Operation Bodyguard
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During World War II, Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic deception plan in Europe for 1944, carried out as part of the build-up to the invasion of Normandy. The major objective of this plan was to lead the Germans to believe that the invasion of northwestern Europe would come later than was actually planned, and to threaten attacks at other locations than the true objective, including the Pas de Calais, the Balkans, southern France, Norway, and Soviet attacks in Bulgaria and northern Norway.
The name 'Bodyguard' was derived from a comment by Winston Churchill to Stalin at the Tehran Conference in 1943, saying, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Roger Hesketh, who helped plan and carry out the operation while working at 'Ops B', the deception sector of SHAEF, recalled in his book the three main goals of Operation Bodyguard:
- To induce the German command to believe that the main assault and follow up will be in or east of the Pas de Calais, thereby encouraging the enemy to maintain or increase the strength of his air and ground forces and his fortifications there at the expense of other areas, particularly of the Caen area.
- To keep the enemy in doubt as to the date and the time of the actual assault.
- During and after the main assault to contain the largest possible German land and air forces in or east of the Pas de Calais for at least fourteen days.
Operation Bodyguard was divided into three main sub-operations: Operation Fortitude, which had both a North component (designed to lead the Germans to expect an invasion of Norway) and a South component, designed to lead them to expect an invasion at the Pas de Calais. The third main sub-operation was Operation Zeppelin, to indicate landings on Crete or Roumania. There were also numerous smaller operations.
References
- Roger Hesketh, Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign (Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 2000).