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The Top-Secret WWII Unit That Fooled the Nazis

The “Ghost Army” used creative tricks such as inflatable tanks and sound effects to dupe German forces.

Its artillery couldn’t fire, its tanks couldn’t move and its members were more adept at wielding paint­brushes than guns. Yet, a top-secret unit of 1,100 Amer­ican artists, designers and sound engi­neers unoffi­cially known as the “Ghost Army” helped to win World War II by stag­ing elab­orate ruses that fooled the forces of Nazi Germany about the location and size of Allied forces. Members of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and 3133rd Signal Company Special who literally practiced the art of war saved the lives of thousands of American servicemen and earned one of the country’s highest civilian honors.

Employing inflatable decoys, fake radio chatter and loud­speakers that blared sound effects, the Ghost Army could simulate a force 30 times its size as it operated as close as a quarter mile from the front lines. “Rarely, if ever, has there been a group of such a few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a major military campaign,” declared a U.S. Army report.

Imaged are not from the article.