In the era of the Second World War, the United States used Hollywood to advertised U.S. defense recruitment, funding, and propaganda. The entertainment industry assisted the Allies in several aspects, even on the battlefield.
The United States even created a sole military unit composed of advertising agents, visual artists, audio engineers, set designers, film directors, and actors. They were sent to the European Theater to face Adolf Hitler’s army. These artists' main mission was to fool the Nazis by creating a huge production — Hollywood style.
Uncle Sam wants creative people
During World War Two, the United States' most conservative organization, the U.S. Army, started massive recruitment of people in the line of creatives. They targeted students from the top art schools across the country. They also recruited seasoned advertising agents, set designers, props makers, film directors, carpenters, visual artists, and audio engineers.
The purpose was to establish a "deception unit" full of artists-soldiers. They would be responsible for creating a mock battleground to lure the Nazis. This unit would appear to the enemy as a large armored division with tanks, trucks, artillery, and thousands of soldiers. But this unit would actually be equipped only with fake tanks, fake trucks, fake artillery, and manned by just a handful of creative recruits.
This deception unit was composed of 1,100 artistic human beings. The U.S. Army called the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as the Ghost Army.
Origin of dummy armies
Deceiving the Axis powers was not the original idea of the U.S. Army; they were inspired by their co-Allies, the Brits. In 1942, during the battle of El Alamein in Egypt, the British forces executed Operation Bertram. The operation consisted of physical deceptions using dummies and camouflage, made by the British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate led by Geoffrey Barkas.
It was also incorporated with electromagnetic deception by using fake radio traffics for a full conning plot. The British used wood for their dummy tanks; their engineers went even further by placing wooden tank constructions on top of cars and jeeps in order to create an illusion of movement.
Towards the latter days of the Second World War, the Allies executed similar tactics to deceive the Nazis through Operation Fortitude (codename: Bodyguard). But this time, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought the United States' assistance in executing the ploy. He did a wise decision in tapping the land of Hollywood entertainment.
Illusion of grandeur
Days before Operation Overlord (D-Day), over one million men from the Allied powers were designated to execute several landings across the French coast. Waiting on the other side was Hitler's Army, sitting on heavily fortified bunkers overseeing beaches littered with mines, barbed wires, and concrete tank traps.
The Nazis were also prepared for the Allies' invasion, especially during that time; the Germans hold all the advantages. Nevertheless, the Allied powers utilized Operation Fortitude, a deception that was set to mislead the Germans into thinking that the landing would take place in Pas-de-Calais instead of Normandy.
To confuse the Germans, the U.S. 23rd Headquarters Troops (Ghost Army) installed their dummy army consists of inflatable tanks.
Dummy tanks
The dummy tanks used by the Ghost Army were made on the skeleton of inflatable rubber tubes, which were then covered by rubberized canvas. These models were easy to make and had less chance of being deflated if hit by shrapnel. The rubber tanks weigh 42 kilograms when fully inflated. The Ghost Army only inflates these dummy tanks at night; once done, they were put into position.
Dummy tanks were poorly camouflaged because they were meant to be noticed by the Germans. For a complete set, these dummy tanks were followed by real ones to create traces of tracks. The Germans even thought then that the American soldiers had superpowers because they can lift and move giant tanks with their bare hands. Apart from tanks, the Ghost Army also created inflatable aircraft.
Atmosphere
To dupe the Nazis, the Ghost Army created an "atmosphere." It is a jargon common in theatre and film artists. In essence, the atmosphere is creating a believable tone and impression for the audience. And in this case, the audience was the Germans and their undercover spies.
To do this, the member of the Ghost Army would wear uniforms from different military units and make sure they were seen marching by enemy scouts. The scouts would then return to their headquarters and report that a specific company was operating in the local area. While the fundamental unit and all its firepower were in a different location.
Therefore, the Germans forced to deploy their forces to defend themselves from illusion threats, fearing a decoy troop, when the real ones were already invading other locations.
Fake radio traffic
Ghost Army's actors learned to impersonate radio operators from different units. They were mimicking their voice and the way they sent the morse code messages, down to every tiny detail of the specific operator. All these intricate added to a very convincing deception, leaving the Germans utterly confused about the actual state of affairs across the combat front.
Another posing the actors did was radio spoofing. They would do everything to report fake troops' movements. They would also call fake radio reports from imaginary combat zones, complete with battlefield sound effects, for believable performance.
This measure lures the Nazis into a trap by believing that Allies were moving in a different direction, to locations the Nazis weren't aware of. The Germans had to pull out their army in their original assignments and ordered them to move where the Allies wanted them to be.
Spreading rumors
Word of mouth in advertising is an essential measure in marketing. It is the process of actively influencing and encouraging organic word-of-mouth discussion about a brand, organization, resource, or event.
Therefore, to ensure that the Germans would believe the Allies' mischievous deeds, the actors in military uniforms often spending time at French cafes near the war front. This method spread false rumors that Germans spies picked up and reported back to Hitler's generals.
These American actors also wandered around local areas and talked loudly and openly about military operations. They played several roles, from recruits excited for their first combat to high-ranking officials flirting with pretty waitresses in the cafe. They never failed to spread false rumors about the Allies' invasion of Pas de Calais.
Sonic Deception
Production wouldn't be possible without sound effects. Therefore, Ghost Army's audio engineers created compelling mixtapes made up of the sounds of different vehicles and tanks. These audio specialist soldiers worked in conjunction with Bell Labs back in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
They recorded dozens of different types of military vehicles (e.g., tanks, trucks, jeeps). The audio recordings were written directly onto wire recorders and transported to Europe's battlefields. Ghost Army's DJs ensured that the fake battlefield was full of Allie's armored vehicles to create a realistic soundscape of advancing troops.
These recordings were played through giant speakers mounted on the back of half-tracks. The audio could be heard as far as 15 miles, giving the impression of vast forces moving through the thick woods of Europe's forests.
Without the assistance of the Ghost Army, the D-Day landing in Normandy wouldn't be possible. These artistic people fooled the Germans that changed the course of the war. The Ghost Army put their lives in grave danger facing the Nazis, while the real Allied assault soldiers successfully penetrated Normandy.
The Germans bought every moment of the Allies' deception, which made them so confused that it affected their defense strategy. When the landing was already happening in Normandy, they refused to send reinforcement there as they believed troops in Normandy were only a diversionary tactic. And the legit ones were across the channel that would soon attack Pas-de-Calais.
American troops in Germany
After the D-Day, the Ghost Army conducted 20 more mock battles in the European Theater. One of which was in 1945, Allied forces then were preparing to cross the River of Rhine to ingress Germany. A victory was within sight; if only they could get cross the heavily fortified Rhine.
Any attempt to traverse would be bloody. But crossing the river is essential to end the war. Therefore, the Ghost Army played its part in this attack. They were assigned to simulate two entire infantry divisions (30th and 79th) of about 20,000 men with all their auxiliaries. These American artists squeezed out all their creativity and resourcefulness to duped the Germans into believing that the main assault across the Rhine would come far away from the actual attack.
To do this, they ran a mounting concert of radio broadcasts, simulating troop movements. They also faked orders from different brigades and division commanders through faux radio traffic. This performance convinced the Germans that actual units were moving into the area. The Ghost Army also blasted its mixed soundtracks of troops, vehicles, and heavy equipment.
They convinced the German guards across the Rhine that an actual attack could happen just across the river from them. The deceit operation worked so well. Little the sentries knew while they were busy preparing for an imaginary army. The legit American combat troops had already crossed the river, which led the Allied forces to infiltrate Germany.
Unsung heroes
The Ghost Army was the Allied forces' best-kept secret, even decades after the Second World War. Their records and significant contribution to the victory of the American troops to end Hitler's regime were hidden to the public. These artists from different parts of the United States were not even included in history books. However, some information about these mysterious men and their participation in the fall of Nazis leaked in the '40s. But the U.S. Army managed to conceal them quickly.
" Sebastian Messina, a twenty-eight-year-old corporal from the Signal Company Special went home to Worcester, Massachusetts, for a few weeks’ leave. While there, he talked to a newspaper reporter from the Worcester Daily Telegram about his unusual wartime experiences. The reporter wrote a story, which the paper duly submitted to War Department censors who ordered it withheld from publication. But two weeks, with the war over and the censorship office closed, the paper felt free to go to press. Messina’s revelations led to the first telling of the Ghost Army tale on August 29, 1944. A number of other publications picked up on the story, so there was a burst of publicity about the unit. Soon the Pentagon was able to clamp down, and very little about the Ghost Army popped up in the press over the next forty years." - Ghost Army Legacy Project
It was only in 1996 when Pentagon declassified the existence of the Ghost Army. And since their unit was top-secret, they were given little credit for their contribution to the war. One of the members of the Ghost Army was Bernie Bluestein, he was born in Cleveland, and art has been his passion.
"I was a very insecure kid, and I was happy to be in art school because I wanted to get into my profession. I wanted to be an industrial designer. I made up my mind in high school." - Bernie Bluestein
He never wished to be on the war front lines, but fate still placed him there. When he was 19, Bluestein decided to apply for an Army-sponsored art course posted on the school’s bulletin board advertising a new unit type.
“They didn’t explain what it was. It was a new kind of unit, and they were looking for artists. And they said it wasn’t going to be any sort of infantry-type fighting.” - Bernie Bluestein
After passing the course, he enlisted in the Army, left home, and traveled to Fort George Meade Army base in Maryland for basic and camouflage training. The artist-soldiers learned and perfected techniques to create fake tanks, aircraft, and structures using simple materials that would fool enemies on land or air near German positions. For Bluestein, their unit sharpened his artistic skills.
“There were other people there much older than I. They were seasoned artists, and they were really good. And I used to watch how they did things, how they painted, how they drew, made sculptures. I learned a lot from them. They never left me. It was an education for me.” - Bernie Bluestein
After the war, the Ghost Army went back to the U.S. Bluestein never thought what he did in Europe was a heroic thing. He moved on with his life, returned to art school to complete his dreams of becoming an industrial designer. He never mentioned his work in Army, not even to his family.
“When I got back, we were told to keep it a secret. They didn’t want anybody to know. They didn’t want the Russians to find out that we … pulled this trick on the Germans. (...) I never really thought about the Army. I have to say that honestly.” - Bernie Bluestein
Last year, on March 5, 2020, Bluestein, together with two other Ghost Army veterans, Seymour Nussenbaum and Stanley Nance, attended the opening of a new Ghost Army exhibit at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. The exhibit, entitled “Ghost Army: Combat Con Artists of WWII.”
The Ghost Army Legacy Project organization based in New Orleans is preserving these artist veterans' contributions to World War Two. They are also advocating for these veterans to be given the Congressional Gold Medal, a recognition these brave men deserved.