ISR Tour: C-47 - a podcast by National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

OPERATION FORTITUDE was the Allied effort to deceive the Germans about the timing and location of the upcoming Allied invasion of Normandy. The plan called for intelligence to make the Germans believe that Norway was the primary target for the initial invasion. They also wanted to hide the buildup of forces in Southern England and to convince them that Pas de Calais not Normandy was the real landing site. In addition, once the invasion began at Normandy, they wanted the Germans to believe it was a deception before the real landings began at Pas de Calais. The Allies had to make the Germans believe an entire 250,000-man army was in Scotland. They used false radio transmissions, allowed German reconnaissance planes to photograph decoy ships and depended upon double agents to provide evidence that the fictitious Fourth Army existed (although it was only forty people). It tied up 27 German divisions that could have made Normandy worse. In Southeast England, deception efforts attempted to create a million-man army with Maj. Gen. George Patton in command. Huge tent cities with smoking camp stoves, roads to nowhere, fake landing craft, scripted radio transmissions and true, unimportant messages from double agents kept the Germans near Pas de Calais. It was the best case of Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB) in history.

Further episodes of ISR Audio Tour Part 1

Further podcasts by National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

Website of National Museum of the U.S. Air Force