Operation Fortitude was the codename for the deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings (Operation Overlord). It was divided into Fortitude North, a threat to invade Norway, and Fortitude South, designed to induce the Germans to believe that the main invasion of France would occur in the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. Fortitude west was one of the most successful deception operations of the war, and arguably the most important. This article or section includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B... Pas-de-Calais is a département in northern France named after the strait which it borders. ... Flag of Normandy Normandy (in French: Normandie, and in Norman: Normaundie) is a geographical region in northern France. ...

Both Fortitude North and Fortitude South were related to a wider deception plan called Operation Bodyguard. During World War II, Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic deception plan in Europe for 1944, carried out as part of the build-up to the invasion of Normandy. ...

The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. ...

Objectives

The principle objective of Fortitude was to ensure that the opposition faced by the troops invading Normandy would be weak enough to ensure Allied success. Equally important was to delay the movement of German reserves to the Normandy beachhead, and prevent a potentially disastrous counterattack. The plan therefore aimed to persuade the Germans that additional assaults were planned - specifically in Scandinavia and in the Pas de Calais. This leading to the Allied Victory at D-Day Operation Overlord. Pas-de-Calais is a département in northern France named after the strait which it borders. ... The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. ...

Organization

The overall strategic plan for deception by the Allies in 1944 was planned by London Controlling Section and laid out in Operation Bodyguard. However the actual conduct of such deceptions was the task of the commanders in the theatres in which the deception was to occur. The execution of the deception 'cover plan' for Overlord was therefore the responsibility of SHAEF under General Eisenhower. A special section called "Ops (B)" was established at SHAEF to handle deception. The London Controlling Section (LCS) was established in June of 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. ... During World War II, Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic deception plan in Europe for 1944, carried out as part of the build-up to the invasion of Normandy. ... Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (abbreviated as SHAEF), was the command headquarters of the commander of Allied forces in North West Europe in 1944 and 1945. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower, born David Dwight Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 - March 28, 1969) was an American soldier and politician, who served as the thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953-1961). ...

Operations

There were many sub-sperations under Operation Fortitude. These are just a few to name.

• Operation Bodyguard
• Operation Quicksilver (WWII)

During World War II, Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic deception plan in Europe for 1944, carried out as part of the build-up to the invasion of Normandy. ... In World War II, Operation Quicksilver (Allies, 1944) was a sub-plan of Operation Fortitude, the 1944 deception plan. ...

Means

It was initially envisioned that deception would occur through five main channels:

”Rubber decoy tanks were strewn in great numbers along the coast, aimed at confusing the enemy about the site of the genuine buildup of forces."

1. Physical deception: the creation in the mind of the enemy of non-existent units through fake infrastructure and equipment, such as wooden tanks or landing craft.
2. Controlled leaks of information through diplomatic channels which might be passed on via neutral countries to the Germans.
3. Wireless traffic: the creation of non-existent units through simulation of the wireless traffic that such units would generate, which would be detected by the enemy
4. Use of German agents controlled by the Allies through the Double Cross System to send false information to the German intelligence services
5. Public presence of notable staff associated with phantom groups such as FUSAG (First U.S. Army Group), most notably George S. Patton, the best known Allied tank commander.

During the course of Fortitude the almost complete lack of German aerial reconnaissance, together with the absence of uncontrolled German agents in Britain came to make physical deception almost irrelevant. The unreliability of the 'diplomatic leaks' resulted in their discontinuance. The majority of deception was carried out by means of false wireless traffic and through German double agents. The latter was to prove by far the most significant. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 561 pixelsFull resolution (1616 × 1134 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 561 pixelsFull resolution (1616 × 1134 pixel, file size: 2. ... The Double Cross System or XX System, was a World War II anti-espionage and deception operation of the British military intelligence arm, MI5. ... First United States Army Group is a fictitious Army Group developed by the Allies as part of the Operation Quicksilver deception. ... George Smith Patton Jr. ...

Although Fortitude was controlled from SHAEF, London Controlling Section retained responsibility for what was called "Special Means": the use of diplomatic channels and double-agents.

Double agents

The Germans had about 50 agents in England at the time, but B1A (the Counter-Intelligence Division of MI5) had caught and recruited many of them as double agents. In fact, although they did not know it, MI5 controlled all of the German agents in Britain at the time. They planned to feed German Intelligence a misleading picture of the invasion preparations via their own agents. Reports sent by these agents were carefully controlled in order to support the view of forces in the UK which the Allied deception planners wished to present. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The three key double agents for Fortitude were:

• GARBO: Juan Pujol was a Spaniard who had got himself recruited to German intelligence and then offered to work for the British. He created a huge network of false sub-agents by the time of Fortitude. He was awarded the Iron Cross after D-Day.
• BRUTUS: Roman Garby-Czerniawski was a Polish officer; captured by the Germans he was offered a chance to work for them as a spy. On his arrival in Britain he immediately turned himself in to British intelligence.
• TRICYCLE: Duško Popov, a Yugoslav lawyer.

Garbo was the British codename of Juan Pujol García, (1912 – 1988), a double-agent who played a key role in the success of D-Day towards the end of World War II. The false information Pujol supplied to the German command helped persuade Hitler that the main attack would... A stylized version of the Iron Cross, the emblem of the Bundeswehr, Germanys Armed Forces. ... Roman Czerniawski (b. ... Tricycle was the codename of both Duško Popov (Душко Попов) (born 1912 in Titel, Serbia, died 1981 in Opio, France), and the spy network with which he was involved. ...

Fortitude North

Fortitude North was the fictitious assault on Scandinavia. It consisted of two parts: first a plan to re-occupy any parts of occupied Scandinavia that might be weakened by withdrawal of German troops; second an assault on Norway.

The (fictional) unit assigned to this operation was the British Fourth Army, which was located in Scotland. Since German reconnaissance was never likely in Scotland the primary means of deception were the use of double agents, though the radio traffic of the imaginary units assigned to the Fourth Army was simulated by radio operators. The British Fourth Army was a field army of the British Expeditionary Force during the First World War. ...

British diplomats also began negotiations with neutral Sweden in order to obtain concessions that would be useful in the event of an invasion of Norway, such as the right to fly reconnaissance missions over Sweden and the right to refuel planes that made emergency landings. These negotiations were made not in the hope of obtaining the concessions but with the intention that news of the negotiations would reach the ears of the Germans.

The units making up Fourth Army varied throughout 1944. Some were real units whose actual role and organization was disguised by agent reports; some were entirely fictitious. The order of battle at the peak of the operation was as follows:

British Fourth Army fictional - HQ Edinburgh This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

• British II Corps (fictional - HQ Stirling)
  • 55th British Division (Northern Ireland)
  • 58th Division (fictional, Aberlour)
  • British 113th Independent Infantry Brigade (garrison for Orkney and Shetland Islands)

• British VII Corps (fictional - HQ Dundee)
  • British 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division (Dundee)
  • U.S. 55th Infantry Division (fictional, Iceland)
  • Three U.S. Ranger battalions (fictional, Iceland)

• United States XV Corps (Northern Ireland)
  • 2nd US Infantry Division
  • 5th US Infantry Division
  • 8th US Infantry Division

Broad Street at the heart of Stirlings Old Town area (called Top of the Town by locals) Stirling Castle (Southwest aspect) The main courtyard inside Stirling Castle. ... For other uses, see Dundee (disambiguation). ... The British 52nd (Lowland) Division was a Territorial Army division. ...

Fortitude South

Fortitude South was conducted with the intention of convincing the Germans that an invasion would come to the Pas de Calais - a logical strategic choice for an invasion since it was the closest part of France to England and its beaches were not easily defended. While it was hoped that this would reduce the number of troops in the Normandy area at the time of the invasion, even more important was to dissuade the Germans from reinforcing the Normandy battleground in the days immediately after the invasion. To this end the Allies hoped to convince the Germans that the Normandy invasion, when it occurred, was a diversion, and the main invasion was still to come near Calais. Pas-de-Calais is a département in northern France named after the strait which it borders. ...

Operation Quicksilver

The key element of Fortitude South was Operation Quicksilver. It entailed the creation of the belief in German minds that the Allied force consisted of two army groups, 21st Army Group under Montgomery (the genuine Normandy invasion force), and 1st U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) (a fictitious force under General George Patton), positioned in southeastern England for a crossing at the Pas de Calais. In World War II, Operation Quicksilver (Allies, 1944) was a sub-plan of Operation Fortitude, the 1944 deception plan. ...

At no point were the Germans fed false documents describing the invasion plans. Instead they were allowed to construct a misleading order of battle for the allied forces. To mount a massive invasion of Europe from England, military planners had little choice but to stage units around the country with those that would land first nearest to the embarkation point. By placing FUSAG in the south-east, German intelligence would (and did) deduce that the center of gravity of the invasion force was opposite Calais, the point on the French coast closest to England and therefore a likely landing point. An order of battle (often abbreviated as ORBAT, OOB, or OB) is an organizational tool used by military intelligence to list and analyze enemy military units. ...

In order to facilitate this deception additional buildings were constructed; dummy vehicles and landing craft were placed around possible embarkation points. A huge amount of false radio traffic was transmitted, commensurate with a force of that size.

A deception of such a size required input from many organisations, including MI5, MI6, SHAEF via Ops B, and the armed services. Information from the various deception agencies was organized by and channeled through the London Controlling Section under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel John Bevan.

Results

The Allies were able to easily judge the effectiveness of these strategies. ULTRA intelligence — that gained from the breaking of German codes and ciphers, such as the Enigma machine — was able to provide an indication of the German high command's responses to their actions. They maintained the pretense of FUSAG and other forces threatening Pas de Calais for some considerable time after D-Day, possibly even as late as September 1944. This was vital to the success of the Allied plan since it forced the Germans to keep most of their reserves bottled up waiting for an attack on Calais which never came, thereby allowing the Allies to maintain and build upon their marginal foothold in Normandy. Ultra (sometimes capitalized ULTRA) was the name used by the British for intelligence resulting from decryption of German communications in World War II. The term eventually became the standard designation in both Britain and the United States for all intelligence from high-level cryptanalytic sources. ... The plugboard, keyboard, lamps and finger-wheels of the rotors emerging from the inner lid of a three-rotor German military Enigma machine (version with labels) In the history of cryptography, the Enigma was a cipher machine used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages. ...

Reasons for success

Some of the key reasons why this operation was so successful:

• The long term view taken by British Intelligence to cultivate these agents as channels of misinformation to the enemy.
• The use of ULTRA decrypts to read ENIGMA coded messages between Abwehr and German High Command which quickly told them the effectiveness of the deception tactics. This is one of the early uses of a closed-loop deception system.
• R V Jones, the Assistant Director Intelligence (Science) at the British Air Ministry insisted for reasons of tactical deception that for every radar station attacked within the real invasion area, two were to be attacked outside it.
• The extensive nature of the German Intelligence machinery, and the rivalry amongst the various elements.

Professor R V Jones Reginald Victor Jones (29 September 1911 – 17 December 1997) was an English physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an invaluable role in the defence of Britain in World War II. // Biography Born in Dulwich, Jones was educated at Alleyns School, Dulwich and Wadham... The Air Ministry was formerly a department of the United Kingdom Government, established in 1918 with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the (then newly formed) Royal Air Force. ...

Quotes

"So how successful was (Operation) Fortitude? It couldn't have been more successful" — Stephen Ambrose

Stephen Ambrose, at the 2001 premiere of Band of Brothers Stephen Edward Ambrose, Ph. ...

See also

In novels

Eye of the Needle, is a novel, and later a movie about a Nazi spy figuring out the Allied deception, and racing to let the German leadership know. The Unlikely Spy is a novel that focuses on both Allied attempts to carry out Fortitude, as well as a German agent's race to discover the true plans Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. ... The Unlikely Spy is a spy novel written by Daniel Silva, set during World War II. While some of the exact characters and events may be fictional, the book is based on very real events- the attempt by the Allies to use British intelligence to cover up the true plans...

References

• Howard, Sir Michael, Strategic Deception (British Intelligence in the Second World War, Volume 5) (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1990)
• Holt, Thaddeus, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (Scribner, New York, 2004)
• Harris, Tomas, "GARBO, The Spy Who Saved D-Day", Richmond, Surrey, England: Public Record Office, 2000, ISBN 1-873162-81-2
• Hesketh, Roger, "Fortitude", Overlook Press, New York, 2000, ISBN 1-58567-075-8
• Latimer, Jon, "Deception in War", Overlook Press, New York, 2001 ISBN 978-1585673810
• Masters thesis of Whitney Talley Bendeck

External links

• Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Operation Overlord/Fortitude