War & conflict
The Ghost Army: how the Allies won battles with inflatable tanks and search effects
11 min
A secret WWII unit of artists and engineers impersonated whole divisions with rubber tanks, fake radio traffic, and recorded battle noise to fool the Germans about where the real armies were.
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Show notes
The twenty-third Headquarters Special Troops recruited artists from Pratt and Cooper Union to design theatrical battlefield illusions.
Specialized units used five hundred pound speakers to broadcast recordings of heavy armor and bridge-building equipment.
Radio operators mimicked the unique Morse code rhythms of real divisions to fool German intelligence officers.
Operation Viersen used eleven hundred men to simulate the footprint of thirty thousand soldiers during the Rhine crossing.
Inflatable rubber Sherman tanks could be fully deployed in twenty minutes to mimic heavy armor positions.
The unit's deceptive tactics remained classified for fifty years until the files were finally released in nineteen ninety-six.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Architects of Illusion2 min
- 3The Three Pillars of Deception4 min
- 4The Rhine and the Final Act3 min
- 5Fifty Years of Silence2 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- The Ghost Army: Canvas and Camouflage | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
- OFFICIAL HISTORY of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops | The Ghost Army Legacy Project
- The Ghost Army of World War II Used Art to Deceive the Nazis
- The Top-Secret WWII Unit That Fooled the Nazis
- | The Ghost Army Legacy Project | WWII Deception Unit
- Ghost Army
- Ghost Army: The Inflatable Tanks That Fooled Hitler - The Atlantic
- When an Army of Artists Fooled Hitler
- Ghost Army: How American Troops Fooled The Nazis During WWII
- Ghost Army members who deceived Nazis with battlefield ruses in WWII given Congressional Gold Medal
- History of the 23rd Headqarters Special Troops
- New Museum Exhibit Reveals Secrets of World War II’s ‘Ghost Army’ | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
- https://www.nationalww2museum.org/programs/ghost-army-combat-con-artists-world-war-ii
- Artists of Battlefield Deception: Soldiers of the 23rd : NPR
- 23rd Headquarters Special Troops | The Ghost Army Legacy Project
- official history of the 23rd headquarters special troops
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