Historian Taylor Downing’s latest book, The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception, covers the audacious schemes of Operation Fortitude, the misdirection and misinformation mission to confuse German defences during preparations for D-Day, the landings themselves and the broader Normandy campaign. Here, Downing discusses how his book uncovers a previously hidden link between Operation Fortitude and the British film industry, as well as the eccentric individuals that played their role in the complex deception.
Before Fortitude, what other deception operations had the Allies carried out?
The pioneer of Allied deception in the Second World War was Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke. He was a remarkable figure by all accounts, with a mysterious ability to enter a room without anybody knowing that he had come in. Whether in a bar, café or restaurant, he would sit with his back to the wall to see everybody. Clarke came up with the rules and principles of Allied deception when he was appointed to the Middle East Command in late 1940. He had various unsuccessful attempts there, and the Italians responded in a different way than he wanted. Clarke realised that the primary principle of deception is not to make the enemy think differently but to make them do something, which he became great at.
Clarke also realised the need to build up the size of the Allied armies to inflate the order of battle and was the first great enthusiast for that method. He became proficient at inventing units, which initially sounds simple. Actually, for the enemy to believe a hoax division is real, they have to be presented with a range of evidence, including a viable
