17. World War II’s Greatest Feat of Deception
Once the US joined World War II, everybody knew that, sooner or later, American and British forces were bound to launch an invasion of Europe to free it from Nazi tyranny. What mattered most to the Germans was to find out just where the invasion would occur, so they could mass sufficient forces to throw it back into the sea. To prevent that from happening, the Allies turned to Operation Bodyguard, a multifaceted and complex plan to deceive the Nazis about the time and location of the Western Allies’ intended invasion of Europe in 1944.
Operation Bodyguard had three goals. First, was to conceal the actual time and date of the planned invasion. Second, was to convince the Germans that the main invasion would land in the Pas de Calais, instead of Normandy. Third, to convince the Germans after the Allies had invaded Normandy to nonetheless maintain a strong concentration of military forces in the Pas de Calais region for at least two weeks, rather than send its defenders to reinforce Normandy. In a great feat of deception, as seen below, the Allies succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
