History and deployment
Inspiration for the unit came from the British who had used similar techniques on a smaller scale at the battle of El Alamein. The unit had its beginnings at Camp Forrest, Mississippi, and was fully formed at Pine Camp (now Fort Drum), NY before sailing for England in early May 1944. In England they were based near Stratford, and some troops participated in Operation Fortitude, the British simulation of a landing force designated for the Pas des Calais.
Some troops went to Normandy two weeks after D-Day, where they simulated a fake Mulberry harbor at night with lights to draw German fire away from the real ones. Next the full force assisted in bottling up the German defenders of Brest by simulating a larger force than was actually encircling them.
As the Allied armies moved east, so did the 23rd, and it eventually was mostly based out of Luxembourg, were it engaged in deceptions of crossings of the Roehr river, positions along the Maginot line, Huertgen Forest, and finally a major crossing of the Rhine to draw German troops away from the actual sites.
Recruiting
Ghost soldiers were encouraged to use their brains and talent to mislead, deceive and befuddle the German Army. Many were recruited from art schools, advertising agencies and other venues that encourage creative thinking. In civilian life, ghost soldiers had been artists, actors, set designers and engineering wizards. Fashion designer Bill Blass, photographer Art Kane, the artist Louis Dalton Porter and the painter Ellsworth Kelly served as ghost soldiers.
Although the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops consisted of only 1,100 soldiers, the contingent usedinflatabletanks and artillery, fake aircraft and giant speakers broadcasting the sounds of men and artillery to make the Germans think it was upwards to a two division 30,000 man force. The unit's elaborate ruses helped deflect German units from the locations of larger allied combat units.
The unit consisted of the 406th Combat Engineers (which handled security), the 603rd Camouflage Engineers, the 3132 Signal Service Company Special and the Signal Company Special.
Tactics
Visual deception
The visual deception arm of the Ghost Army was the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. It was equipped withinflatabletanks, cannons, jeeps, trucks, and airplanes that the men would pump up with air compressors, and then camouflage imperfectly so that enemy air reconnaissance could see them. They could create dummy airfields, troop bivuacs (complete with fake laundry hanging out on clotheslines), motor pools, artillery batteries, and tank formations in a matter of hours. Many of the men in this unit were artists, recruited from New York and Philadelphia art schools. Their unit became an incubator for young artists who literally sketched and painted their way through Europe. Several of these soldier-artists went on to have a major impact on art in post-war America. Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, wildlife artist Arthur Singer and Kane were among the many artists who served the 603rd.
Sonic deception
The 3132 Signal Service Company Special handled sonic deception. The unit came together under the direction of Colonel Hilton Railey, a colorful figure who, before the war, had “discovered” Amelia Earhart and sent her on her road to fame.
With the help of engineers from Bell Labs, a team from the 3132 went to Fort Knox to record sounds of armored and infantry units onto a series of sound effects records that they brought to Europe. For each deception, sounds could be “mixed” to match the scenario they wanted the enemy to believe. This program was recorded on state of the art wire recorders (the predecessor to the tape recorder), and then played back with powerful amplifiers and speakers mounted on halftracks. The sounds they played could be heard 15 miles away.
Radio deception
"Spoof radio", as it was called, was handled by the Signal Company Special. Operators created phony traffic nets, impersonating the radio operators from real units. They learned the art of mimicking an operator’s method of sending Morse Code so that the enemy would never catch on that the real unit and its radio operator were long gone.
Atmosphere
To add to the mix of techniques, the unit often employed theatrical effects to supplement the other deceptions. Collectively called "atmosphere", this included simulating actual units deployed elsewhere by sewing on their divisional patches, painting appropriate unit designators on vehicles and having the companies deployed as if they were regimental headquarters units. Trucks would be driven in looping convoys with just two troops in the seats near the tailgate, to simulate a truck full of infantry under the canvas cover. "MP's" would be deployed at cross roads wearing appropriate divisional insignia and some officers would simulate divisional generals and staff officers visiting towns where enemy agents were likely to see them. In addition, a few actual tanks and artillery pieces were occasionally assigned to the unit to make the dummies in the distance seem more realistic.
Pending film documentary
A documentary film about the unit, entitled The Ghost Army is currently in production.1
Believe it or not, we can have camping indoor. How? Maybe you will ask. OK, I will tell in this article.
Bed tents allow you to enjoy the pleasures of camping inside your own bedroom. How do you accomplish that? It’s quite easy. Basically, you just place a tent on top of your own (or your kids’) bed. It might sound kind of strange, but believe me when I tell you: they will surely love it. If you’re looking for something different, have a look at these indoor bed tents.
First the good news: these bed tents are quite cheap. Considering they won’t be standing outdoors in the wild, they don’t require any special fabrics, as they won’t have to endure bucket loads of water, snow nor wind. As for the bad news… well… there really are none. Maybe you’ll have a hard time convincing your kids to let you take the tent away from their bed, but that’s about it.
If you want to treat your kids with an unexpected surprise, consider offering them a "bed tent". We all know how kids like to explore. Allowing them to have a tent right there in their bedroom will be enough to make them imagine endless adventures. Who said kids these days only enjoyed video games? See how they react to having their own tent. It will be enough to keep them occupied for a long time – and you won’t have to beg them to stay in their bedrooms anymore.
What is interesting is the similarities between this and the boot camp dream; the camp I was staying at in the other dream ALSO had an adjoining bar which was structured in the same way. The only difference was the makeshift stage and the décor (the bar in this dream had a more modern, wood panel veneer whereas the boot camp bar had a more traditional, rustic pub-like look to it).
The 900 tonne icebreaker sank in calm seas in less than 20 minutes leaving 13 crew members dead and 19 survivors drifting in twoinflatableliferafts for more than two days until rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship was chartered to Geophysical Service Inc, a seismic exploration company. It was often incorrectly reported that the ship hit an iceberg. It appears that a ballast problem was the more likely cause.
