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Jaw Dropping World War II Stories that Deserve to be in the History Books

Khalid Elhassan August 25, 2021 37 min

Skeeter Vaughan's knife throwing feat earned him a place in history — Skeeter Vaughan. Film Web

American troops march through a liberated Paris in August, 1944, helped by Pujol's feat of deception — American soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division march along the Champs Elysees in Paris, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background, on August 29th, 1944, four days after the liberation of Paris, France. Associated Press

11. Rather Than Reinforce the Critical Normandy Front, the Germans Held Military Forces Back to Guard Against an Invasion That Never Came

In the weeks that Juan Pujol Garcia’s extraordinary feat of deception had bought them, the Allies amassed sufficient forces in Normandy to defeat German counterattacks. Then they went on the offensive, broke out of the beachhead, and swept across and liberated France within a few months. After D-Day, Pujol and Operation Bodyguard prevented the Germans from committing fully to a counter-attack by convincing them that the Normandy landings were not the main event, but the first in a series of landings.

The false information fed the German high command thus led it to keep powerful military formations away from the critical Normandy front. Instead, they were left to guard other potential landing sites, mainly the Pas de Calais, which was threatened by the fictitious FUSAG under Patton, rather than sent to reinforce the defenders in Normandy. Bodyguard had hoped to convince the Germans to stay put in the Pas de Calais for two weeks after D-Day, instead of immediately sending the units there to reinforce Normandy. They got far more than they had hoped for.

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.