23rd May,1944
General Hans Cramer, the last German commander of the Afrika Korps, who was captured in May 1943, arrives in Berlin.
Imprisoned in a POW camp in Wales, his deteriorating health caused him to be repatriated to Germany through the Swedish Red Cross. He was brought first from Wales to London, the route taken brought him through the south and south-west of England. He was allowed to see the massive build up of tanks, planes and ships getting ready for the D-Day invasion.
What he didn’t know was the exact area of England he was being driven through. He was told it was southern and eastern England and this is what he reported to his seniors in Berlin, adding emphasis to the Allied propaganda that the invasion would take place in the Calais area.
When it came to planning for D-Day, the biggest amphibious operation ever launched, the need for a detailed deception plan was even greater. When discussing the invasion with Joseph Stalin at Tehran, Winston Churchill used the phrase, “In wartime truth is so precious that it should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” This perfectly summed up the Allied view of deception.
General Montgomery, since Alamein a keen supporter of deception, was put in charge of the 21st Army Group, effectively making him commander of land forces on D-Day and beyond. His chief deception officer, Lieutenant-Colonel David Strangeways, insisted that the only way to make the Germans keep a large army, their 15th Army, in the Calais region was to convince them that a complete Army Group was forming in Kent, Essex and Suffolk, preparing to invade along the Pas-de-Calais. But how could the deceivers drum up an army of 300,000 men who did not exist?
There were many elements to the deception campaign known as Operation Fortitude. Double agents, German spies who had been sent to Britain and had been turned by MI5, sent back misinformation to their German minders. They played a major role. There were scientific deceptions, too, sending false signals to indicate flotillas of ships or squadrons of aircraft were somewhere they were not.
A fake army, was created. the First US Army Group, known by its acronym as FUSAG.
General George S Patton was put in command of FUSAG. Doubtless he would have preferred to be commanding real troops preparing for the actual invasion, but he threw himself into this new role.
As a great showman, he would turn up to make speeches and inspect imaginary infantry and armoured units. Everywhere he went, he was accompanied by photographers and his new command soon leaked out to the enemy. As the Germans thought he was one of the best generals the Allies had, they fully believed he would command the spearhead of the invasion of Europe.
When the D-Day landings took place in Normandy, they took the Germans by complete surprise. But they were quick to react and, within a few days, reinforcements had arrived from south and west France to do battle
