This fake aircraft looks much better than the first one. This proved their downfall in the case of Operation Fortitude. The Germans didn’t have to try as hard, because they had nothing to look at except Britain. German aerial reconnaissance wasn’t nearly as sophisticated as that used by the Allies, for good reason. The Allies needed to spy from the sky on the entire European continent, to find out what the enemy was doing. It doesn’t seem that plywood aircraft like this one could fool the German photo interpreters, but apparently they did. Again, pretty convincing, don’t you think? Not only tanks, but inflatable trucks were created. Here’s another shot of a rubber tank, looking pretty darned realistic.Īs a double blind, the dummy tanks were covered with camouflage - netting and fake leaves - but then the camouflage was allowed to deteriorate in the weather, so the Germans would see what they assumed were real tanks underneath. To read more about the book, click Bird’s Eye View.) She warns the army to move their spoofs in darkness, not in broad daylight when they can be spotted by enemy aircraft. (This incident appears in my upcoming novel. My heroine Rose is an aerial photographic interpreter, tasked with studying aerial photos of the fake army. The photo at the top of this page shows four men carrying a rubber tank, which must have been a shocking sight to those who didn’t know it was a “spoof,” as the dummy tanks were called. Here’s a photo of a fake tank under construction. They created what was basically a rubber army. His selection as head of the fake army was a stroke of genius, because the Germans believed he would play a major role in the invasion.Ī team of camofleurs and theatre set designers was brought on board to mock up an entire fake army on the coast around Dover, the closest point to Calais. Army Group, headed by a real blood-and-guts general, Lieutenant General George S. The latter, known as Quicksilver, established the imaginary First U.S. The most striking was the creation of two phantom armies – one in Scotland to threaten an invasion of Norway, and the other in southeast England to threaten Pas-de-Calais.
The top-secret date was selected - the early hours of June 6, 1944.īut to keep the destination under wraps, an elaborate plan called Operation Fortitude used multiple layers of trickery.
Here’s a map showing the relative distances. So it made perfect sense that the Allies would invade Calais.īut in fact, they secretly selected the beaches of Normandy, about one hundred miles away, or one hundred and sixty kilometres. Operation Fortitude was an elaborate, mind-boggling hoax – using decoys such as rubber tanks, canvas ships, plywood aircraft, and even dummy soldiers to fool the Germans about where we secretly planned to land on D-Day.Įveryone knew the Allies would eventually try to take back the continent. But when, and where? To refresh your knowledge of geography, Pas-de-Calais is an easy hop, just thirty miles away (about fifty kilometres) from England’s coastline.
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