Did the British or Allies use inflatable decoys to fool the Nazis before the Normandy landing?
Question by ☯Tao☯: Did the British or Allies use inflatable decoys to fool the Nazis before the Normandy landing?
which kinds and how many and why, how they worked?
where they were made probably? and WHERE they put them? and why Nazis didnt see this?
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
6 Responses to Did the British or Allies use inflatable decoys to fool the Nazis before the Normandy landing?
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Yes, although I’m not sure where they were chronologically relative to the Normandy landing.
They used inflatable tanks and other military equipment to scare the Germans into retreating, often.
The Mendicant
November 25, 2012 at 5:44 am
My Mellow American Ally,
Let me just say that the Allies used inflatable rubber tanks, wooden tanks and trucks, even wooden mockup aircraft to mislead the Germans – they also used the presence of General Geroge Patton and a mythical Army near the Pas de Calais – which is the shortest distance between Britain and France, to mislead the Germans as to where the landing would take place.
They also used such devices as naming the British 6th Airborne Division 6th instead of 2nd Airborne Division – when in reality they had six Parachute and Air Landing Brigades available, of which two Parachute and one Air Landing Brigades are required to form a division.
Your Future Prez.
Weasel Six
November 25, 2012 at 6:24 am
Fields of these were in England in early 1944, and from the air they looked real. There was radio traffic between units and units sending messages to headquarters about troop strength and equipment needs. It had unit identification(s) and General Patton was in charge. He was expected to lead the D-Day invasion.
tuffy
November 25, 2012 at 6:44 am
Operations Fortitude and Quicksilver.
Used inflatable and decoy landing craft, the Allies were making strenuous efforts to keep any aerial reconnaissance away from England to build up for the invasion – however it was possible to see ports and harbours from the sea at a distance.
Under Quicksilver this was combined with faked radio traffic, a false network of agents under the control of double agent Garbo and FUSAG.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-canon-david-strangeways-1172275.html
Tim D
November 25, 2012 at 7:34 am
In East Anglia (counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk) in Britain there was a vast ‘phantom army’ which included plywood and inflatable tanks on various military bases, and there was radio signal traffic generated concerning that phantom army to fool any German intelligence listners. One of the real firebrand American generals (Bradley?) was ‘in charge’ of it. The idea was to make the Germans think that the invasion of Europe might be launched somewhere near Calais, at the narrowest point of the English Channel.
Such phantom vehicles would bee seen as the real thing by aerial photo-reconnaisance, and in those days without the internet etc security was tight enough for the deception to work well enough at least to raise many doubts in the minds of the German military, so that defences had to be spread more thinly along the whole northern coast of France.
John P
November 25, 2012 at 8:28 am
There was also Operation Fortitude North, the fictional build-up of troops in Scotland, which was intended to fool the Germans into thinking that an invasion would be launched against Norway.
Nicole
November 25, 2012 at 8:34 am