Operation Fortitude Contributes to D-Day Success (6 JUN 1944)
On June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied ships and planes crossed the English Channel and landed nearly 160,000 British, Canadian, and American troops on the coast of Normandy. Operation NEPTUNE, the amphibious assault phase of the larger campaign known as Operation OVERLORD, marked the opening of the final drive to defeat German forces in Europe. It owed part of its success to the massive deception plan FORTITUDE.
Deception was frequently used during World War II, but one of the Allies’ greatest efforts occurred in conjunction with the D-Day landings. Arguably the largest amphibious operation in military history, the invasion of France on the Normandy coast employed five U.S. Army divisions plus a number of separate combat and support units in the American sector alone.
Leading up to the invasion, the U.S. Army’s Signal Security Agency had intercepted a series of enemy communications confirming Hitler’s belief that the assault, when it came, would take place at Pas-de-Calais, about 200 hundred miles northeast of Normandy.* As the Allies advanced their planning of the D-Day invasion, they needed to ensure Hitler maintained this misconception. This led to the implementation of Operation FORTITUDE.
In the spring of 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, directed his staff to create a phantom invasion force known as the First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), commanded by the very-real Lt. Gen. George S. Patton. To support this phantom force, Allied intelligence had dummy plywood-and-canvas installations built and deployed inflatable tanks and vehicles near Dover, England. A vast armada of rubber landing craft was anchored in the Thames River estuary, clearly visible to German reconnaissance aircraft. The Allies also initiated a massive bombing campaign over the Pas-de-Calais region in the weeks preceding the invasion, while faked radio traffic simulated the operations of a major military organization poised to attack the coastline.
The deception exceeded all expectations. Remaining convinced that Pas-de-Calais was the planned site for the Allied invasion, Hitler considered the Normandy landings a mere diversion. As fighting raged along the beaches of Normandy, he kept nineteen divisions in the vicinity of Calais waiting for an attack that never materialized. These German forces could have inflicted a heavy toll on the Allied forces at Normandy. As a result, Patton’s phantom army saved the lives of countless Allied soldiers and allowed the Allied armies to establish a foothold in France for the eventual defeat of Germany.
*See Also Signal Security Agency Sends Trip Report to FDR: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/459532/ssa-sends-trip-report-fdr-14-dec-1943 MAGIC Contributes to D-Day Success: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/484976/magic-contributes-d-day-success-10-nov-1943
Article by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
