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D-Day, A Deceptive Invasion

Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................4 Background Information........................................................................................................4 Literature Analysis ................................................................................................................4 Analysis .................................................................................................................................7 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................................7

Kim 3 Outline I. Introduction II. Background Information A. Summary B. Dates III. Literature analysis IV. Analysis V. Conclusions

Kim 4 Josh Kim Mr. Heil Research paper 4 June 2012 Introduction All war is deception. This is what Sun Tzu wrote in the book, Art of war. On June 6th, 1944, the allies executed a huge scale invasion named D-day. This invasion was a victory due to all the planning beforehand. Unlike other times, the allies formed a huge deception plan and this is what led to deceiving the Nazis and gaining France again. What were the deceptive plans the allies created for this invasion? Well find out. Background Information Wikipedia talks about the invasion that take place at the Normandy Beach on June 6th. The planning took months of hard work and paid off when the Germans were deceived. First, there was the planning, and then actually deceiving and finally the actual invasion. D-day did not have one deception plan, but many different parts that all link together. Each individual operation was created for a purpose that truly deceived the enemy. There were many different operations. Some small, others a huge plan for deceiving including Operation Fortitude North & South, Glimmer, Titanic, and many others. All these operations made up operation Bodyguard, which in the end led to the success of freeing France from the Nazis. Operation Fortitude was the codename for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy (code named Bodyguard) during the buildup to the 1944 Normandy landings Literature Analysis
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Kim 5 According to Lieutenant colonel Michael J. Donavon, the first step into the plan of deception was to deceive not only the Germans, but also Hitler and the high commanders. Operation Fortitude was strategized and started. First, the allies had to deceive the Germans into thinking that the invasion of France would be by going through Norway, and Sweden. This was the first half called operation North. In this there were intentional radio interceptions, and also double agents to feed false information to the Nazi. There were diplomats who went to Sweden, which made it seem like there would soon be an invasion starting at that direction. In the end Hitler and the Nazis fell for this deception, by sending 13 army divisions, 90,000 naval personnels, 60,000 air personnel, 6,000 SS, and 12,000 parliamentary to defend the borderline of Norway and Denmark. This was an amazing success and saved many of the Allies and Nazis lives. Second, Once the Germans could see a increase of soldiers and army in the south of the United Kingdom the strategy was to make the Germans think that the invasion would take place in Pas de Calais; This was the second half named Operation Fortitude South. Operation Fortitude South not only was a deception plan but also it was reinforcement for the actual invasion. Anyhow, the deception was that it would take place in Pas de Calais, and not only that, but they deceived their enemies into thinking that the invasion would commence 45 days after the actual invasion date. That was a good deception, but to add to it, was that the allies convinced the Nazis into thinking that the real invasion spot, Normandy Beach, was the deception spot. Pretty confusing right? According to Globalsecurity.org, while the real invasion was being prepared, there were the North and South Fortitude to prepare. Just for this invasion a whole entire fake army was created, named the First Army US Group (FUSAG). In this group were some British, American,
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Kim 6 and Canadian forces. These men were the ones who were stationed especially for Fortitude South. Everything had to seem real. The group was given uniforms, patches, and many others. They were also allowed to purposely give bits of info about this group to make the Nazis find out the FUSAG plans, which in, reality fake. The Nazis watched the movements of the FUSAG, most which were just to mislead them, but some had the real military forces getting moved and ready for the Normandy Invasion. This was an ingenious plan by making a fake force, and also having a well respected and feared general as the head of this.

But Fortitude South was way harder to plan then the North. Due to the fact that the South of Britain was closer, the Nazis naval force can spy on them, meaning that there would have to be a better deception. The FUSAG deceived the German spies. In the South, different empty tents were built with fire/smoke from the kitchen always burning. Also, in the woods, dirt paths were made, but they led to nowhere. Many inflatable equipment were used. Tanks, AA guns, landing crafts, etc. were all inflatable, but they looked realistic from a birds eye view thousands of feet high. At night there were make belief take offs and lift offs. And also the sounds of plane engine were recorded. This was going on for months and changed the whole course of the invasion. The Nazis were deceived; more reinforcement in the wrong areas while Normandy beach had less and less defense. This operation was proven to be successful because Hitler kept thinking Normandy beach was the deception even on June 12th 1944, but the Normandy invasion took place on June 6th 1944. According to raf.mod.uk, a small operation took place that helped a lot with the deception. This was called operation Taxable. In this, British air force, No. 617 Squadron participated. There were 18 small, British naval vessels that were heading towards France. But the No. 617

Kim 7 squadron circled around near the French coast. The plan was to drop windows every 4 seconds. Windows were small strip of metal that messes up the radar. Due to these metal the radar detected a convoy of naval ships instead of just 18 small ones. The proof that this was a successful deception was when the enemy started firing at the convoy that wasnt really there. The actual invasion took miles away. To convince the Nazis even more that the invasion was somewhere else was by sending in the Para-dummies. These were used for Operation Titanic. In this operation 500 dummies, just few clothes or burlap bags put together with a parachute, were sent down. The allies even added onto the dummies rifle fire stimulators to make it seem real. But what happens after they land? Wont the Nazis find out? Thats why, They were also equipped with small explosive devices that would ignite and burn the Para-dummy and the chute. The psychological implication was that a solider had landed, attempted to burn or hide his parachute and had escaped in the countryside to hide and attack later on (Mac). This was a smart plan, and the Nazis did fall for it giving less time for reinforcement. Analysis After researching about this topic I had a chance to go deeper into something Ive been learning about since 3rd grade. I have found out that it didnt take days to plan D-day, but months and even years. There was a lot of planning, time, and effort used. Also, I didnt know there were so many different operations, which made up that overall operation. Every operation was there for a reason. These two points may be similar, but it is also different. They both have to do with the plan of deception, but the first one talks generally about the planning, giving an outline. The second point gives specific information about the different operations. Conclusions

Kim 8 The allies made a huge success in this invasion. They kept pushing forward and took over Berlin in less then a year. The deception plan wasnt how I thought it would be. There were so many different strategic, and deceptive plans into this invasion, including Para-dummy, inflatable tanks, landing crafts, radio deception, and more. Every part was important. This was a huge deception that I know that it would stay for future military strategists. It led to the freedom of the French from the occupation of the Nazis.

Work cited

Donovan, Michael J. "Strategic Deception: Operation Fortitude." Dtic.mil. U.S. Army War College, 06 Aug. 2002. Web. 11 May 2012. <http://www.dtic.mil/cgibin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA404434>. "Fourteenth Army." Global Security. Global Security, n.d. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/14army.htm>. Mac. "Operation Titanic (D-Day)-Oscar Was No Dummy, or Was He?" Sgt. Mac's Blog. Wordpress, 1 Dec. 2010. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://macsmilitary.com/sgtmacsblog/british-secrets/operation-titanic-dday-oscar-wasno-dummy-or-was-he/>. "Operation Bodyguard." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 May 2012. Web. 11 May 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodyguard>. "RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary." Bomber Command. Delta Web, n.d.Web. 20 May 2012. <http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/h617.html>.
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