The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery by Rick Beyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I first read about them in the context of Operation Fortitude as part of the overall Overlord campaign – creating a fictitious US Army Group in East Anglia to fool the Germans into thinking the main thrust was coming at the Pas de Calais. Little did I know the story was much richer.
Next, I ran across a documentary on Amazon Prime on the “Ghost Army”. I learned that the official US Army unit designation was the 23rd Special Headquarters Troop. This was classic bureaucratic smoke screen to hide what the unit was really up to. The documentary was probably based on the book because it mentioned their tactics, such as creating a fake division using sound; the unit would roll up to the assembly lines and then play on a loop sounds of an American unit moving into position to attack.
However, when the book was on sale, I decided to read more. There is only so much you can fit into a 48 minute documentary. I was very impressed with the author capturing the unit. I learned that these were truly the artsy type and how they answered the call to serve their country. In the 21st century, my biases towards such types are those who would never be found within a mile of an Armed Forces Recruiting station. But back then, these men chose to serve. They took pictures, they drew cartoons, and even painted in their spare time.
The authors truly captured the essence of the men of the 23rd Special Headquarters Troop. Rather than just drink and chase women, they drew pictures of them. They captured Army life – the mundane and the hair raising. The authors also showed just much danger they could have been in; they could be attacked just like all the other units. Perhaps sometimes they were too good because they had to fool their own side in the name of OPSEC. Not even fellow American soldiers knew what they were up to.
I would recommend this book for anyone interesting in reading more about World War 2.
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