Bodyguard.

This is coolbert:

"the truth is so precious that it must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lies."

Now, this famous quote of Winston Churchill is bandied about by a lot of "experts" and conspiracy theorists and offered as proof that governments around the world generally are constantly lying to us and deceiving us about the truth of things.

Now, what was Churchill actually talking about in the context of this quote?

He was talking about BODYGUARD. A deception plan, one of two deception plans, that was used to deceive the Germans as to the true place of the landing by the Allied forces in France. The other plan was code named FORTITUDE. Both of these plans were designed to deceive the Germans, and both worked famously.

"The most important reason was the development of an extensive deception plan, which was named Bodyguard. It had two major objectives; 1) to confuse the Germans about when and where the invasion was to take place, and 2) to cripple the Germans once the invasion began. [4] It was the most complicated deception plan of the entire war, if not of all time."

The main idea of these deceptions was to confuse the Germans as to the true place intended for the main landings of the Allied forces in France. From Norway down to the border between France and Spain were all possible landing points. And the Germans, being the defenders, had to spread their defenses out. The Allied forces, between the attackers, had the initiative, and this allowed them to achieve superiority at the time and place of their choosing. The approximate time could be surmised by the Germans with some accuracy. After the bad weather in the North Sea from winter of 1943-44 had subsided, and the summer was not too advanced. That would be the months of May, June, or July. The place for the landings was more of the mystery.

And it was here that the deception plans totally fooled the German defenders.

The deception plans led the Germans to believe that a whole lot of Allied armies existed that actually did not. One imaginary [notional] army was poised to invade Norway. Another notional army was poised to invade the Pas de Calais area [the shortest route across the English channel]. Another part of the deception was intended to lead the Germans to believe that the allies would land in the low countries [Belgium, Holland]. The Bay of Biscay as a possible landing area was also located included in the deception plan.

"The centerpiece of the deception plan was to convince the Germans that the invasion would occur in the Pas de Calais area. This proved to be relatively easy. As early as October 1943, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt (the Commander of the German Armies in France) became convinced that the Allies would invade there, an opinion he sent via Enigma to OKW (the German military headquarters). [7]"

"To keep the Germans preoccupied with Pas de Calais, the Allies created the mythical 1st United States Army Group (FUSAG). It was "placed" opposite the Germans in Dover, and "commanded" by US General George C. Patton. [8] From October until the end of July 1944, when this deception was finally dropped, it remained a primary focus of Bodyguard. At all times, it was imperative to keep the Germans convinced that the invasion site was Pas de Calais."

The allies had an additional and huge advantage in that they knew what was the course of action Hitler believed they [the allies] would take. That was a major landing in the Pas de Calais area. Hitler believed this was where the allies would strike, the allies knew it, and the allies took full advantage of this. A lot of the deceptions were designed to reinforce this idea in the mind of Hitler. And Hitler continued to believe the deception even after the allies landed in Normandy!! Hitler believed the Normandy invasion was just a diversion!? Knowing what your foe believes allows you to take advantage of their belief if you are skilled enough!

And best of all, the allies had a feedback mechanism to tell them how well their deception was working. This was done through Enigma decrypts. German encrypted messages were intercepted by the allies and decrypted. These messages told them that they were successful in deceiving the Germans. Success was reinforced and the plans worked.

"Luckily for the Allies, a significant amount of Ultra was being deciphered by the Allies in 1943 and 1944. This made it easy to measure the plan's effectiveness as it was being carried out. During the spring of 1944, Ultra was thorough enough to offer a nearly complete picture of the enemy."

"All war is based upon deception", - - Sun Tzu. How many times have I mentioned this quote? So appropo here, isn't it?!

coolbert.