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One of the most famous—and certainly most audacious—deceptions of the Second World War was Operation Mincemeat. Conceived by British Intelligence, it was a ploy to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. The body of a deceased hobo called Glyndwr Michael was dressed as a Royal Marines officer. The corpse was placed with personal items identifying him as the fictitious Major William Martin. Pictured is the Naval identity card of "Major Martin" with a photograph of MI5 officer Captain Ronnie Reed, whose facial features resembled those of the cadaver.
Among the key documents planted on the body were those that purported to show that the targets for the forthcoming invasion would be Greece and Sardinia. Pictured is intelligence officers Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu on April 17, 1943, transporting the body to Scotland. From there is was taken by submarine to be launched into the sea off the southern Spanish coast.
Recovered later by Spanish authorities, the body of Major Martin was searched. The 'secret' documents were passed via Nazi sympathizers to German intelligence officers in Spain. Acting on the false information, the Germans deployed reinforcements to Greece and Sardinia. The ruse had worked. The Allies successfully invaded Sicily on July 9, 1943, and initiated the Italian campaign.
Intelligence and counter-intelligence played a major role in the North African campaign. Several covert operations and deception plans to confuse Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps were devised, including the building by British forces of a water pipeline heading south through the desert as if to indicate that a major Allied offensive was about to take place. In fact, the real assault was planned for the north, an attack that would catch the Germans completely off guard.
Operation Cascade and Operation Bertram were both designed by the Allies to deceive Rommel (pictured). Cascade was conceived to create a false order of battle in order to keep the Axis guessing as to the strength of the Allies in the region. This was achieved using bogus troop formations, radio traffic, and double agents.
Hitler, meanwhile, ordered the reinforcement of his Atlantic Wall in the Pas-de-Calais, convinced this was the target for the FUSAG landfall.
Prior to D-Day, and part of Operation Quicksilver, created to deceive the Germans about where the Allies would land in France, the Americans created an imaginary army—the First United States Army Group (FUSAG). Localized in Kent, this imaginary Allied Army Group was designed to avert German reconnaissance from the real buildup of troops elsewhere in Southern England (pictured).
From the air, this ghost army appeared formidable in its strength and numbers. And it had been based in Kent on purpose. Overlooking the Straits of Dover, the location suggested that the Allies were planning to launch their invasion across the narrowest part of the English Channel, with Pas-de-Calais the logical landing point.
The Italian campaign led to the downfall of Benito Mussolini. Hitler, fearing Rome would be taken by the Allies, ordered its occupation by the Wehrmacht. Previously spared ill-treatment, Rome's Jewish population was now in a perilous position. Many sought refuge in Fatebenefratelli Hospital, on Tiber Island.
The hospital was run by antifascist doctors. Fearing a raid by the SS, the medics devised an ingenious deception. They invented a deadly disease they called Syndrome K, likely named after Rome's Nazi overlord, Albert Kesselring (pictured). The medics informed the authorities that dozens of 'patients' had caught the fatal infection, and warned the SS that the condition was highly contagious. The Nazis were terrified of catching Syndrome K and dared not enter the ward, turning their attention elsewhere.
The ruse allowed hundreds of Italian Jews to escape the clutches of the Gestapo. In June 1944, Allied forces—specifically the US Fifth Army—liberated Rome.
Operation Titanic took place the night before the Normandy landings. Part of the tactical element of Operation Bodyguard, this deception strategy involved an airborne assault by Allied parachutists over countryside behind Omaha Beach (where most of the bloodiest fighting would take place). But all was not what it seemed.
Around 500 "Ruperts" were dropped over German lines, which diverted hundreds of Wehrmacht soldiers away from defensive positions overlooking Omaha Beach. As part of the wider ploy, the SAS teams set off fireworks and played 30 minutes of pre-recorded sounds of men shouting and weapons fire including mortars.
The Double-Cross System refers to how British intelligence penetrated and practically operated Nazi Germany's spy network within the British Isles during the Second World War. This network was created by the German military intelligence service known as the Abwehr, led by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (pictured).
Double-Cross System operations were overseen by John Cecil Masterman. Effectively a forerunner of MI5, this counter-espionage and deception operation netted dozens of German spies stationed in Britain. Threatened with exposure, many ended up working for the British security forces, transmitting disinformation to Berlin using their own clandestine wireless sets.
The Double-Cross System supported Operation Fortitude and later was instrumental in the V-weapons deception. German double agents were ordered by their spymasters to exaggerate the numbers of V-1s hitting their target. They subsequently transmitted the locations of non-existent targets in an effort to alter the trajectory of Hitler's so-called "revenge weapons" (Vergeltungswaffen).
The Battle of Dunkirk was the defense and evacuation of British and other Allied forces to Britain from May 26 to June 4, 1940. It was known as Operation Dynamo.
The success of Operation Dynamo relied in part on the belief by the Germans that the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and other Allied forces were trapped at Dunkirk. Their conviction was further fueled by the fact that British command initially opposed evacuation, and French forces wanted to hold out as well.
What happened next remains one of the most debated decisions of the war. Believing the Allies were trapped, the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk for three days. This allowed some 330,000 troops to be evacuated. Hitler lost the initiative, not so much because of any ploy or deception, but because he believed his enemy would not attempt a breakout.
On April 19, 1943, Jewish insurgents inside the Warsaw Ghetto staged an uprising after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants.
To fool the Germans, the Americans built barracks and tents and created dozens of 'tanks'—in fact inflatable dummy tanks (pictured) and landing craft.
But it was a feint, a masterstroke in disinformation. In what was code-named Operation Fortitude, the Allies' use of dummy landing craft (pictured) and other military hardware had successfully diverted Berlin's eyes away from the real buildup to the Normandy landings, further west along the south coast of England.
In reality, the Allied states had agreed on Normandy as the stepping stone for the invasion of Europe, the draft strategy of which had been signed off at the Tehran Conference (pictured). Operation Fortitude had been part of the wider Operation Bodyguard, the overall stratagem for misleading Hitler as to the time and place of the invasion, which ultimately took place on June 6, 1944.
Operation Bertram also deceived the Desert Fox and his Afrika Korps by using dummy tanks and camouflage to fool the Germans in the months before the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942. False radio traffic provided further red herrings. Pictured is the framework of a dummy tank under construction at the Middle East School of Camouflage in the Western Desert.
Apart from a handful of Special Air Service troops, the parachute regiment was made up entirely of figurines known as "Ruperts"—crude dummies fashioned from sand, straw, and fabric, each attached to a canopy. Pictured is one of these British parachute dummies, now on display at the Merville Gun Battery Museum in France.
The Nazis had seriously underestimated the resolve of the Jewish people in resisting the roundup. German intelligence had also dismissed the effectiveness of Polish resistance groups, who surprised the SS by joining the insurrection.
Until the uprising, the civilian population in the ghetto had appeared meek and resigned to their fate. But while they all knew they couldn't win and that their survival was unlikely, the uprising marked the first significant urban revolt against German occupation in Europe, and remains one of the most important episodes in the history of the Jewish people.
Sources: (Imperial War Museums) (Sky History) (National Army Museum) (D-Day Overlord) (Warfare History Network) (Forces War Record)(Holocaust Encyclopedia)
Some of history's most ingenious military deceptions took place during the Second World War. In fact, behind many of the well-known battles and campaigns fought out during the conflict are a number of exceptionally creative and resourceful ploys created by the Allies and designed to confuse and misinform the enemy. Indeed, these elaborate ruses helped defeat Nazi Germany. But which of these deserve special mention as truly hoodwinking Adolf Hitler?
Click through and discover the feints, hoaxes, and stunts that deceived the Third Reich.
Remembering World War II: how the Allies fooled their enemies
Duping Nazi Germany during the Second World War
LIFESTYLE History
Some of history's most ingenious military deceptions took place during the Second World War. In fact, behind many of the well-known battles and campaigns fought out during the conflict are a number of exceptionally creative and resourceful ploys created by the Allies and designed to confuse and misinform the enemy. Indeed, these elaborate ruses helped defeat Nazi Germany. But which of these deserve special mention as truly hoodwinking Adolf Hitler?
Click through and discover the feints, hoaxes, and stunts that deceived the Third Reich.