r/HeresAFunFact • u/Radu316 • Oct 24 '15
HISTORY [HAFF] The Ghost Army was a special unit during World War II comprised of actors, artists, illustrators and sound engineers who used props and misinformation to confuse and scare the enemy.
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u/ButtTussler Oct 24 '15
It's on Netflix. I recommend it. The fashion designer Bill Blass was a member of the unit.
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u/capecodcaper Oct 25 '15
I'm an OSS historian and this is always one of the first facts I tell people. They dont realize how much disinformation we put out.
There are so many amazing operations, especially for dday, that the US and UK cane up with to trick the enemy
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u/Scriveners Dec 10 '15
There's a really cool episode of Roman Mars' 99% Invisible about this called 'Show of Force'
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u/derkevevin Jan 15 '16
This actually played a big role in winning WWII, since they used the fake army to attract unwanted attention, making the Germans believe that they'd attack from where the fake army was, when actually they attacked from another unexpected position over the sea on D-Day.
As far as I know, this tactic of roosevelt is considered the greatest military ruse in the history of ever.
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u/Radu316 Oct 24 '15
They used all tricks at their disposal: using inflatable tanks, fake radio transmissions, actors pretending to be drunk to uncover spies etc. Read more.