Quote:
Originally Posted by W5DOK
The Normandy invasion was executed after the Germans were deceived into believing that the invasion would be in Norway or further North
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Actually they were deceived into thinking it would be at Calais, about 150 miles east of the Normandy beaches.
Multiple decrypts of German and Japanese radio messages in late 1943 and early 1944 had confirmed that the Germans were convinced that the Pas de Calais was the Allied target. One decrypted message was from Japan's Berlin ambassador (Oshima) to his superiors in Tokyo in November 1943, detailing in staggering detail his tour of Hitler's
Western Wall. For weeks after D-Day, Oshima's reports to Tokyo continued to confirm that the Germans still thought the Normandy invasion was a feint and were still on guard in Calais and St Malo. This kept many German divisions out of the fight.
The deception was very elaborate, involving the creation of a totally imaginary
First United States Army Group (FUSAG), supposedly commanded by George S. Patton Jr. FUSAG was made visible to German aerial reconnaissance by the creation of many hundreds of wooden "tanks" and other equipment, and entire fake bases.
See
FUSAG for more on this fascinating (to me anyhow) piece of history. Also, radio hams ought to read
Battle of Wits, Stephen Budiansky's exhaustive history of Allied codebreaking in World War II. I'm on my third copy -- I wore the first two out.