WEBVTT - The Ghost Army 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.000 Welcome to Steph you missed in History class from how 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:12.680 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.279 I'm Colly Frying and I'm trace Abe Wilson. And today 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.720 we're gonna talk a little bit about military history, and 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.480 it's World War two specifically. And even though this particular piece, 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.960 uh that we're discussing is in fact military history, if 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.960 there were a history of ingenuity or sleight of hand, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.360 I think this would probably be one of the big 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.120 events on that timeline. Uh So we're gonna be talking 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.720 about the US Ghost Army, which was a top secret 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.480 group that was assembled to create confusion and mislead access forces. 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.720 And it's a really amazing story that stars ingenuity and 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.720 bravado as sort of the the main elements of the piece. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.120 And the idea of military deception was of course not 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.960 new to World War Two. Everyone has heard of like 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.440 the Trojan Horse for example, and deceit is a tactic 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.800 as part of Sun SU's art of war. Almost any 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.440 culture in history that found itself at war with another 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.280 culture use some type of trickery to try to outsmart 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.920 the enemy, because that's sort of a vital part of 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.520 getting the upper hand in a conflict is misleading so 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.440 that you can kind of swoop in with your forces. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.600 But this group really went to some pretty extraordinary measures 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.160 to achieve their goals, and they did some really fascinating 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.520 and cool things, uh and so, and it was classified 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.040 for a long time and then kind of came to light. 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:27.959 So we are going to talk about it today because 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:32.319 it is really cool. So to start out at the 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.920 beginning like we normally do that. Twenty third Headquarters Special 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.360 Troops was the one and only deception outfit that the 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.760 US Army had ever authorized. The goal was to corral 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.840 a group of creative thinkers to approach warfare in new ways. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.760 And this sort of trickery focused effort was inspired by 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.200 the success of Operation Bertram, in which Allied forces used 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.360 dummy tanks and camouflage to trick Romwel's for which is 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.440 into an incorrect assessment of the Allies position and strength 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.480 during the Second Battle of l A l Amain in 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.440 North Africa. And also bolstering this case for a deception 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.840 unit was the U S success in misleading German intelligence 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.000 leading up to the Battle of Tunisia. They realized deception 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.239 was working and they thought, let's just have a unit 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.280 that's focused on this. The idea of forming a unit 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.840 dedicated just to this is attributed to Captain Ralph Ingersoll. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.079 Before the war, he had been a celebrity journalist and 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.000 he had been working with Great Britain on deception techniques 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.160 to mislead the Germans in the time leading up the 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:40.359 D Day. On Christmas Eve of ninety three, a memo 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.520 to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations War Department 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.959 at Washington, d C officially requested the creation of a 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.880 unit with a mission quote to simulate a core of 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:54.840 two infantry divisions and one armored divisions and core installations 0:02:55.080 --> 0:03:00.639 railhead dumps, etcetera. So, beginning in nineteen forty or more 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.679 than one thousand young men were recruited and they were 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.760 often recent art school graduates or ad agency creatives and 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.360 they were handpicked for this assignment. Recruits were sent to 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.680 Camp Forest and Tellahoma, Tennessee to train. Within the three 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.120 were several companies. The two four Signal Company worked on 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:25.560 radio counter intelligence. Second Signal Service Company, which was actually 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.920 trained at Pine Camp, New York, worked to develop sonic 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:33.120 deception techniques. The four of six Engineer Combat Company worked 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.640 on the big construction projects and was in charge of security. 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.800 And often you'll hear this effort mentioned, like when people say, oh, 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.040 the Ghost Army they used inflatable tanks to deceive the Germans, 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.120 and that is partially true, but as we mentioned in 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.840 breaking down these different companies within the twenty three, it 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.760 was a whole lot more than that. Yeah, I feel 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.160 like the tanks get the big like kind of bud 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.880 speedy headlines all time, which is understand Well, there's really 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.040 cool video that exists, like where you can see them 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.720 rolling over these inflated tanks and there. I don't know 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.800 that I have ever heard any of the audio recordings, 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.280 and I don't think I've ever seen anyone reference them online. 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.120 So you can see where the tanks get all the attention. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:20.599 But I was not all there was. For instance, audio work, 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.320 sometimes referred to as sonic deception, was a huge piece 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.800 of the Ghost Army puzzle. Yeah, they would mount these 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:32.159 huge speakers to project elaborate soundscapes and radio plays that 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:36.800 were created by the Second Signal Service Company. And these 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.440 men had recorded tanks and trucks and artillery units and 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.520 they sound engineered them into a number of different soundtracks 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.719 and these recordings would include sounds of tanks on the 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.400 move or military construction, and they would even have things 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:53.440 like vehicle sputtering. And they basically amassed this really amazing 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.800 sound catalog basically every military vehicle that they had access to, 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.480 doing everything those miss jeans could do, so they could 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.800 kind of piece them together and create unique and specific 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.440 radio dramas. Basically, so if you wanted to broadcast a 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.600 battalion of vehicles starting up in the distance and moving closer, 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.400 they could create that with their vast library of recordings, 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.080 complete with idiosyncratic engine noises for specific vehicles and kind 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:26.440 of mimic that distance too slowly moving forward nearness that 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.520 you would hear if you were in one position with 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:34.080 an actual troop going by. I like to imagine this 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:38.159 as an extremely high tech version of following King Arthur 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:42.960 around banging coconuts together. But it was very high tech 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.040 even for the time. I mean, they were really kind 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.880 of on the advanced edge of technology and how they 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.039 were using sound. Yeah. Well, and it's like these that 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:53.520 kind of sound work happens in movies and TV and 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.920 things like that all the time. Now, Like that's yeah, 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:58.720 that's just sort of how it works, so this is 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.160 a different use for that. In addition to the three 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.040 companies created with new recruits, another company was looped into 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.479 the twenty third Headquarters Special Troops, and that was the 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.880 sixth h third Engineer Camouflage Battalion. The men of the 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.240 six h third had been working on camouflage for a 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.320 couple of years already, so they brought their expertise to 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.880 a group already in a fairly polished state. They had 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.000 already managed an impressive accomplishment that by disguising the plant 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.560 in Baltimore where B twenty six bombers were assembled, and 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.400 the event that access forces wished to look for the plant, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.480 what they would see when they flew over was just 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:39.320 a regular rural area. And before we get to how 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.400 the twenty third trained and then made their way to Europe. Uh, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.120 do you want to pause for a moment for a 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.279 word from a sponsor, Yes, I do so. During the 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.640 spring of n the men of the twenty third were training, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.440 but they were training in skills that seemed in many 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.479 ways more appropriate for a touring theater company than for 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:01.039 a group of soldiers. So they built prototype prop vehicles, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.640 first out of wood and burlap and then out of rubber. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.480 The rubber versions looked incredibly realistic, but they weighed less 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.320 than a hundred pounds apiece. The men would also train 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.360 with dummy artillery and other prop equipment. They practiced sending 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.520 each other fake radio messages, and they learned just enough 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.640 about other different outfits that they could impersonate them, either 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.239 as individuals or as a group, and men who couldn't 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.640 so had to learn because they were going to have 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.800 to quickly alter their uniforms and switch out patches as 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:36.720 they sort of performed these presto changeo masquerades. In May, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.440 the majority of the twenty three boarded the U S. S. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.280 Henry Gibbons in New York, bound for Great Britain. They 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.440 spent about a month near Stratford on Avon while they trained, 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.480 although by all accounts there was also quite a bit 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.800 of partying. Yeah, this sounds like really a lovely time 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.280 that they had while they were in Britain. Uh. But 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:58.360 the first wave of men from the twenty third shipped 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.680 out to France just following DD and this was a 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.720 small platoon. It was just fifteen men, and they landed 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:08.360 at oma Omaha Beach on June fourteenth, so just out 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.360 a week a little more uh, and nurses actually flew 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.680 with them so that they could tend to the wounded 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.800 that we're waiting there on the beach. Going from a 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.520 month in the idyllic British countryside having what was kind 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.200 of a party esque atmosphere into the reality of war 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.880 in France was of course something of a shock. Knowing 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.240 that they were there to draw fire. Some of the 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:36.000 men thought that the twenty three was really a suicide outfit. Yeah. 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.280 They they had been trained in different sort of arts 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.440 and uh deceptions, but not so much in actual combat, 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.360 so they really did. Some of them really did think 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.280 at that point like, oh, they're just sending us there 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.320 to die and take the heat off the real soldiers. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:52.720 But over the course of the next two months, the 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.160 rest of the twenty three joined their fellows in France, 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.400 leading up to their first big mission, which was Operation Elephant. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.160 About half of the men in the unit were involved 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.400 in Operation Elephant, during which they pretended to be the 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.480 Army's Second Armored Division. The real Second Armored Division was 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.880 on the move while the twenty three kept up the appearances. Yeah, 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.320 and that's sort of a theme of their their missions 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.280 throughout and while this sham did indeed work, nearby German 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.720 troops held their position rather than following the real second 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.079 Armored Division because they did believe they were still there. 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.680 This was also a pretty big learning experience. During this 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.080 particular operation, it was revealed that if the inflatable tanks 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.680 that they three used lost even a small amount of air, 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.040 the cannons would droop and give it the whole thing away. 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.840 They really there are some paintings that you can find 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.360 online and in documentaries where you see sort of this 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:53.280 droopy cannon barrel, and it really does look comical. It's 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.719 an inherently comical image. Yeah, their tanks are not made 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.880 to fire into the ground, so it looked very, very silly. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.880 And while they were not discovering their theatrics during Operation Elephant, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.760 it also became apparent that setting up an entire false 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.160 division was going to be better executed in the dark 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.959 of night. They had not waited until really late. They 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.360 used some daylight hours to do it, and they also 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.959 realized that they really needed to like tighten up their 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.760 disguise and camouflage game if they wanted to ensure future success. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.360 The entire twenty three was then tasked with Operation Breast, 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.280 which was named for the nearby French ports city that 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.600 was in August. The Sonic unit was the last to 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.200 arrive in France, so Breast was the first time that 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.400 the twenty three had their full arsenal of tricks at 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.880 their disposal, and the goal was to create the impression 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.400 of an existing tank unit having far greater power than 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.480 it actually did, with the hopes that they would trick 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.400 the Germans into a surrender. And so the twenty three 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.640 used a mix of actual tanks and dummies, flash canisters 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:03.080 to sort of fake tanks firing, and sound mixing to 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.880 create this really convincing illusion of a huge tank division. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.160 And the main bravado move of this mission came in 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.000 the delivery of some of these soundscapes that they had mixed. 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.240 So late at night, members of the twenty three would 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.440 actually sort of creep forward with their sound equipment. They 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.320 would get within about five yards in the enemy line, 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.960 and they would play sounds of what sounded like officers 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.640 issuing orders and people yelling counter orders, and even like 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.120 fake situations of arguments where there would be accidents that 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.719 were staged and that there would be cursing at these 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.080 imaginary errors. They were all doing this really pretty close 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.920 to enemy lines. Uh. It was pretty to think about 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.959 what that must have been like, sitting there in the 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.000 dark with your speaker playing these things, knowing how very 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.760 close you were. It's so bring to think about. It 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.520 was effective, so effective that it confused friend the units 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.800 positioned about a mile away. And while it didn't get 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.280 the Germans under General Herman B. Von Ramkat to turn tail, 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.840 it did keep them from going anywhere. This was a 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.480 good thing, since that was an estimated thirty eight thousand troops, 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.360 and that was almost double what the Allies had initially estimated. 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.440 If they had not been tricked into holding their line 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.240 against this perceived threat from this puffed up, half fake 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.080 tank battalion, they might have gone on the offensive and 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:32.920 then really damaged the Allied forces. And throughout the rest 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.000 of four and on into the twenty three, continued to 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:41.120 run these military masquerade games, and with every mission they 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.199 would kind of regroup and refine their playbook and see 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.320 what had worked and what hand and they just got 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.440 better and better and better. They learned how to stage 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.800 and set dress their fake camps. More and more authentically. 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:54.880 I'm gonna say, I feel like I said that weird. 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.280 They learned how to stage and set dress their fake 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.800 camps more and more authentically, and they started hand painting 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.319 patches to mimic those of existing units, so they if 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.560 they can get a hold of real ones, then they 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.160 would stage fake headquarters to give out fake promotions so 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.760 low ranking men would look like generals and other officers, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:21.160 creating the full illusion of real operations. And then late 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.160 at night they would you know, go where they were 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:27.360 called and inflate their fox vehicles and artillery undercover of darkness, 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.560 so that when dawn came, it would appear as though 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.680 a huge surge of troops had arrived in the area. 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.520 And in addition to providing this false image of battle 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:37.920 ready army troops where there was really only a line 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:42.160 of fake vehicles and prerecorded noise, the twenty Third's ability 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.920 to seem to appear out of thin air and vanish 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.120 just as quickly actually had a really unnerving effect on 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.880 the enemy, so the German Army started calling them the 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:55.360 phantom Army. Other tricks included the ongoing burning of fires 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.560 at camps that were deserted in different ways to create 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.320 fake tank tracks. In addition to the inflatable tanks and trucks, 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.800 they also used dummy planes and buildings. They could mix 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.600 fake radio transmissions within with the real ones to confuse 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.800 the enemy, and they mounted fake parachute drops and put 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.440 up signs directing Allied vehicles that were never actually coming. 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.520 But this elaborate spectacle also included a whole lot of 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.800 acting on the part of the troops. So knowing that 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.880 any US troops were always being watched by German soldiers 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.080 or spies, or sometimes there were French people working for 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.000 the Germans as informants, the boys of the twenty three 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.720 would really employ all manner of ruses. They would change 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.840 out their unit insignias as we mentioned, on uniforms as 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.360 well as on vehicles. They would do quick stencil work 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.000 to change everything up, and they would make sure that 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.920 they were seen about town wherever they were kind of 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.280 drinking and hanging out. And if they were asked what 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.000 unit they were a part of, they would just make 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.640 up names or reference the unit that they were covering for. 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.480 And some of them even would uh sort of mount 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.360 these these fake little tableau where they would feign drunkenness 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.080 and blab false information in public places. So this sort 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:13.240 of became this ongoing game of misinformation and subterfuge where 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.480 they were just sort of always acting. This wasn't completely flawless, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.160 though sometimes there were mistakes and problems. On occasion, a 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.040 dummy tank would be inflated facing the wrong direction. Because 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.200 all of these set up parts are being done at night, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.160 it was easy enough to lift one and turn it around, 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.800 but if it was already daylight when they realized the problem, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.200 they were going to have to do it with really 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.240 careful timings so as not to be noticed. At one point, 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.160 several vehicles that had been inflated in the night were 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.720 warmed so much the sun came up that the air 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.360 expanding inside them caused them to pop loudly as they 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.920 sprang leaks. And while while this sort of sounds hilarious, 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.960 it was happening during a war. So all of these 0:15:56.000 --> 0:16:00.320 accidents put the men involved at serious risk. And all 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.680 in all, there were twenty one missions mounted by the 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:04.520 twenty three and before we get to sort of the 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.880 biggest one that they undertook, uh, if you want to 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.320 do a quick word from a sponsor, let's do so. 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.800 The biggest in what is arguably the most successful of 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:18.240 the twenty third missions was Operation Vierson, and this took 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.680 place near the war's end, relatively speaking, it wasn't right 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.520 at the end, but it was in March, and this 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.760 basically launched a big visible decoy mission to once again 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.160 cover the movements of other troops. While parts of the 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.520 Ninth Army were moving north to quietly cross the Rhine, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.720 the twenty three was making a big show of pretending 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.440 to be those troops farther south. They masqueraded as the 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.640 ninth and ran practice and training maneuvers for a crossing 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.560 at Beierson and just publicly enough to draw lots of attention. 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.640 And this was really a massive effort. So they set 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:58.720 up fake medical and engineering facilities. They had trucks and 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:03.200 sonic crews creating the illusion of convoys moving supplies. At 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.400 one point they were just having trucks loaded up where 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.159 they would be driving them back and forth, and they 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.199 would put two guys at the very back, so it 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.400 looked like it was full of troops, but in fact 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.159 there are only two guys at the back. They arranged 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:21.040 everything perfectly so that an aerial reconnaissance taking pictures would 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:22.960 have no idea that the entire thing was a hoax. 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.040 They one of the reasons that they used artists was 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.960 so they could conceptually visualize, like how things would look 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.399 from multiple angles, even when they didn't have those angles 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.160 available to them, So they really made this whole thing 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.639 beautifully realistic, even though it wasn't back to all a hoax. 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.719 When the real Ninth crossed the rhyme, the Germans were 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.720 taken totally by surprise. Those German troops that could resist 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.119 them were disorganized and unprepared, so US casualties were very few. 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.320 The twenty three received a commendation from the Ninth Army 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.679 Commander William Simpson for their effort. A later estimate by 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.200 Simpson placed the number of troops that were saved by 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.879 this deception at ten thousands UH and it ended up 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.800 being the twenty last mission of the war, and in 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:17.080 September the three was completely shut down. So one of 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.560 the inherent dangers of being in a ghost army designed 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.439 to draw attention is that it also draws fire. So 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.000 it's easy to think of all this pageantry and strategic 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.840 slide of hand is really fun and fascinating, but it 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.680 really put the men involved at great risk. At one 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.320 point they were actually set up in Bastone, and they 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.720 actually missed the start of the Battle of the Bulge 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.960 by about four hours. They had been pulled out around 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.280 midnight of December six, and this is at point and 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.640 the fighting started around four am. So had those men 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.159 been trapped there with their phony equipment, they would have 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.520 been in incredibly dire straits and unable to defend themselves. 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.080 During the Battle of the Bulge. The three returned to 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.160 Luxembourg's any where they had already spent a lot of time, 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.359 and fired from the rooftops at the incoming Liftwaffe aircraft. 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.440 This is the only time they ever really for real 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.200 fired at the enemy. Yeah, it was there one there, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.440 one time that they actually got to perform actual combat activities. Uh. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.560 And the twenty three after that was very quickly moved 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:24.400 to Verdunn. So, in part, the Allies wanted to maintain 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:27.640 the secrecy of the Ghost Army, and in another part 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.800 they realized that this blow up dummy artillery was not 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:32.399 going to be any good in a fight, so they 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:34.640 just wanted to clear them out. And the men ended 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.320 up spending Christmas in Verdune. While the group had been 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:42.680 extraordinarily lucky throughout their time, their luck finally ran out 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:47.240 in the spring of n On March twelfth, while impersonating 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.800 the eightieth Infantry, the twenty three drew German artillery fire. 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.240 Two of their men were killed in fifteen others were wounded. 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.440 This was really their worst day. In spite of having 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.439 been an incredibly dangerous areas any times, they kept up 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:06.199 false appearances all through the war. And one of the 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:10.480 problems that comes up when UH discussing the twenty three 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.800 and their effectiveness and sort of assessing what they were 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:15.800 able to achieve lies in the fact that so much 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.440 of their work was secret, and often it fooled Allied 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.399 forces as well as the enemy. Like the Allied forces 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.280 didn't even really know what was going on with them 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:25.840 a lot of the time, they thought they were just 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.639 another unit. After the war, most of the men stayed 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.879 quiet about the amazing works of deceptive aren't that they 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.159 had been part of. The work was classified, so in 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.560 the event that the US found itself at war again, 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.520 having a ghost army would be a really valuable asset. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.119 So the military didn't want to tip its hand and 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:49.760 reveal this resource. But finally in NINETI so almost nineteen 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.639 years ago from when we're recording this, the work of 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.120 the twenty three was declassified and the men who had 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.640 only been able to give KG answers to their families 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:59.640 about what they had done in the war were now 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.480 free speak of their incredible efforts. One of the truly 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.280 significant aspects of the twenty three and the work that 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:08.679 they did is the fact that an entire division of 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:14.400 creative people was successfully managed within the structure of the military. Yeah. 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:16.680 This is one of those things that people often go like, look, 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.040 these were all artists and they totally were able to 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.960 work together in this this effort. And I don't know 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:27.080 if that speaks to like their level of commitment or independence. 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:29.080 You know, It's one of those things that often likes 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:31.960 to get bandied about, particularly when you're talking about modern business, like, oh, 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.399 it's hard to manage creative people. It's like these guys 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:36.679 managed and they were doing some scary stuff. Yeah. I 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.359 think it also speaks to the like perpetual mythologizing of 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.639 creative work as some kind of extraordinary thing, when in 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.960 a lot of cases it is work. Yeah, which isn't 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:51.720 to say that like creative inspiration isn't really fabulous and 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.879 cool and unique in many ways. But I just I 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:56.679 find that to be a really interesting one that we 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.040 do mythologize working with creative types. And I say of 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.720 this as a creative person married to an artist as well, Like, 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.800 but they can it can be anybody can be managed, 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.959 any sort of effort that can be put together. Uh, 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:15.399 it's it's all about, you know, using people's assets. And 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.639 another really incredible legacy is the artwork that a lot 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.679 of these men were doing while they were deployed. I'll 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.280 talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Yeah, 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.480 it's really no surprise that a lot of the men 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.760 who were involved in effectively doing art for the army 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.720 went on to careers in the arts. So for example, 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.560 Bill Blast of course went on spuilt a fashion empire. 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:41.080 He had actually been sketching women's clothing during the war. Yeah, 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:44.280 there was one interview that I saw with one of 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:46.520 the other members of the twenty three and he was saying, 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.080