5th Airborne Division (United Kingdom)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
made extensive use of fictional formations as part of various
military deception Military deception (MILDEC) is an attempt by a military unit to gain an advantage during warfare by misleading adversary decision makers into taking action or inaction that creates favorable conditions for the deceiving force. This is usually ac ...
efforts to inflate their
order of battle In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the arme ...
. The use of such formations was pioneered by
Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Dudley Clarke, based within the
Mediterranean and Middle East theatre The Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre was a major theatre of operations during the Second World War. The vast size of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Medi ...
, and later joined by colleagues located in the UK. The initial efforts were small and created a fictional
brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. Br ...
with no long-term goal. As the war progressed, the deception efforts escalated into elaborate plans that included entire notional
armies An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
. In total, 36 notional divisions were created although they were not all employed at the same time. Some of these were based on real units that had previously been disbanded. Clarke's initial order-of-battle deception created the 1st Special Air Service Brigade. This notional formation was aimed to take advantage of
Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
fears of British paratrooper forces being based in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, from where they could potentially land behind the front line. It was followed by two separate efforts that created fictitious divisions to hide various weakness of the British forces in the theatre. In 1942, these efforts grew into
Operation Cascade Operation Cascade was the codename for an Allied military deception operation during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II for North Africa. Operation Cascade was one of the first successful Allied deception operations in World War II, and ...
, which again sought to hide the weakness of British forces and deter potential Axis aggression. In 1943, planning began for the Allied reconquest of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
-occupied Western Europe. A major deception effort,
Operation Bodyguard Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II deception strategy employed by the Allied states before the 1944 invasion of northwest Europe. Bodyguard set out an overall stratagem for misleading the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht as to ...
, was implemented and included forces based within the UK and the Mediterranean. Allied staff based in the UK worked on
Operation Fortitude Operation Fortitude was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy (code named ''Bodyguard'') during the build-up to the 1944 Normandy landings. Fortitude was di ...
, which aimed to create new fake formations and an entire notional order of battle. The goal of these efforts was to lead the German military into believing substantial forces could attack
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, and that
Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
were a ruse to hide the real attack that would be launched elsewhere by notional forces based in the UK. Within the Mediterranean theatre, Operation Zeppelin was Fortitude's counterpart. It aimed to elaborate on the work undertaken by Operation Cascade and use the notional formations to feign the threat of attacks throughout the Mediterranean area. The fake order of battle was also used to conceal troop movements from the Mediterranean to the UK. While fake divisions were created to supplement Allied forces in British India and Burma, there was no theatre-wide deception effort. These various deception operations undertook administrative and physical efforts to fool Axis forces into believing these formations existed. This included fake insignia and documents, inflatable tanks, wireless communications, and the deliberate leaking of information, especially via
double agents In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
. Within Europe, these efforts convinced the German military that the Allied powers had more divisions than they did. However, similar efforts in Asia were met with mixed success.


Background


Initial efforts

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Dudley Clarke, who had previously been engaged in various intelligence work and had helped form the
Commandos Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...
, was assigned to Middle East Command on 19 December 1940. His role was the Personal Intelligence Officer (Special Duties) to Middle East Command's commander-in-chief,
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
Archibald Wavell. After assisting with Operation Camilla, the deception plan for the reoccupation of
British Somaliland British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate ( so, Dhulka Maxmiyada Soomaalida ee Biritishka), was a British Empire, British protectorate in present-day Somaliland. During its existence, the territory was bordered by Italian Soma ...
, Clarke undertook his first effort to create an entirely fictitious formation. Operation Abeam was the codename given for the creation of the fictional 1st Special Air Service Brigade. This brigade was placed to notionally support Wavell's attack against Italian forces in the Western Desert campaign, by playing on the Italian concern of potential British airborne forces being in the theatre and that they could be used to land behind the frontline. This was followed by a scaled-up version, in efforts to fool Italian intelligence into believing that a notional 10th Armoured Division was arriving piecemeal in Egypt, where British forces were based. The plan aimed to cover the lack of British armoured forces actually located there. The first use of deception formations within combat plans came shortly thereafter, in March 1941, when Wavell planned to seize the island of
Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...
. A deception plan was formed to suggest the real target was
Scarpanto Karpathos ( el, Κάρπαθος, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part o ...
and that the 1st Special Air Service Brigade would raid Rhodes to distract Axis forces. Due to German reinforcements arriving in Africa, to bolster the Italians, the attack did not occur. On 28 March, Clarke's team became known as
Advanced Headquarters 'A' Force Advanced Headquarters 'A' Force, generally referred to as 'A' Force, was the name of a deception department during the Second World War. It was set up in March 1941 and based in Cairo under Brigadier Dudley Clarke. General Archibald Wavell, the c ...
, with the 'A' purposely left ambiguous. Abeam and the 10th Armoured Division had been intended only for short-term use, the first long-term plan was formed in June. Cyprus was potentially at risk of invasion, following the German occupation of Crete. The Cyprus Defense Plan aimed to deter any attack and to buy time to allow actual reinforcements to arrive to bolster the 4,000-man garrison. The deception plan claimed that the garrison was at least 20,000 strong, based around the fictitious 7th Infantry Division (Cyprus). The plan evolved to include additional units, a changing order of battle for the 7th Division, and a notional corps headquarters. These successes prompted the creation of the London Controlling Section, a similar unit to 'A' Force but based in the UK.


Expansion

The lessons learnt during these early order-of-battle deceptions, along with other deception operations undertaken by A Force, resulted in
Operation Cascade Operation Cascade was the codename for an Allied military deception operation during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II for North Africa. Operation Cascade was one of the first successful Allied deception operations in World War II, and ...
. The initial objective, outlined in March 1942, was to deter a potential
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
assault via the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
 – if the Germans succeeded in their southern spring offensive inside the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
 – by inflating the British order of battle within the Middle East. The plan called for eight new notional divisions as well as two notional armoured brigades, in addition to the existing notional 1st Special Service Brigade (the actual British strength during this period was 15 divisions). The plan officially began in July and carried on through to 1944, evolving as the situation required and with additional formations added. For example, in March 1943, six further notional British divisions were added. During 1943, the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
began planning for a major offensive that aimed to liberate German-occupied France. The planning of this included a deception element that was codenamed
Operation Bodyguard Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II deception strategy employed by the Allied states before the 1944 invasion of northwest Europe. Bodyguard set out an overall stratagem for misleading the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht as to ...
. Bodyguard, in turn, consisted of various elements. For the Mediterranean area, the overall deception plan was Operation Zeppelin that aimed to create an Allied threat to various
Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
-held territories. To support this, the Allied order of battle needed to be inflated to provide these operations with the necessary forces to create such threats. As a result, Cascade was superseded by
Operation Wantage Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Operation (game), ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * Operations (magazine ...
on 6 February 1944. Specifically, Wantage aimed to increase the forces in the Mediterranean by 33 per cent, and double the number of forces based within the Middle East (the latter included the creation of eighteen new notional divisions, six corps, and one army). The efforts conducted by Cascade and Wantage allowed for Operation Foynes, which aimed to conceal the withdrawal of Allied formations from Italy. Eight divisions were withdrawn to the UK, to provide the forming Allied armies with a core of veteran forces for the assault on France. These formations were replaced by three real and four fake divisions. The northern Europe counterpart to Zeppelin was initially codenamed Operation Torrent and then referred to as Appendix Y, based on the section name of the planning documents. This plan then evolved into Operation Mespot and subsequently
Operation Fortitude Operation Fortitude was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy (code named ''Bodyguard'') during the build-up to the 1944 Normandy landings. Fortitude was di ...
. It was planned by a department called
Ops (B) Ops (B) was an Allied military deception planning department, based in the United Kingdom, during the Second World War. It was set up under Colonel Jervis-Read in April 1943 as a department of Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) ...
and split into two: Fortitude North, which sought to create a threat towards
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
; and Fortitude South that aimed to make the Germans believe that the invasion of France would take place in the
Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...
region. These plans aimed to expand the Allied order of battle within the UK in order to provide the forces required to maintain these threats.


Method

Deception formations was not limited to British forces. Notional
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
, British Indian,
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
, French,
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, and South African formations were also fabricated. To create and maintain the illusion of these notional formations, various methods were undertaken. At a basic level, British intelligence purposely leaked information and started rumors that would eventually reach Axis intelligence services. This included planting information to be found by foreign diplomats. The notional formations were given insignia and efforts were made to include them on official documents that contained real formations. It was reasoned that the documentation would help to create a general belief that these fake formations existed, and if captured they would further aid the deception. Insignia was worn by soldiers and painted on vehicles. These were then publicly displayed for willing or unwitting Axis informants. Passes and identity cards were manufactured and then "lost" where they could find their way into Axis hands. Dummy tanks covered in tarpaulins were routed through populated areas, and dummy parachutists were dropped near Cairo to simulate parachute training.
Wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
traffic was created for the fictional formations. For the benefit of Axis aerial reconnaissance, dummy tanks, fake tank tracks, and fake camps were constructed and moved around to create the fictitious presence of additional armoured formations. Furthermore,
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
, the British security service, had eliminated the German spy ring within the UK. Thereafter, they operated a series of
double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
s known as the
Double-Cross System The Double-Cross System or XX System was a World War II counter-espionage and deception operation of the British Security Service (a civilian organisation usually referred to by its cover title MI5). Nazi agents in Britain – real and false – w ...
. These double agents were used to feed German
military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
information about real and fake formations, their insignia, movements, and provided entire fictitious orders of battle. Due to
Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...
, the breaking of German encrypted communications, the British were able to read German coded messages and verify the success of their efforts. The notional arrival of Canadian troops in Egypt, as part of the deception effort to increase the British-led presence in the area, provides a case example. Canadian insignias were displayed in various locations in Egypt and within the Mandate of Palestine. In Palestine, British intelligence created an influx of
Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar ( symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style ...
s at various money exchanges, and also requested that
Vichy French Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
(pro-Axis) forces in the Middle East remain on the look-out and return (notional) French-Canadian
deserters Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which a ...
. The success of the Cyprus deception effort was verified via intercepted German communications about the level of British forces on the island. By May 1942, the deception methods had resulted in Axis intelligence overestimating British forces in Africa and the Middle East by 30 per cent. This included three of the notional divisions being verified on the German order of battle of British forces. In November 1942, following the
Second Battle of El Alamein The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian Railway station, railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa ...
, the British military captured numerous German intelligence documents. A Force reviewed these documents and were able to verify an initial success to Operation Cascade, with reference being made to many of their notional units. This had resulted in the Germans overestimating the British armoured strength by 45 per cent and their infantry strength by 40 per cent. Dummy tank formations were repeatedly bombed by the Axis air forces. By 1944, there were 44 real Allied divisions in the Mediterranean area. Due to Cascade and Wantage, German intelligence believed there was in fact around 70.


Impact

Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Fleetwood Hesketh (28 July 1902 – 14 November 1987), born Roger Bibby-Hesketh, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Southport from 1952 to 1959. Early lif ...
, who played a major role in the planning of Fortitude, wrote that captured German maps verified the success of the north and south portions of the deception plan. These maps depicted the location of Allied formations within the UK, the fake order of battles, and notional formations. Mary Barbier, a historian who wrote about the Fortitude deception plan, has questioned its success. She wrote "it is time to consider that the importance of the deception has been overrated", and argued that the plan worked as the Germans held "preconceived ideas about the importance of the Pas De Calais", and that the Allied staff had overestimated the effectiveness of the deception as they held a "preconceived notion of what Fortitude would accomplish". Alfred Jodl, a German general, told interrogators after the end of the war, that major landings were expected in southern France due to the large concentration of forces that the Germans believed had been built-up in Africa. Thaddeus Holt, who wrote about the Allied deception methods, wrote that it was "particularly gratifying ... the puzzlement expressed by one German general" who asked why the notional 5th Airborne Division had not been used in the Allied
Spring 1945 offensive in Italy The spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allied attack during the Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. The attack into the Lombard Plain by the 15th Allied Army Group started on 6 ...
. Similar deceptions were conducted in Asia. However, efforts to operate Bodyguard-like deception were thwarted by the lack of a defined Allied strategy as the British, Americans, and
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
all held different agendas and goals. Changing objectives also hindered the development of any strategic deception plan to dupe the
Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...
. In June 1944, the British captured Japanese documents dated from November 1943, which indicated that the Japanese believed that there were Allied divisions in Southeast Asia and British India, when the actual strength was around 13. Despite the belief in the deception efforts that had created the inflated order of battle, the attempt to use these formations to influence Japanese planning and actions had little impact.


Armies


Corps


Divisions


Independent brigades


Notes

Footnotes Citations


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* {{British military formations during the Second World War Military units and formations of the British Empire in World War II Fictional units of World War II