When planning our day with Stephen and Karen, I looked at what was happening at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. What an exceptional choice. None of us knew anything about the Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II.
This four minute video is a great introduction to the history of this amazing military maneuver. I highly recommend you click here before continuing with this extensive read.
Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II relates the unique story of more than 1,100 men who deceived, sketched, and painted across Europe to manipulate Hitler’s armies during World War II.
Activated on January 20, 1944, the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the “Ghost Army,” was the first mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit in US Army history. Consisting of an authorized strength of 82 officers and 1,023 men under the command of Army veteran Colonel Harry L. Reeder, this unique and top-secret unit was capable of simulating two whole divisions—approximately 30,000 men—and used visual, sonic, and radio deception to fool German forces during World War II’s final year.
Interestingly, this was the idea of American movie star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. who enlisted in the US Navy in April 1941 to work in Naval Intelligence. He eventually served in British Lord Louis Mountbatten's Combined Operations Command. While in Combined Operations, Fairbanks observed the latest British deception techniques and became an advocate for American deception units. Back in the United States, he wrote a memo pitching the development of a deception organization. This memo helped pave the way for the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.
We learned so much about this secret beginning with Operation Elephant, the first deception. The 23rd was still assembling in Normandy when it received orders to carry out its first major operation. Starting on July 1, 1944, the unit would take over the 2nd Armored Division positions in the Cerisy Forest. Using radio transmissions and inflatables, the 23rd worked to convince the Germans that the real 2nd Armored was remaining in reserve when it was actually moving to the front. This operation identified many problems requiring correction. Camouflage was set up too perfectly. It needed mistakes allowing the Germans to see through it. Also, poor security allowed French civilians to wander into the deception area, threatening the whole operation. However, it was from the failures of Elephant that the 23rd figured out the final piece of deception: Special effects.
Lieutenant Fred Fox was a Princeton grad with a background in theater and had dreams of making it big in Hollywood. Fox became pivotal to the development of the 23rd when he composed a memo on July 11, 1944, after the failures of Operation Elephant. Fox suggested that the 23rd needed to incorporate more showmanship into its deceptions. This spurred the development of what the men called "atmosphere" or "special effects." Special effects consisted of fake unit patches and markings on vehicles, phony headquarters, and even impersonations of generals. Special effects proved highly effective and became an important part of all subsequent operations.
The Ghost Army frequently established phony headquarters as a part of their deception operations when they took the place of real US Army units. This environment is a recreation of a dummy headquarters for the 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division's headquarters in Dulken, Germany during Operation Viersen in March 1945.
While the M4 Sherman tank was the main US tank during the war, many different types of armored vehicles were used. This inflatable is a mock up of an M7 Priest. The Army experimented with a metal tank frame to fit on top of a jeep, but the decision was made to go with inflatables because of the ease of transport and the speed of set up. For Operation Viersen in March 1945, more than 150 inflatable armored vehicles were erected to support the deception.
"I used to refer to us as the Cecil B. DeMille warriors," said Lieutenant Dick Syracuse, 3132nd Signal Service Company. Deception, the act of misleading enemy forces, has been used for centuries to gain advantage in combat. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops elevated battlefield deception to an art form. A top-secret unit that included future celebrities such as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, and Art Kane, they waged war with inflatable tanks and vehicles, fake radio traffic, sound effects, and even phony generals. This carefully selected group of artists, engineers, professional soldiers, and draftees-armed with nothing heavier than .50 caliber machine guns-fooled Adolf Hitler's armies, saved thousands of lives, and played an important part in Allied victory in World War II.
Due to the importance of artillery to American soldiers, the Germans made it a point to target their positions. The 23rd would set up its fake, inflatable artillery and try to persuade the Germans to fire at the dummy positions. Empty shell casings, camouflage nets, and flash containers set off at night imitating the bright light of a firing gun helped add to the deception. Throughout the war, the Germans fired numerous times at the 23rd's dummy guns instead of the real ones, saving many lives.
The Stinson L-5 Sentinel was a lightweight reconnaissance and observation aircraft used by the Allies to operate on unimproved airstrips close to the front lines. Because the plane was a common sight on the battlefield, the 23rd would set up dummy airstrips and L5s to fool the Germans into believing they were real. The deception tactic was so successful, American pilots flying L5s would sometimes land on the fake airfields thinking they were real.
So who made all these inflatables? During World War II, women played a pivotal role in the American production effort to become the world's "arsenal of democracy." The 23rd urgently needed its rubber inflatables and 16-year-old high school Theresa Ricard answered a newspaper advertisement by US Rubber Company in Woonsocket, Rhode Island asking for workers. She was soon working on the 93-pound inflatable tanks for 49￠ an hour after school (that's $8.35 in today's dollars). At the peak of the American industrial war effort, women, like Ricard, accounted for 36 percent of the workforce and made victory possible.
The sound special effects came from Colonel Hilton Howell and his 3132nd Signal Service Company Special, which trained in early 1944 at the Army Experimental Station (AES) at Pine Camp, now Fort Drum, New York. Playing sound effects from 500-pound speakers mounted on half-tracks, this unit simulated sounds of men and tanks moving into position from up to 6,000 yards away. The 3132nd traveled with a library of sound recordings prerecorded at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The equipment was so specialized that the half-tracks were rigged with explosives to destroy them, rather than be captured.
I was so intrigued by the things the soldiers brought home from the war. Robert Tompkins, of the 603rd Camouflage Engineers, kept a day to day diary of his time in the 23rd. Although keeping a diary was against standing orders, this tiny journal gives great insight to the inner workings of the 23rd. One entry in particular shows what a successful deception required: "Sept. 16 Sewed on patches. Set up tanks. Built fires simulating armored infantry battalion. Truck goes out every hour into village on atmosphere." After the end of the war, fashion designer Bill Blass's mother transcribed the 56 page diary for Tompkins.
Sergeant Stanley Nance served in the Signal Company Special as a radio operator and commander of a radio truck. The German phrasebook contains Nance's notes from many Ghost Army operations. The sewing kit was used by Nance to swap out phony patches on his uniform used by the unit during deceptions, and the pennant flew on his radio truck which he nicknamed "Kilowatt Kommand."
I was very intrigued by this booklet, You on KP! by Corporal Jack Masey, of the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. This talented artist spent time between deceptions caricaturing the men in his company. He put the caricatures together in a book called You on KP!. The men pooled their money and had copies printed in Luxembourg City as souvenirs. After the war, he designed exhibitions around the world for the United States Information Agency. He was the Director of Design for the famous 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, and Chief Designer of the American Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. Later, his company designed the original Pacific galleries at The National World War II Museum. Who knew?
One of the most famous of these military heroes was Bill Blass who became a superstar fashion designer. His name grew into a household word, eventually appearing on everything from cars to boxes of chocolate. In 1967, fellow veteran Jack Masey prevailed upon him to design uniforms for the US Pavilion guides at the Expo 67 World's Fair in Montreal.
Bill Blass registered for the draft on June 30, 1942, a week after his 20th birthday. In 1943, along with other New York City artists, he became a member of the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. His fellow soldiers remembered his positive attitude and his sense of style. One is quoted as saying about Mr. Blass, "He would never shirk a duty. If it was cleaning trash cans, he was right there with a smile and beautiful teeth." And Jack Masey reports that Blass read Vogue in his foxhole.
While other artist soldiers painted the scenes of war, he filled his wartime notebooks with fashion designs and the mirror image Bs that would eventually become the logo for his own fashion house. Wild right?!
Not Me, Please was an extra special artwork. Private Harold Levinsky, who later changed his name to Hal Laynor, was wounded in the deadly barrage of March 13, 1945. There was "a shattering, smashing, blinding series of explosions around us," he wrote. While recuperating in Paris, he met and studied under Pablo Picasso. After returning home he made this oil painting in 1947 depicting the terror of being caught in the barrage. What a depiction.
There is no way I can share how powerful this exhibit was. At the time, Private Irving Stempel, 603rd Camouflage Engineers said, "It's amazing, the fakery that we perpetrated upon the enemy."
Once the war was over, many soldiers were sworn to secrecy. Records were classified and equipment packed away. Except for a scattering of newspaper articles right after the war, no one spoke publicly about the deceivers until a 1985 Smithsonian article. Though knowledge of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was then public, it was still officially classified until the mid-1990s.
Long-delayed recognition has finally come for the 1,100 soldiers who served in the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and 200 more in the 3133rd Signal Service Company. On February 1, 2022, President Joseph Biden signed into law legislation awarding the unit a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow, for their "proficient use of innovative tactics during World War II, which saved lives and made significant contributions to the defeat of the Axis powers."
Oh man, I'm getting emotional. What a story! It's definitely one that needs to be shared.
Amazing & creative war tactics back then. It's such a different world today ~ I felt so uneasy reading about this history, when imagining the potential of Artificial Intelligence in war and politics.
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Amazing & creative war tactics back then. It's such a different world today ~ I felt so uneasy reading about this history, when imagining the potential of Artificial Intelligence in war and politics.
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