WW2 Ghost Army Used Art to Deceive Nazis, D-Day, Rhineland - Artists, Designers, Engineers, Painters
How the Ghost Army of WW2 Used Art to Deceive the Nazis, Smithsonian Mag., July 5, 2022. Ed.
- Unsung for decades, the U.S. Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops drew on visual, sonic and radio deception to misdirect the Germans.
Bernie Bluestein was 19 years old when he spotted a vaguely worded notice of World War II, and the United States Army was seeking recruits for a new, non-combat camouflage unit that would draw on the art of deception to misdirect the enemy. All for serving his country but not exactly the “fighter-type person,” Bluestein enlisted in the enigmatic unit. He didn’t know it at the time, but the assignment would prove riskier than most non-combat roles: If the Nazis found out that members of the so-called “Ghost Army” were playing them for fools, they were likely to retaliate brutally.
“If I had known that before I got into the service, I probably would have made a different decision,” says Bluestein, now 98. A resident of Schaumburg, Illinois, he remains an avid artist, making everything from paintings to ceramics.
Known formally as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, the unit carried out more than 20 deception campaigns during the final year of the war. Drawing on members’ artistic talent & technological savvy, the Ghost Army created elaborate illusions featuring inflatable tanks, jeeps & artillery; speakers that blasted prerecorded tracks of troops in action; and falsified radio dispatches. Their goal: to confuse and intimidate the Germans by offering a false sense of the Americans’ numbers and troop movements. In total, the 23rd saved the lives of an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 American servicemen.
Their successful missions included D-Day and Operation Viersen, a March 1945 hoax that convinced the Germans their enemies were planning to cross the Rhine River far north of where they actually attacked. Though the unit’s numbers were limited—it comprised 1,023 men & 82 officers—the soldiers’ visual, sonic & radio deceptions managed to convince the Germans that they faced enemy forces of up to 40,000 men. Despite the Ghost Army’s pivotal role in the Allied victory, few outside of the unit knew of its existence until decades after the war.
Smithsonian magazine published the first feature-length, public account of the group’s exploits in April 1985..The U.S. government declassified the unit’s official history around that same time, according to the Ghost Army Legacy Project, but soon reclassified the records & kept them under wraps until 1996.. Comprising artists, architects, set designers, painters, engineers & other highly skilled creatives, the 4-unit Ghost Army—the first of its kind in American history—was activated on Jan. 20, 1944..“This is a unit that used creativity & illusion to save lives and help win the war. ... That’s something highly worthy of honor,” says Rick Beyer, producer of the 2013 documentary The Ghost Army...Read More, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-ghost-army-of-wwii-used-art-to-deceive-the-nazis-180980336/
- "The Ghost Army" trailer, film available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
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