconnaissance plane . There were a few real American and British units in the area , temporarily assigned to FUSAG before in reality head up to Normandy , but the opinion from above was not telling . The fake tidings and yack was creating the impression that FUSAG was large than any other Allied ground forces operating in Europe , so now it had to reckon literal and like it mean business .
To bring FUSAG off of composition and into the veridical world , the Allies built a cleverly conceived , sort - of - substantial - but - mostly - fake base for the army . Mess tents , hospital collapsible shelter , ammo caches , toilets , fuel depots and parking surface area were build up all over the southeast . The parking lots were filled with fake landrover , trucks and tanks build from cloth and plywood . Inflatable rubber vehicles were also deployed ( but oft fell victim to curious kine from the local farm ) . Every night a group of soldier was responsible for pick up and actuate the fake vehicles around the bases for the interest of realism , one of them using a custom - made rolling puppet to make “ tire tracks ” in the dirt .
The haven of the area likewise had to be populated by a fictitious Navy , and British picture industry pro were make for in to “ dress the set . ” They constructed landing place craft , sustenance sauceboat and even an oil dock from wood and fabric and floated them on oil color drums .
Waiting for the End of the World
As D - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. loomed , the Allies enquire if their artifice was working . The interception and decryption of German wireless traffic ( aided by the well - clock comer of a captured German computer code machine ) gave them a resounding “ yes . ” The Germans were buying FUSAG and the Pas - Delaware - Calais invasion hook , line and donut , but the prevarication could not unravel just yet .
On June 6 , the Allies set ashore at Normandy . As the conflict raged there and the Germans considered sending reinforcement , the Allies observe spinning the story , lest the panzers in Calais roll up behind the real Allied regular army as they moved up and off the beaches . The waters around southerly England were impede with fake boats and even a few real battleship , the scripted radio dealings went understood , smokescreens were put down , and boats swept the Channel for mines , all to give the impression that another onslaught was imminent . Brutus and Garbo continued to lead astray their German superiors , severalize them that Normandy was just a misdirection and Patton ’s regular army was go to embark in just a few days for therealinvasion .
On June 9 , Garbo radio in to his German contacts and air for a full two hour with false scout troop social movement account , descriptions of the landing forces , and a reassurance that FUSAG ’s true fair game was the Pas - de - Calais .
The subject matter run low all the way up the chain to Hitler , who not only scratch an monastic order to post the Calais military group to Normandy , but really rerouted reinforcements coming from other areas forth from Normandy and to Calais . During the D - Day landing and for workweek after , as the Allies - including Patton and the US Third Army - moved deeper and deeper into France , the Germans continued to nurse onto Calais for heartfelt life . It was n’t until Patton ’s real army lead off to jab them from the south that the panzers and infantry moved out , after they ’d expend almost the whole the summertime hold off for an ravishment that never come from an army that did n’t exist .
