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4 of the Greatest Hoaxes of World War II


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May 11, 2015

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Achieving ones goals in the most important thing in war and all means have been used to do so
during WWII. Trickery, planned hoaxes, deceit, making use of doubles or simply feigning the
willingness to surrender are all used at some point during the war. We take a look at 4 of these
hoaxes.

1 Operation Fortitude

Operation Fortitude was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the
Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy during the build-up to the 1944 Normandy
landings. Fortitude was divided into two sub-plans, North and South, with the aim of misleading
the German high command as to the location of the imminent invasion.

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Both Fortitude plans involved the creation of fake field armies (based in Edinburgh and the south
of England) which threatened Norway (Fortitude North) and Pas de Calais (Fortitude South). The
operation was intended to divert Axis attention away from Normandy and, after the invasion on
June 6, 1944, to delay reinforcement by convincing the Germans that the landings were purely a
diversionary attack.
Fortitude North was designed to mislead the Germans into expecting an invasion of Norway. By
threatening any weakened Norwegian defence the Allies hoped to prevent or delay reinforcement
of France following the Normandy invasion. The plan involved simulating a buildup of forces in
northern England and political contact with Sweden.

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During a similar operation in 1943, Operation Cockade, a fictional field army (British Fourth Army)
had been created, headquartered in Edinburgh Castle. It was decided to continue to use the same
force during Fortitude. Unlike its Southern counterpart the deception relied primarily on Special
Means and fake radio traffic, since it was judged unlikely that German reconnaissance planes
could reach Scotland unintercepted.False information about the arrival of troops in the area were
reported by double agents Mutt and Jeff, who had surrendered following their 1941 landing in the
Moray Firth, whilst the British media cooperated by broadcasting fake information, such as
football scores or wedding announcements, to nonexistent troops. Fortitude North was so
successful that by late spring 1944, Hitler had thirteen army divisions in Norway.

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In the early spring of 1944 British commandos attacked targets in Norway to simulate
preparations for invasion. They destroyed industrial targets, such as shipping and power
infrastructure, as well as military outposts. This coincided with an increase in naval activity in the
northern seas, and political pressure on neutral Sweden.
Fortitude South employed similar deception in the south of England, threatening an invasion at
Pas de Calais by the fictional 1st U.S. Army Group (FUSAG). France was the crux of the Bodyguard
plan; as the most logical choice for an invasion the Allied high command had to mislead the
German defences in a very small geographical area. The Pas de Calais offered a number of
advantages over the chosen invasion site, such as the shortest crossing of the English Channel and
the quickest route into Germany. As a result German command, particularly Rommel, took steps to
heavily fortify that area of coastline. The Allies decided to amplify this belief of a Calais landing.
Montgomery, commanding the Allied landing forces, knew that the crucial aspect of any invasion
was the ability to enlarge a beachhead into a full front. He also had only limited divisions at his
command, 37 compared to around 60 German formations. Fortitude Souths main aims were to
give the impression of a much larger invasion force (the FUSAG) in the South-East of England, to
achieve tactical surprise in the Normandy landings and, once the invasion had occurred, to
mislead the Germans into thinking it a diversionary tactic with Calais the real objective

2 Operation Mincemeat

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ID card of Major Martin via Wikipedia


This was an operation used by the British during WW2 to trick the Germans that the Allied attack
on Europe would take place at Sardinia, yet the planned attack would be at Sicily. The British
intelligence thus created a `Major Martin`, whom they would use as a decoy in order to catch the
Germans off-guard.
The British started by looking for a soldier who had died of pneumonia so that if the Germans
decided to conduct an autopsy and it would prove that the victim had drowned. They would then
bury the phony `Major Martin` at sea off the Spanish Coast, and top-secret documents were put in
his clothes. Additionally, he was supplied with a complete background to ensure that his cover
would not be blown.
For instance, a wallet containing a photo of his supposed fiance was put in one of his pockets.
This plan was executed in 30th April 1943 during the wee hours of the morning and by late
afternoon that day the corpse of `Major Martin` was found by Spanish fishermen.
One of the documents was a personal letter sent and signed by Lord Mountbatten and it stated,
Let me have him [Martin] back, please, as soon as the assault is over. He might bring some
sardines with him; they are on points here! This was a brilliant trick meant to mislead the
Germans that the Allied attack would take place on Sardinia.
The body of the phony `Major Martin` was sent back, and on 2nd May and he was given a Major`s
burial. As a matter of fact, there was even an obituary notice of him in the London Times.
When the British learnt that the plan had worked and the Germans had begun deploying massive
reinforcements to Sardinia, they attacked Sicily and they won the battle without much resistance.
It is important to note that the British first obtained permission from the dead soldiers relatives
before they could use him for the mission. The relatives agreed, but with only one condition; the
real identity of the soldier should never be revealed.

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