US Army

Ghost Army.

Telegraph News Services, UK (collection).

Soldier of the US 23rd Headquarters Special Troops stands beside an inflatable dummy "Sherman Tank", Southern England, 1944. This secret element of the Allied intelligence war was formed in 1944, in contemplation of the Allied invasion of Western Europe. Its task was to undertake operations aimed at deceiving the Germans as to the position, intentions and movements of Allied forces. Among its methods were the production and "planting" of misleading documents, broadcasting misleading radio traffic, and, well, the sort of operation seen here. This was the first, and largest, "Ghost Army" operations - the creation of an actual ghost army of inflatable tanks and trucks, scarecrow soldiers, misleading traffic movements, misleading radio messages and other on-the-ground deceptions aimed at convincing the Germans that the Allies were positioned in England to invade the Continent by way of the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy or, at least, to leave them confused on the point. An inflatable "Sherman" like this may not look very convincing from this point of view; however, large numbers of them, viewed from an enemy aeroplane, would have been much more convincing. As far as one can determine, the deception in this case was successful at least in helping to ensure that the Germans remained, up to the last moment, confused as to where the blow would fall, and were forced to deploy their defensive complement accordingly. After D-Day, the 23rd was sent across the Channel, where they proceeded to deceive their way across France and western Germany in the company of the direct combat forces. Best regards, JR.