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Backstories Of History’s Most Iconic Photographs

Khalid Elhassan April 10, 2023 31 min

backstories of history's most iconic photographs

A Massive Deception Plan

An inflatable dummy truck, part of a vast D-Day deception plan. Warfare History Network

German intelligence was also fed fake reports via double agents and turned spies about FUSAG’s intentions to invade the Pas de Calais, so as to tie down the German defenders there. A subsidiary, Fortitude North, created a fictitious British Fourth Army in Scotland, and convinced the Germans that it planned to invade Norway, so as to tie down the German divisions there. Bodyguard convinced the Germans that the Normandy invasion of June, 1944, was not the main event, but the first in a series of landings.

So the Germans kept units to guard the Pas de Calais, threatened by the fictitious FUSAG, instead of send them to reinforce Normandy. Bodyguard sought to convince the Germans to stay put in the Pas de Calais for two weeks after D-Day. Instead of two weeks, the Germans remained in the Pas de Calais for seven, before finally releasing the units there for use in Normandy. It was too late: by then, the Allies had been given precious time to build a powerful beachhead in Normandy, before breaking out to liberate France and Western Europe.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.