Hardcore Thespians: The Deceptive Tactics of World War II’s “Ghost Army”

“What [two French soldiers] thought they saw was four GIs picking up a forty-ton Sherman tank and turning it around. They looked at me, and they were looking for answers, and I finally said, ‘The Americans are very strong’” – Arthur Shilstone (Beyer & Hayes 2015, 66).

On March 21, 2022, 99-year-old World War II veteran Nicholas “Nick” Leo was honoured at Islip, New York for his military service in the U.S. Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troop, also known as the “Ghost Army”. Stationed in France, Nick served as a Private, transmitting fake messages to the Germans through bogus radio networks. Nick joined the war when he was just nineteen years old, and after completing his service, he was honourably discharged on April 17, 1946 (“WWII Ghost Army Soldier Celebrated for His Service,” 2022). A month prior, on February 1, 2022, US President Joe Biden signed a bill awarding the soldiers of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops with the Congressional Gold Medal “in recognition of their unique and highly distinguished service.” Subsequently, other Ghost Army veterans such as Tom Anderson, Manny Frockt, Kenneth Miller, and Bernie Bluestein have been honoured within the past two years for their deeds in the Ghost Army. There are now ten soldiers from this unit alive today (Kelly 2022). Below is a photograph of four Ghost Army veterans taken for the Ghost Legacy Project. Nick is the figure on the far right (“The Ghost Army Tintype Shoot,” 2017).

Origins: Transforming Artists into Military Thespians

The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was a covert unit with over 1,100 service members under the command of Colonel Harry L. Reeder (“Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II”). The idea of a military division solely for deception ops was reportedly conceived by Captain Ralph Ingersoll and Colonel Billy Harris in 1943 (“Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II”). Captain Ingersoll enjoyed his station at the Operations branch at Army HQ in London, England where he was exposed to espionage and covert tactics. For example, he was part of Operation Fortitude, an operation designed to deceive the Germans about the location of the D-Day landings. In an unpublished account Ingersoll described his idea of a “battalion that could imitate a whole corps of either armor or infantry…a super secret battalion of specialists in the art of manipulating our antagonists’ decisions” (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 17). Well liked by the U.S. Army High Command, the idea of such a unit was conceived and put into practice shortly later. The 23rd was an amalgamation of four different units: the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion Special; the 406th Engineer Combat Company Special; the Signal Company Special; and the brand new 3132 Signal Service Company Special (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 20).

The largest unit of the Twenty-Third, the 603rd, was full of artists that trained since 1943 on deception and camouflage tactics. Founder of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, Roy Eichhorn, asserted that the most important tool in this unit’s arsenal was their creativity. Explaining at a presentation at Fort Leonard Wood, “Creativity, here, is not creating something from nothing; it is masterful improvisation. As good as the dummy tanks were, for example, the skill was not in the equipment; it was in the Soldier” (Sullivan 2021). Nicknamed the “Cecil DeMille Warriors” by one of their own, veteran Dick Syracuse, they were essentially “military thespians” (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 13). The mobile unit’s sole purpose was to become experts in “multimedia” deception and manipulation. Recruits were routinely pulled from art schools, advertisement agencies and comic studios (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 19, 26). Bernie Bluestein, for example, was an art student at Cleveland art college when he came across a notice in a school bulletin board (“How the Ghost Army of WWII Used Art to Deceive the Nazis,” 2022). James Bordeau was the Dean of the Pratt Institute’s art school, but also a General in the U.S. Army reserve. He was known to recruit students from his school and into the military (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 26). The 23rd was a mixed bag, full of people from all walks of life. Bill Blass recalled his unit’s unusual makeup, remembering hearing Beethoven’s Fifth and Pistol Packin’ Mama in the soldiers’ barracks at the same time (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 34).

In Fort Meade, Maryland, soldiers experimented with a variety of materials to test their camouflage ability, built dummy tanks out of wood and burlap, and experimented with mobile sound studios that would imitate infantry movements (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 34, 47). For instance, the 603rd constructed a large, camouflage tarp intended to disguise coastal defence artillery as a landscape to fool German pilots. They practiced their creation at the Glenn L. Martin plant in Baltimore where they were building B-26 bombers (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 31). Their creative tactics, attention to detail, and successful innovations received praise from the U.S. High Command. After the green light was given by General Jake Devers on Christmas Eve 1943, the 23rd went into action a few weeks after the D-Day landings (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 11). Under the command of Colonel Harry L. Reeder, these unit’s soldiers led between twenty to twenty-five secret operations between 1944 to 1945 (The National WWII Museum, New Orleans).

Visuals:

The unit was small, just over a thousand men. But they were able to mimic the movements of thirty to forty thousand men (“How the Ghost Army of WWII Used Art to Deceive the Nazis,” 2022). As part of this illusion, they created and used inflatable dummy tanks. These tanks were designed to quickly inflate at a moment’s notice, and not be easily deflated. Each tank took between fifteen to twenty minutes to inflate (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 57). To prevent deflation, inside them was a skeletal system of rubber tubes that ensured the tanks’ longevity (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 42). Former member of the Ghost Army, Manny Frockt recalled the unit’s arsenal of inflatables, “We had fake airplanes, fake balloons. You name it, I did it” (“I Faked Everything': WWII Vet, 98, Honored for Tricking Nazis with Illusions in 'Ghost Army,” 2022). But the illusion could not stop there. To make it appear as if the inflatable tanks were actual tanks, they needed to create track marks. So, they had a bulldozer on standby that rolled around the site making tank-like track marks on the ground (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 68). Their operations were generally successful. Building on their learning experiences from Operations Brest and Bettembourg, they managed to distract the Germans and relieve the forces in Bastogne during the Battle of the Ardennes. (Beyer, “Weapons of Mass Deception”).

Sound: Being Mockingbirds

The most impressive task of the unit was their ability to mimic one or two full infantry or armoured divisions (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 18). In order to fulfill this task, they needed a believable sound recording. A mobile sound studio was built in Fort Knox to generate and capture the sound. In this exercise, eighteen Sherman tanks and over two hundred men simulated infantry movements for the mobile studio to record (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 47). Not ones to leave wanting for detail, they even took account of the weather. They also constructed a mobile weather sound station that would generate sounds of infantry or corps movements in different weather conditions (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 48-49). “We had rubber tanks and rubber people and everything was an imitation,” said veteran Anderson Walker. “We could draw the Germans any place we wanted them, and it worked” (“World War II 'Ghost Army' Vet Celebrates Century of Cleverness and Courage,” 2023). Remarking on the power of the sound system, he said, “We could crank the speakers up on the back of the half-track [a vehicle with wheels in front and caterpillar tracks in back] and play a program to the enemy all night, of us bringing equipment into the scene” (Beyer, “Weapons of Mass Deception”).

Radio: The Imitation Game

Their phony radio transmission operations were just as complicated and complex. German intelligence was seventy-five per cent dependent on radio transmissions and networks (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 44). Trying to fool the Germans was truly an art form needing an expert hand. Back then, most transmission was done via Morse code. The Germans had developed a knowledge of certain telegraphers’ rhythms or “fist”, akin to recognizing one’s handwriting. Ghost Army soldiers studied the patterns of infantry telegraph operators to accurately mimic radio messages. They had to keep numerous considerations in mind when mimicking a specific radio network. For instance, they also had to keep in mind the usual number of messages a telegrapher would send regarding particular content (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 45). According to Captain Ingersoll, “They came schooled in the styles and accents of every division due to be on the line…They had inventories of every real operators’ nicknames and peculiarities” (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 45). Such expert mimics included Stanley Nance who remembered studying for hours specific idiosyncrasies of specific telegraph operators (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 45).

Keeping Appearances: Extreme Method Acting

When it came to physically impersonating a particular division on the ground, the unit did not leave a detail to spare. Princeton graduate, and aspiring actor, Lieutenant (and later Captain), Freddy Fox, reasoned with the High Command that the unit should be afforded special permission in order to create the most believable impersonations. They set up fake command posts, sentry posts, bumper markings, etc. This included, fake patches, false logos on the trucks, Ghost Army soldiers should be equipped with details on the infantry’s soldiers when they need to talk with civilians in nearby towns (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 83-84). Spike Berry recalled, “Members of the decoy unit were trained to spill phony stories at the local bars and brothels” (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 84). These covert tasks also included impersonating generals. They needed to get special permission because impersonating a higher rank are grounds for a court martial. Freddy Fox explained that “Nothing gives away the location of an important unit quicker than a silver starred jeep,” he continued in the memo, “Remember we are in the theatre business. Impersonation is our racket. If we can’t do a complete job we might as well give up. You can’t portray a woman if bosoms are forbidden” (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 85). The High Command accepted Fox’s reasoning. Fox himself would impersonate an American general while investigating a French tavern owner who was suspected of collaborating with the Germans (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 85).

The 23rd was a top-secret unit, not known to many outside the unit and a few specific individuals. But despite their best efforts, there had been some close calls of having their activities exposed. For instance, a French farmer came forward to their unit angry after seeing their artillery, complaining about what seemed to be another session of loud artillery fire. He shouted to the soldiers, “Encore boom boom?” When he hit his fist on one of the dummy guns, expecting a hard surface, instead his hand bounced up. Surprised and amused, he laughed and said, “Boom boom ha ha!” (Beyer & Sayles 2015, 66-67). These instances were few and far in between. The Ghost Army was a top secret unit, classified for over fifty years.

Conclusion

After the war, the soldiers of the 23rd were sworn to secrecy. The first major publication of their deeds was first published in 1985 by the Smithsonian. It was officially declassified in the mid-1990s (New Orleans). If you want to learn more about this history, you can visit the Nevada Museum of Art’s John Hawley Olds Lagatta Gallery to see their exhibition, Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II which will run until July 23, 2023. There are four major books written about this unit. The first two were published in 2002, Philip Gerard’s Secret Soldiers: The Story of World War II’s Heroic Army of Deception, and The Ghost of the ETO: American Tactical Deception Units in the European Theatre 1944-1945 by Jonathan Gawne. Married duo Gerry and Janet Souter published, The Ghost Army: Conning the Third Reich in 2019. Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’ book is the most recent, published in 2015 called, The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery.

References

Beyer, Rick, and Elizabeth Sayles. 2015. The Ghost Army of World War II : How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery. 1st edition. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Beyer, Rick. “Weapons of Mass Deception.” Works That Work magazine. No. 6. Accessed April 26, 2023. https://worksthatwork.com/6/ghost-army.

“Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Accessed April 26, 2023. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/exhibits/traveling-exhibits/ghost-army-combat-con-artists-world-war-ii.

“Ghost Army Tintype Shoot.” The Ghost Army. Posted February 2, 2017. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://ghostarmy.com/blog/f/c/950

“How the Ghost Army of WWII Used Art to Deceive the Nazis.” Smithsonian Institution, July 5, 2022. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-ghost-army-of-wwii-used-art-to-deceive-the-nazis-180980336/.

“I Faked Everything': WWII Vet, 98, Honored for Tricking Nazis with Illusions in 'Ghost Army.” Originally published in People Magazine. August 9, 2022. Ghost Army in the News. Ghost Army. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://ghostarmy.org/blog/-i-faked-everything-wwii-vet-98-honored-for-tricking-nazis-with-illusions-in-ghost-army-/

Kelly, Josh. “​Miller honored for service as member of Ghost Army during WWII.” Ghost Army in the News. Ghost Army. Originally posted in the Owensboro Times. September 27, 2022. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://ghostarmy.org/blog/miller-honored-for-service-as-member-of-ghost-army-during-wwii/

Sullivan, Amanda. “Fort Leonard Wood examines WWII ‘Ghost Army’ deception tactics.” Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office. U.S. Army. June 9, 2021. Accessed April 27 2023. https://www.army.mil/article/247350/fort_leonard_wood_examines_wwii_ghost_army_deception_tactics

“The Ghost Army Legacy Project: WWII Deception Unit.” The Ghost Army Legacy Project. News. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://ghostarmy.org/.

“World War II 'Ghost Army' Vet Celebrates Century of Cleverness and Courage.” Ghost Army in the News. February 3, 2023. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://ghostarmy.org/blog/world-war-ii-ghost-army-vet-celebrates-century-of-cleverness-and-courage/

“WWII Ghost Army Soldier Celebrated for His Service.” Town of Islip. Published March 21, 2022. Accessed April 26, 2023. https://www.islipny.gov/news/press-releases/1550-wwii-ghost-army-soldier-celebrated-for-his-service.