It's just days before Operation Overlord,
better known in the history books as D-Day. Over one million men from five different nations
will simultaneously launch several landings across the French coast- a military operation
the likes of which has never been attempted before. Waiting across the English Channel are several
hundred thousand German defenders, sitting in heavily fortified bunkers overseeing beaches
littered with mines, barbed wire, and concrete tank traps. Hitler and his generals know that an invasion
is coming. Up until now the war has been largely Britain
fighting for her life, with the Soviets in the far east being easily defeated. The Americans have conducted several operations
in Northern Africa with very mixed success, but now the bulk of their forces are finally
in Britain, eager to join the fight. Any day now, the true battle of Europe will
begin, and the Germans hold all the advantages. Suddenly German radio operators begin picking
up radio chatter from American and British units. The operators are quick to identify several
of the Allied units broadcasting, including several American and British infantry divisions,
armored divisions, and even General Patton's headquarters itself. The alarm is immediately raised- something
big is going down, and soon. The luftwaffe is ordered to put recon planes
up into the air, and as they make the short trip across the channel, they take photos
of column after column of tanks, trucks, and artillery all lined up and ready to board
landing craft. German Army headquarters is immediately alerted
to the pending invasion, and General Rommel himself orders reinforcements to rush to Calais,
directly across from the preparing invaders. He even commits the bulk of his armor reserve
to the area- the Allies must not be allowed to gain so much as a toe-hold on Europe, they
must be met directly on the beach and thrown back into the ocean. Another reconnaissance flight over the massing
forces is ordered, and the pilot confirms the location of the allied forces, reporting
thousands of armored vehicles and trucks waiting to be loaded. As the plane turns around from overflying
the massed troops, a stiff wind suddenly picks up and one of the tanks... starts to float
away. Hurrying, a soldier ducks out from under a
tent and rushes to the tank, tying it down with rope and securing it from the stiff breeze. Luckily, the German plane seems to have taken
no notice of the peculiar incident. As Germany prepares to defeat the largest
invasion in military history, there's just one problem- the American and British tanks
and other vehicles are all made of rubber, barely more than inflatable balloons. The giant invasion army is fake, a ploy engineered
by the British and carried out with the help of the US's 23rd Headquarters Special Troops,
and the real invasion force is massing right now for a landing dozens of miles away in
Normandy. Known as The Ghost Army, the 23rd Headquarters
Special Troops was a military outfit like no other. Its members were men specially recruited from
the world of advertisement, visual artists of all sorts, carpenters, and talented actors. Their job was simple: fool the Germans by
pretending to be something they were not. The 1,100 strong unit was tasked with staging
elaborate displays that would make the Germans believe they were facing a much larger threat
than they really were, making use of inflatable tanks, rubber airplanes, and plywood artillery. Officially known as “tactical deception”,
this elite troop of soldiers would be critical in confusing and confounding the German military
throughout the course of the war. The Ghost Army ultimately staged twenty battlefield
deceptions between 1944 and 1945. Their performances, or “illusions' as the
members insisted on calling their cunning tricks, would often take place within just
a few hundred yards of enemy lines, putting them in just as much risk as any regular soldier. Yet unlike regular soldiers, if the enemy
didn't fall for the trick, they might be left with nothing more than rubber tanks to fight
with! In order to fool the Germans, the Ghost Army
created something called “atmosphere”, a term familiar to any theater or film artist. In essence, atmosphere simply means creating
a believable tone or impression for the audience, and in this case the audience was German military
units and undercover spies. To do this the members of the Ghost Army would
wear uniforms from different military units, and make sure they were seen marching by enemy
scouts- the scouts would then return back to their headquarters and report that members
of a specific unit were operating in the local area, while the real unit, along with all
its firepower, was in actuality somewhere else entirely. This would lead the Germans to deploy their
forces to defend from imaginary threats, fearing for instance an attack by an American armored
division when in reality that same division was preparing to attack somewhere else, far
away. To help sell the illusion though, the soldiers
of the Ghost Army would drive trucks or tanks, sometimes as few as just two, in constant
looping convoys, creating the illusion of a much larger unit being transported to the
front lines. The clever actors would also learn to impersonate
radio operators from different units, mimicking not just their voice but also the way that
they sent morse code messages, down to every minute idiosyncrasy of the specific operator. All these tiny details would add up to a very
convincing deception, leaving the Germans utterly confused as to the real state of affairs
across the combat front. Ghost Army soldiers would also put their acting
talents to use in person, often spending time at French cafes near the war front where they
knew they would be overheard by German spies. The soldiers would wear the uniforms of different
infantry or armor divisions, again sowing confusion as to the true location of the real
units, and they would talk loudly and openly about upcoming tactical operations. Commensurate actors, the Ghosters would learn
their roles well, playing everything from overexcited new recruits eager to see their
first combat and accidentally spilling operational secrets, to even high ranking generals, bragging
about upcoming operations to pretty waitresses while knowing that a German spy would certainly
be within earshot. Sometimes though it was just enough to be
seen and not heard, and soldiers would often parade around pretending to be very high ranking
Allied officers, making German spies believe that major operations must be about to take
place in areas where no such operations were being planned. If you've ever acted in a school play and
thought it was nerve-wracking, imagine trying to play the part of a very high ranking officer
in World War II, knowing that your performance could save- or doom- thousands of lives! Ghost Army soldiers used every range of their
artistic talent in the fight to liberate Europe, and this included audio engineers. Today you might hole yourself up in your room
with some music software and cook up some sick beats to get a few Likes on Facebook,
but for the soldiers of the Ghost Army, creating convincing mixtapes made up of the sounds
of different vehicles and tanks could mean the difference between life and death. These soldiers worked in conjunction with
Bell Labs back in Fort Knox and recorded dozens of different types of military vehicles, everything
from tanks to trucks and even jeeps. The recordings were written directly onto
wire recorders, bleeding edge technology at the time, and then transported to the battlefields
of Europe. A modern DJ may have to mix different tracks
together to entertain an audience, but in World War II the Ghost Army's own Djs would
be tasked with mixing all the different recordings of armored vehicles to create a realistic
soundscape of an advancing army. If the recordings, or the mixing, wasn't just
right, the entire ploy could collapse, and Ghost Army soldiers had to do this with primitive
equipment mounted on the back of a halftrack loaded with giant speakers. No doubt a difficult task, the tactic was
nevertheless effective in fooling the Germans several times, and the recordings could be
heard as far away as 15 miles, giving the impression of very large forces moving through
the thick woods of Europe's forests. Another brainchild of the Ghost Army was “Spoof
Radio”, and it used actors impersonating radio operators from other units. They would do everything from report fake
troop movements, to even calling in fake radio reports from imaginary combat zones, complete
with a soundscape of battlefield noises to make the performance believable. Thus German units might be fooled into thinking
that American forces were retreating by picking up the broadcast of a panicked soldier calling
for a retreat, when in actuality the forces were digging in to lure the Germans into a
trap, or weren't even in the area at all. The fake battlefield broadcasts also confused
the Germans, making them believe that their own units which were not engaged in battle,
had been engaged. Confused German commanders would be forced
to contact individual units to try and clear the fog of war, leaving opportunities for
Allied troops to act before the Germans could properly react. Spoof Radio was so successful that it even
fooled “Axis Sally”, otherwise known as Mildred Gillars, an American woman turned
Nazi propagandist. She would go on to report that an entire Allied
division was preparing for battle at a place with no troops at all. Ghost Army soldiers would often protect other
soldiers in a much more active way though. During D-Day and several other major operations,
Ghost Army artists created realistic looking decoys that became tempting bombing and artillery
targets for the Germans. These would include artillery emplacements,
fake landing barges, and groups of parked vehicles. The elaborate displays would sometimes even
be lit up with lights, as if someone was being accidentally careless, making them that much
more tempting for the Germans to strike at. Attacks on these fake military positions saved
countless Allied lives. Sometimes though, Ghost soldiers would simply
mirror pre-existing positions such as artillery sites, diverting fire from the real emplacement
and once more saving lives. As the fight for Europe moved east, so too
did the Ghost Army. In September after the D-Day landings, the
ghost army impersonated the entirety of the 6th Armored Division, effectively plugging
a gap in General Patton's assault on the French city of Metz. German forces looking for a vulnerability
to exploit instead were faced with a continuous line of American forces, leaving them no room
to outmaneuver the American advance. Had the Germans not fallen for the ruse, they
would certainly have broken through the American lines and flanked the real attack by General
Patton, potentially dooming the entire assault. Imagine being the German general who would
learn later after the war that rubber tanks were what defeated him in one of the pivotal
battles for Europe. Yet as impressive as the Ghost Army's deceptions
were up to this point, one of their greatest illusions would take place towards the end
of the war. In March of 1945 Allied forces were preparing
to cross the Rhine river, and at last into the heart of Germany itself. Victory was within sight- if they could just
get across the very heavily fortified Rhine. Any attempt to cross would be bloody, with
casualties projected in the tens of thousands, and yet the attack was necessary to finally
bring an end to World War II. The Ghost Army would play their part in this
attack, and were tasked with the incredible job of simulating two entire infantry divisions-
or about 20,000 men- and all their equipment, with just 1,100 soldiers. The Ghost Army would set upon the impossible
task with gusto, calling on every ounce of artistic creativity to fool the Germans into
believing the main assault across the Rhine would come far away form the actual attack. To do this they ran a mounting concert of
radio broadcasts, simulating troop movements and orders between different brigade and division
commanders, a performance that convinced the Germans real units were moving into the area. Across the river, the Ghost Army blasted its
carefully mixed soundtracks of troops, vehicles and heavy equipment, making sentries posted
along the Rhine believe that just across the river from them the illusionary divisions
were prepping for an attack. The deceit worked perfectly, and incredibly
when the real American units made their crossing of the Rhine, they encountered little if any
resistance, laying bare Germany's heart. The Ghost Army is credited with saving tens
of thousands of lives and helping ensure victory in World War II. It's soldiers were certainly cut from a different
cloth, being professional and amateur actors, painters, and artists of all sorts, all bringing
their incredible talents to their nation's aid in one of the darkest times in modern
history. Their contribution to victory however is likely
best immortalized in the results of the D-Day invasions, when even as the main assault force
was making landfall in Normandy, the Germans refused to send reinforcements, believing
the real attack to be a diversion for the fake attack by rubber tanks waiting for them
across the Channel. Would you have liked to be a member of the
Ghost Army? What talents would you have brought to the
fight? Also, make sure you check our our other video,
What if hitler had won?! See you next time!
