WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: The Ghost Army 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:06.160 Happy Saturday, everybody. The Ghost Army came up briefly in 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.880 our recent episode on Joan Current, so it seemed like 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.680 exactly the right time to put out that episode again. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.200 This one originally came out almost exactly five years ago 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:23.239 on January, So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:32.120 History Class, a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.720 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Collie Frying and I'm 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.840 Tracy by Wilson. And today we're gonna talk a little 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.880 bit about military history, and it's World War two specifically, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.800 and even though this particular piece, uh that we're discussing 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.720 is in fact military history, if there were a history 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.080 of ingenuity or sleight of hand, I think this would 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.000 probably be one of the big events on that timeline. Uh. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.200 So we're gonna be talking about the US Ghost Army, 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.960 which was a top secret group that was assembled to 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.320 create confused and mislead access forces. And it's a really 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.520 amazing story that stars Ingenuity and Bravado as sort of 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.039 the the main elements of the piece. And the idea 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.559 of military deception was of course not new to World 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.440 War Two. Everyone has heard of like the Trojan Horse, 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.600 for example, and deceit as a tactic as part of 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.360 sun sus art of war. Almost any culture in history 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.080 that found itself at war with another culture use some 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.760 type of trickery to try to outsmart the enemy, because 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.280 that's sort of a vital part of getting the upper 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.600 hand in a conflict is misleading so that you can 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.120 kind of swoop in with your forces. But this group 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.240 really went to some pretty extraordinary measures to achieve their goals, 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.440 and they did some really fascinating and cool things, uh 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:44.760 and so, and it was classified for a long time 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.400 and then kind of came to light. So we are 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.680 going to talk about it today because it is really cool. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.480 So to start out at the beginning like we normally do. 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:57.920 That's one third. Headquarters Special Troops was the one and 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.960 only deception outfit that US Army had ever authorized. The 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.320 goal was to corral a group of creative thinkers to 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:11.440 approach warfare in new ways, and this sort of trickery 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.640 focused effort was inspired by the success of Operation Bertram, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.720 in which Allied forces used dummy tanks and camouflage to 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.040 trick Rommel's forces into an incorrect assessment of the Allies 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.359 position and strength during the second Battle of l A 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.400 l Amain in North Africa. And also bolstering this case 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.760 for a deception unit was the u S success in 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.160 misleading German intelligence leading up to the Battle of Tunisia. 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.080 They realized deception was working and they thought, let's just 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.760 have a unit that's focused on this. The idea of 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.840 forming a unit dedicated just to this is attributed to 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.639 Captain Ralph Ingersoll. Before the war, he had been a 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.400 celebrity journalist and he had been working with Great Britain 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.280 on deception techniques to mislead the Germans and the time 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:00.400 leading up the D Day. On Christmas Eve of three, 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.440 a memo to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:07.480 War Department in Washington, d C officially requested the creation 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.120 of a unit with a mission quote to simulate a 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.280 core of two infantry divisions and one armored divisions and 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:21.320 core installations railhead dumps, etcetera. So, beginning in nine more 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.359 than one thousand young men were recruited, and they were 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.440 often recent art school graduates or ad agency creatives and 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.040 they were handpicked for this assignment. Recruits were sent to 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:36.680 Camp Forest in Tullahoma, Tennessee to train within there were 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.760 several companies. For the two four Signal Company worked on 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:46.240 radio counter intelligence. Second Signal Service Company, which was actually 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.600 trained at Pine Camp, New York, worked to develop sonic 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:53.760 deception techniques. The four oh six Engineer Combat Company worked 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.720 on the big construction projects and was in charge of security. 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.480 And often you'll hear this effortmen anctioned, like when people say, oh, 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.720 the Ghost Army they used inflatable tanks to deceive the Germans, 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.800 And that is partially true, but as we mentioned in 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.520 breaking down these different companies within the twenty three, it 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.440 was a whole lot more than that. Yeah, I feel 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.840 like the tanks get the big, like kind of bud 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:21.559 speedy headlines all the time, which is understandable. There's really 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.719 cool video that exists, like where you can see them 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.400 rolling over these inflated tanks and there. I don't know 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.440 that I have ever heard any of the audio recordings, 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.960 and I don't think I've ever seen anyone reference them online. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.800 So you can see where the tanks get all the attention. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:41.000 But I was not all there was. For instance, audio 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.560 work sometimes referred to as sonic deception, was a huge 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.159 piece of the Ghost Army puzzle. Yeah, they would mount 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:52.520 these huge speakers to project elaborate soundscapes and radio plays 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:57.200 that were created by the Second Signal Service Company. And 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.880 these men had recorded tanks and trucks and our tillery units, 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.760 and they sound engineered them into a number of different soundtracks. 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.400 And these recordings would include sounds of tanks on the 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.080 move or military construction, and they would even have things 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:14.120 like vehicle sputtering. And they basically amassed this really amazing 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.840 sound catalog of basically every military vehicle that they had 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.960 access to, doing everything those machines could do, so they 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:25.800 could kind of piece them together and create unique and 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.040 specific radio dramas. Basically, so if you wanted to broadcast 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.440 a battalion of vehicles starting up in the distance and 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.120 moving closer, they could create that with their vast library 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:41.400 of recordings, complete with idiosyncratic engine noises for specific vehicles 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:46.200 and kind of mimic that distance too slowly moving forward 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.520 nearness that you would hear if you were in one 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:53.960 position with an actual troop going by. I like to 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:58.200 imagine this as an extremely high tech version of following 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:03.039 King Arthur around banging coconuts together. But it was very 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.240 high tech even for the time. I mean, they were 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.160 really kind of on the advanced edge of technology and 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.160 how they were using sound. Yeah. Well, and it's like 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.760 these that kind of sound work happens in movies and 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.280 TV and things like that all the time now, like 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.960 that's yeah, that's just sort of how it works. So 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.400 this was a different use for that. In addition to 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.040 the three companies created with new recruits, another company was 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.159 looped into their headquarters Special Troops, and that was the 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:33.560 sixth oh third Engineer Camouflage Battalion. The men of the 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.920 six h third had been working on camouflage for a 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.000 couple of years already, so they brought their expertise to 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.520 a group already in a fairly polished state. They had 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.640 already managed an impressive accomplishment that by disguising the plant 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.359 in Baltimore where by six bombers were assembled, and the 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.080 event that access forces wished to look for the plant, 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.160 what they would see when they flew over was just 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.000 a regular rural area. And before we get to how 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.040 the twenty third trained and then made their way to Europe, Uh, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:04.760 do you want to pause for a moment for a 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:16.320 word from a sponsor? Yes, I do so. During the 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.679 spring of n The men of the twenty three were training, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.480 but they were training in skills that seemed in many 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.560 ways more appropriate for a touring theater company than for 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:30.080 a group of soldiers. So they built prototype prop vehicles 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.680 burst out of wood and burlap and then out of rubber. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.560 The rubber versions looked incredibly realistic, but they weighed less 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.360 than a hundred pounds apiece. The men would also train 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:44.400 with dummy artillery and other prop equipment. They practice sending 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.560 each other fake radio messages, and they learned just enough 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.679 about other different outfits that they could impersonate them, either 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.280 as individuals or as a group, and men who couldn't 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.680 so had to learn because they were going to have 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.840 to quickly alter their uniforms and switch out patches as 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:05.760 they sort of performed these presto changeo masquerades. In May, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.480 the majority of the twenty three boarded the U S. S. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.280 Henry Gibbons in New York, bound for Great Britain. They 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.480 spent about a month near Stratford on Avon while they trained, 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.520 although by all accounts there was also quite a bit 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.840 of partying. Yeah, this sounds like really a lovely time 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.320 that they had while they were in Britain. UH. But 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.400 the first wave of men from the twenty third shipped 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.560 out to France just following D Day, and this was 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.400 a small platoon. It was just fifteen men and they 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:37.120 landed at oma Omaha Beach on June fourteenth, so just 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.080 out a week a little more UH and nurses actually 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.360 flew with them so that they could tend to the 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.760 wounded that we're waiting there on the beach. Going from 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.320 a month in the idyllic British countryside having what was 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.880 kind of a party esque atmosphere into the reality of 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.760 war in France was of course something of a shock. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.199 Knowing that they were there to draw fires. Some of 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:05.040 the men thought that there was really a suicide outfit. Yeah. 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.319 They they had been trained in different sort of arts 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.480 and UH deceptions, but not so much in actual combat, 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:14.400 so they really did. Some of them really did think 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.360 at that point like, oh, they're just sending us there 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.360 to die and take the heat off the real soldiers. 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.760 But over the course of the next two months, the 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.200 rest of the twenty three joined their fellows in France. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.440 Leading up to their first big mission, which was Operation Elephant. 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.200 About half of the men in the unit were involved 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.440 in Operation Elephant, during which they pretended to be the 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.520 Army's Second Armored Division. The real Second Armored Division was 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.960 on the move while the twenty three kept up the appearances. Yeah, 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.880 and that's sort of a theme of their their missions throughout. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.680 And while this sham did indeed work, nearby German troops 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.079 held their position rather than following the real Second Armored 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.760 Division because they did believe they were still there. This 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.760 was also a pretty big learning experience. During this particular operation, 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:02.679 it was revealed that if the inflatable tanks that they 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.960 used lost even a small amount of air, the cannons 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.600 would droop and give the whole thing away. They really 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:14.480 there are some paintings that you can find online and 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:20.120 in documentaries where you see sort of this droopy cannon barrel, 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:25.360 and it really does look comical. It's an inherently comical image. Yeah, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:27.840 Their tanks are not made to fire into the ground, 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.800 and so it looked very, very silly. And while they 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.959 were not discovering their theatrics during Operation Elephant, it also 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.480 became apparent that setting up an entire false division was 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.600 going to be better executed in the dark of night. 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.319 They had not waited until really late. They used some 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.000 daylight hours to do it, and they also realized that 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.600 they really needed to like tighten up their disguise and 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.840 camouflage game if they wanted to ensure future success. The 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.720 entire twenty three was then tasked with Operation Breast, which 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.480 was named for the nearby French ports city that was 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.640 an odd ues. The Sonic unit was the last to 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.240 arrive in France, so Breast was the first time that 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:10.200 they three had their full arsenal of tricks at their disposal, 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.280 and the goal was to create the impression of an 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.840 existing tank unit having far greater power than it actually did, 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.280 with the hopes that they would trick the Germans into 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.840 a surrender, and so they used a mix of actual 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:30.360 tanks and dummies, flash canisters too, sort of fake tanks firing, 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.280 and sound mixing to create this really convincing illusion of 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:39.240 a huge tank division. And the main bravado move of 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.480 this mission came in the delivery of some of these 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.319 soundscapes that they had mixed. So late at night, members 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.040 of the three would actually sort of creep forward with 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.040 their sound equipment. They would get within about five hundred 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.560 yards on the enemy line and they would play sounds 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:59.199 of what sounded like officers issuing orders and people yelling 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.640 counter order, and even like fake situations of arguments where 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.000 there would be accidents that were staged and there would 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.559 be cursing at these imaginary errors. They were all doing 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:15.319 this really pretty close to enemy lines. It was pretty 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.640 to think about what that must have been like, sitting 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.240 there in the dark with your speaker playing these things, 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.719 knowing how very close you were. It's so bring to 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.760 think about. It was effective, so effective that it confused 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.280 friendly units positioned about a mile away, and while it 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.520 didn't get the Germans under General Herman B. Von Ramkat 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.800 to turn tail, it did keep them from going anywhere. 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:41.760 This was a good thing, since that was an estimated 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.280 thirty eight thousand troops, and that was almost double what 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.000 the Allies had initially estimated. If they had not been 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.360 tricked into holding their line against this perceived threat from 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.080 this puffed up, half fake tank battalion, they might have 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.120 gone on the offensive and then really damaged the Allied forces. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.880 And throughout the rest of ninety four and on into nine, 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.280 the twenty three continued to run these military masquerade games, 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.320 and with every mission they would kind of regroup and 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.200 refine their playbook and see what had worked and what 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.640 had and they just got better and better and better. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.760 They learned how to stage and set dress their fake 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:24.280 camps more and more authentically, and they started hand painting 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.760 patches to mimic those of existing units, so they if 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.360 they couldn't get ahold of real ones, then they would 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.240 stage fake headquarters to give out fake promotions so low 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.280 ranking men would look like generals and other officers, creating 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:42.800 the full illusion of real operations. And then late at 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:44.959 night they would you know, go where they were called 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.840 and inflate their fox vehicles and artillery undercover of darkness, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.040 so that when dawn came, it would appear as though 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.560 a huge surge of troops had arrived in the area. 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.000 And in addition to providing this false image of battle 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.400 ready army troops where there was really only a line 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.680 of fake vehicles and prerecorded noise, the twenty Third's ability 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.400 to seem to appear out of thin air and vanish 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.600 just as quickly actually had a really unnerving effect on 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.360 the enemy, so the German Army started calling them the 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.840 phantom Army. Other tricks included the ongoing burning of fires 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.040 at camps that were deserted, and different ways to create 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.800 fake tank tracks. In addition to the inflatable tanks and trucks, 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.320 they also used dummy planes and buildings. They could mix 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.120 fake radio transmissions within with the real ones to confuse 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.280 the enemy, and they mounted fake parachute drops and put 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.960 up signs directing Allied vehicles that were never actually coming. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.040 But this elaborate spectacle also included a whole lot of 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.280 acting on the part of the troops. So knowing that 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.359 any US troops were always being watched by German soldiers 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.560 or spies, or sometimes there were French people working for 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.960 the Germans as informants, the boys of the would really 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.560 employ all manner of ruses. They would change out their 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.680 unit insignias as we mentioned, on uniforms as well as 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.320 on vehicles. They would do quick stencil work to change 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:08.880 everything up, and they would make sure that they were 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.960 seen about town wherever they were kind of drinking and 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.280 hanging out. And if they were asked what unit they 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:16.080 were a part of, they would just make up names 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.800 or reference a unit that they were covering for. And 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.440 some of them even would uh sort of mount these 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.000 these fake little tableau where they would feign drunkenness and 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.640 blab false information in public places. So this sort of 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.880 became this ongoing game of misinformation and subterfuge where they 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:39.000 were just sort of always acting. This wasn't completely flawless, 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.680 though sometimes there were mistakes and problems. On occasion, a 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.520 dummy tank would be inflated facing the wrong direction. Because 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.680 all of these set up parts are being done at night, 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.680 it was easy enough to lift one and turn it around, 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.240 but if it was already daylight when they realized the problem, 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:56.680 they were going to have to do it with really 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.720 careful timings so as not to be noticed. That one point, 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:03.680 several vehicles that had been inflated in the night were 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.240 warmed so much the sun came up that the air 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.840 expanding inside them caused them to pop loudly as they 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:14.400 sprang leaks. And while while this sort of sounds hilarious, 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.440 it was happening during a war. So all of these 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.760 accidents put the men involved at serious risk. And all 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.160 in all, there were twenty one missions mounted by the 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.000 twenty three And before we get to sort of the 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.360 biggest one that they undertook, uh, do you want to 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:40.080 do a quick word from a sponsor, let's do so. 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.600 The biggest in what is arguably the most successful of 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.040 the twenty third missions was Operation Veerson, and this took 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.480 place near the war's end, relatively speaking, it wasn't right 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.320 at the end, but it was in March, and this 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.520 basically launched a big visible decoy mission to once again 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.920 cover the movements of other troops. While parts of the 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.240 Ninth Army were moving north to quietly cross the Rhine, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.480 the twenty three was making a big show of pretending 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:10.240 to be those troops farther south. They masqueraded as the 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.440 ninth and ran practice and training maneuvers for a crossing 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.320 at person and just publicly enough to draw lots of attention. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.440 And this was really a massive effort. So they set 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:27.520 up fake medical and engineering facilities. They had trucks and 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:32.000 sonic crews creating the illusion of convoys moving supplies. At 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.200 one point they were just having trucks loaded up where 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.959 they would be driving them back and forth, and they 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.960 would put two guys at the very back, so it 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.160 looked like it was full of troops, but in fact 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:44.960 there are only two guys at the back. They arranged 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.800 everything perfectly so that an aerial reconnaissance taking pictures would 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:51.760 have no idea that the entire thing was a hoax. 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:53.840 They one of the reasons that they used artists was 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.760 so they could conceptually visualize, like how things would look 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.160 from multiple angles, even when they didn't have those angles 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.960 available to them, So they really made this whole thing 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:06.439 beautifully realistic, even though it was in fact all a hoax. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.480 When the real Ninth crossed the rhyme, the Germans were 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.520 taken totally by surprise. Those German troops that could resist 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.879 them were disorganized and unprepared, so US casualties were very few. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.120 The twenty three received a commendation from the Ninth Army 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:26.479 Commander William Simpson for their effort. A later estimate by 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.960 Simpson placed the number of troops that were saved by 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:33.679 this deception at ten thousand UH and it ended up 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:38.080 being the last mission of the war, and in September 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:46.560 there was completely shut down. So one of the inherent 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.800 dangers of being in a ghost army designed to draw 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.680 attention is that it also draws fire. So it's easy 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.240 to think of all this pageantry and strategic slide of 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.080 hand is really fun and fascinating, but it really put 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.960 the men involved at great risk. At one point they 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.800 were actually set up in beastone and they actually missed 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:07.160 the start of the Battle of the Bulge by about 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.560 four hours. They had been pulled out around midnight of 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.720 December six, and this is as P and the fighting 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:19.080 started around four am. So had those men been trapped 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:21.320 there with their phony equipment, they would have been in 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.399 incredibly dire straits and unable to defend themselves. During the 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.960 Battle of the Bulge. The three returned to Luxembourg City, 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.680 where they had already spent a lot of time, and 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.760 fired from the rooftops at the incoming Liftwoffe aircraft. This 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.639 is the only time they ever really four real fired 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.200 at the enemy. Yeah, it was there one there one 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.200 time that they actually got to perform actual combat activities. Uh. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.320 And the twenty three after that was very quickly moved 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:53.200 to Verdunn. So, in part, the Allies wanted to maintain 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.400 the secrecy of the Ghost Army, and in another part 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.560 they realized that this blow up dummy artillery was not 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:01.200 going to be you good in a fight, so they 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.400 just wanted to clear them out. And the men ended 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.119 up spending Christmas in Verdune. While the group had been 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:11.440 extraordinarily lucky throughout their time, their luck finally ran out 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:16.000 in the spring of nine. On March twelfth, while impersonating 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.600 the eightieth Infantry, the twenty three drew German artillery fire. 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.040 Two of their men were killed in fifteen others were wounded. 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.200 This was really their worst day, in spite of having 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:30.040 been an incredibly dangerous areas many times as they kept 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.879 up false appearances all through the war. And one of 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:39.280 the problems that comes up when discussing the twenty three 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.560 and their effectiveness and sort of assessing what they were 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.600 able to achieve lies in the fact that so much 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.240 of their work was secret, and often it fooled Allied 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.160 forces as well as the enemy. Like the Allied forces 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.080 didn't even really know what was going on with them 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:54.600 a lot of the time, they thought they were just 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:58.439 another unit. After the war, most of the men stayed 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.480 quiet about the amaze sing works of deceptive are that 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.800 they had been part of. The work was classified, so 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.320 in the event that the US found itself at war again, 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:10.360 having a ghost army would be a really valuable asset, 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:12.919 So the military didn't want to tip its hand and 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:18.560 reveal this resource. But finally, in x SO, almost nineteen 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.439 years ago from when we're recording this, the work of 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.879 the twenty three was declassified, and the men who had 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.400 only been able to give KG answers to their families 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.440 about what they had done in the war were now 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:31.800 free to speak of their incredible efforts. One of the 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.960 truly significant aspects of the twenty three and the work 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.320 that they did is the fact that an entire division 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.480 of creative people was successfully managed within the structure of 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:44.280 the military. Yeah. This is one of those things that 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.560 people often go like, look, these were all artists and 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:49.680 they totally were able to work together in this this effort. 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.360 And I don't know if that speaks to like their 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:56.840 level of commitment or independence. You know, It's one of 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:58.959 those things that often likes to get bandied about, particularly 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.160 when you're talking about modern business, like, oh, it's hard 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:03.600 to manage creative people. It's like these guys managed and 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.800 they were doing some scary stuff. Yeah. I think it 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:10.119 also speaks to the like perpetual mythologizing of creative work 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:13.760 as some kind of extraordinary thing when in a lot 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:18.320 of cases it is work. Yeah, which isn't to say that, like, 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.359 creative inspiration isn't really fabulous and cool and unique in 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.240 many ways. But I just I find that to be 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.240 a really interesting one that we do mythologize working with 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:29.960 creative types. And I say this as a creative person 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.760 married to an artist as well, Like, but then it 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.439 can be anybody can be managed, any sort of effort 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:41.840 that can be put together. It's it's all about, you know, 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:46.560 using people's assets. And another really incredible legacy is the 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:48.640 artwork that a lot of these men were doing while 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.520 they were deployed. I'll talk a little bit more about 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:54.639 that in a minute. Yeah, it's really no surprise that 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:57.000 a lot of the men who were involved in effectively 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.520 doing art for the army went on to careers the arts. 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.280 So for example, Bill Blast of course went on spuilt 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:07.679 a fashion empire. He had actually been sketching women's clothing 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.560 during the war. Yeah, there was one interview that I 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.399