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The Ghost Army, known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, was an elite World War II unit of 1,000 men who didn't "officially" exist for half a century and were credited with saving over 40,000 lives merely by bluff, deception and trickery.
The unit was declassified in the 1990's, but it did not garner much attention until filmmaker Rick Beyer began work on producing a documentary film that tells their story which PBS will air sometime in 2013.
Lexington filmmaker Rick Beyer's seven years of work on his documentary film, “Artists of Deception: The Ghost Army of World War II,” opens a window into this extraordinary chapter of military history.
The Army handpicked soldiers for this special unit, soldiers who were artists, designers, radio engineers, make-up artists, sound technicians, and actors. Their weapons were costumes, camouflage, inflatable tanks, impersonation, props, fake radio transmissions, visual and sound effects - anything that could be used creatively to fool the enemy. They were expected to put on a show that would make Cecil B. DeMille proud.
Bill Blass
Some of the unit's soldiers became famous after the war: fashion designer
Bill Blass, painter and sculptor
Ellsworth Kelly, and photographer
Art Kane.
In a recent news article, Covington, Georgia resident Ghost Soldier, 87 year-old Jack Stanley talks about being a member of the unit and some of the deceptions they pulled off.
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Sound effects specialists would play records of tanks cranking up and moving out. They'd use rubber inflatable tanks, trucks, jeeps and airplanes that "we'd blow up like a balloon," said Stanley. The inflatables looked very realistic, from the ground and the air, and fooled the Germans about troops' locations and where they were headed. They'd put fake bumper markings identifying a specific division and ride through town, pull into a vacant field at night, remove the markings and replace them with those of a different division. They'd also sew patches from various divisions they were portraying onto their uniforms.
"To anybody in these villages, we were one outfit after another moving up to the front line," he said. "Meanwhile, as a radio operator, I'd send fake radio messages identifying me as such and such an outfit and it would all paint a picture."
Sometimes, Ghost Army members would act as if they were drunk and stumble into local bars, pretending to spill classified information about operations.
"We knew the Germans had stool pigeons in these places," Stanley said.
In a news article about
Rick Beyer's documentary, Beyer says:
“The Ghost Army was like a traveling road show of deception [...] So they’re a unit of 1,000 guys who are pretending to be 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 people — for a few days at a time — right on the front lines. And then, before everybody could figure out what’s going on, they pack up their tents and fade away.”
Their last and arguably their most important and successful operation was the crossing of the Rhine in March of 1945. The Ghost Army was able to fool the Germans into believing the crossing would take place near the Dutch border. By borrowing real tanks and placing fake ones in the field and somewhat camouflaging them, they created the appearance of a large military build up in the north while the crossing took place a good distance away. The Ninth Army was able to cross with much less resistance than expected and the unit earned a commendation from the Ninth Army commander after it was over.
The Ghost Army website with many features including the traveling exhibit itinerary.