1st US Army Group
The 1st US Army Group ( German 1st US Army Group , FUSAG for short ) was a fictional army and, according to legend, was activated in London in 1943 to prepare the invasion plans for the European continent. In October 1943, moved General Omar Bradley , the headquarters of the United Kingdom , and the tasks Bradley took the commander of the US 1st Army and the FUSAG, which later in the 12th US Army Group was renamed. However, General Bernard Montgomery was to keep command of all American ground troops in northern France until the invasion was secured . On August 1, 1944, the 12th US Army Group was officially put into service under Bradley, who commanded 903,000 soldiers , divided into 21 divisions .
After the transfer of all FUSAG units to the 12th US Army Group, FUSAG remained in existence as a mock army until October 18, 1944. It served to mislead the Wehrmacht leadership , which was to be kept in the belief that the actual landing would take place on the Pas de Calais instead of in Normandy . By means of clever deception maneuvers, the manpower was reported to be significantly larger than that of the British 21st Army Group under Montgomery. General George S. Patton , who Eisenhower knew had a certain reputation among the Germans, was installed as commander. As part of Operation Fortitude , FUSAG was assigned a station near Dover in order to convince the Germans of their planned mission long after the Normandy landing. This meant that 19 important and heavily manned German units could be condemned to inactivity on the day of the invasion , as they were waiting on the Pas de Calais for a landing that never took place.
By means of an ingenious deception plan, which was essentially based on the transmission of bogus messages via radio and radio , it was possible to fictitiously set up FUSAG as part of Operation Quicksilver . The radio and radio broadcast spoke of a Canadian Army, a US Army, a Canadian Corps , three US Corps, a Canadian Infantry Division , a Canadian Armored Unit , six U.S. Infantry Divisions, and four U.S. Armored Units.
The FUSAG ghost army lived solely through the stories spun around it, which made its existence seem plausible to the Germans. The recruitment of soldiers from various US states was reported. Fictitious commanders were invented and entire baseball and football games were broadcast between departments. Private messages from the non-existent soldiers back home were also read out. Should German spies in the USA and Great Britain be assigned to FUSAG, reconnaissance officers had been entrusted with the special task of locating them, taking them into their trust and supplying them with false information. The German spies uncovered by the British and American secret services and “turned” into their own agents also sent reports to their superiors.
Contrary to popular opinion, no dummy tanks, aircraft or artillery were used as visible equipment of FUSAG , as German reconnaissance flights over England were not taking place at that time. Only dummies of landing craft were used. These were placed in the ports in south-east England , which were believed to be particularly under German observation by means of reconnaissance flights in the English Channel .
The success of the deception operation could be verified using German operation cards that had fallen into the hands of the Allies . The German units assembled on the Pas de Calais gave a clear picture. Simultaneously with the real invasion units, the fictitious FUSAG troops also shifted positions, which completed the confusion on the German side.
See also
- On the British side, the British 4th Army was the equivalent.
- The ghost army plays a role in the spy novel The needle of Ken Follett and the film adaptation of the same name with Donald Sutherland .
Web links
- 1st US Army Group at globalsecurity.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Omar Nelson Bradley: A soldier's story . Modern Library, New York 1999, ISBN 0-375-75421-0 , p. 211.