Operation Bodyguard
Encyclopedia
Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II
military deception
employed by the Allied nations during the build up to the 1944 invasion of north-western Europe. The aim of the operation was to mislead the German high command as to the exact date and location of the invasion. Bodyguard proved to be a success, giving the Allies tactical surprise during the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 (also known as D-Day).
Planning for Bodyguard was begun in 1943 under the auspices of an organisation called the London Controlling Section
(LCS). A draft strategy, referred to as Plan Jael was presented to Allied high command at the Tehran Conference
in late November and approved on December 6.
The major objective of this plan was to lead the Germans to believe that the invasion of northwestern Europe would come later than was actually planned, and to threaten attacks at other locations than the true objective, including the Pas de Calais, the Balkans
, southern France
, Norway
, and Soviet attacks in Bulgaria
and northern Norway
.
was intended to confuse the German high command as to Allied intentions, and to draw them into air battles across the channel. In this respect Cockade was not a success, with German forces barely responding even as a fake invasion force crossed the channel (turning back some distance from their "target").
Planning for Bodyguard began even before Operation Cockade was fully under way, following the Allied decision that Normandy would be the site of the coming invasion. The London Controlling Section
(LCS), a secret organisation set up to plan deception operations, began to address the problem of achieving tactical surprise for Overlord. It was realised that hiding the invasion build up indefinitely was impractical. The early ideas that later became Operation Bodyguard revolved around efforts to convince the Germans to reduce their force in Northern France and that the overall Allied plan was to establish an initial bridgehead
at Pas de Calais.
(a reference to the Old Testament
heroine who killed an enemy commander by deception).
Bevan's outline was approved on December 6 and he returned to London to begin working on Operation Bodyguard. The new name was chosen based on a comment by Winston Churchill
to Joseph Stalin
at the Tehran conference; "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
The London Controlling Section divided Bodyguard into three major sub-operations (Operation Fortitude
North and South, and Operation Zeppelin
). A number of smaller operations were also designed to support the objectives of the three.
; fictional field army
's, faked operations to prepare the ground for invasion and leaked information about the Allied order of battle and war plans.
Fortitude North centred around the fictional British Fourth Army
, based in Edinburgh
. The Fourth Army had first been activated the previous year, as part of Cockade, to threaten Norway and tie down the German divisions stationed there. The Allies faked the existence of the army via fake radio traffic (Operation Skye) and leaks through double agents.
" anti-espionage operation had proven very successful from the outset of the war. The LCS was able to use double agents to send back misleading information about Allied invasion plans.
By contrast, Allied intelligence was very good. Ultra
, signals intelligence from decrypted German radio transmission, confirmed to planners that the German high command believed in the Bodyguard deceptions and gave them the enemies order of battle
.
Elements of the Bodyguard plan were in operation on June 6, 1944 in support of Operation Neptune (the amphibious assault of Normandy). Elaborate masquerades were undertaken in the English Channel by small ships and aircraft (Operation Glimmer
and Operation Taxable
) to simulate invasion fleets lying off Pas de Calais. At the same time Operation Titanic
involved the RAF dropping fake paratroopers to the east and west of the Normandy landings.
Joan Pujol Garcia, a British double agent (code named Garbo) in high standing with the Germans, transmitted information about the Allied invasion plan with a further warning that the Normandy invasion was a diversion.
, the implementation took the form of many sub-operations.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
military deception
Military deception
Military deception is an attempt to amplify, or create an artificial fog of war or to mislead the enemy using psychological operations, information warfare and other methods. As a form of strategic use of information , it overlaps with psychological warfare...
employed by the Allied nations during the build up to the 1944 invasion of north-western Europe. The aim of the operation was to mislead the German high command as to the exact date and location of the invasion. Bodyguard proved to be a success, giving the Allies tactical surprise during the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 (also known as D-Day).
Planning for Bodyguard was begun in 1943 under the auspices of an organisation called the London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS). A draft strategy, referred to as Plan Jael was presented to Allied high command at the Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
in late November and approved on December 6.
The major objective of this plan was to lead the Germans to believe that the invasion of northwestern Europe would come later than was actually planned, and to threaten attacks at other locations than the true objective, including the Pas de Calais, the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and Soviet attacks in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and northern Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Background
In 1943, after it was decided to put off the invasion, Operation Overlord, until the following year, the Allies conducted a series of deceptions intended to threaten invasion in Norway and France. Operation CockadeOperation Cockade
Operation Cockade was a series of deception operations designed to alleviate German pressure on Allied operations in Sicily and on the Soviets on the eastern front by feinting various attacks into Western Europe...
was intended to confuse the German high command as to Allied intentions, and to draw them into air battles across the channel. In this respect Cockade was not a success, with German forces barely responding even as a fake invasion force crossed the channel (turning back some distance from their "target").
Planning for Bodyguard began even before Operation Cockade was fully under way, following the Allied decision that Normandy would be the site of the coming invasion. The London Controlling Section
London Controlling Section
The London Controlling Section was established in June 1942 within the Joint Planning Staff at the offices of the War Cabinet, which was presided over by Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. The purpose of the LCS was to devise and coordinate strategic military deception and cover plans. The plans...
(LCS), a secret organisation set up to plan deception operations, began to address the problem of achieving tactical surprise for Overlord. It was realised that hiding the invasion build up indefinitely was impractical. The early ideas that later became Operation Bodyguard revolved around efforts to convince the Germans to reduce their force in Northern France and that the overall Allied plan was to establish an initial bridgehead
Bridgehead
A bridgehead is a High Middle Ages military term, which antedating the invention of cannons was in the original meaning expressly a referent term to the military fortification that protects the end of a bridge...
at Pas de Calais.
Plan Jael
Between November 28 and December 1 1943 the Allied leaders met in Tehran to agree on strategy for the following year. Colonel John Henry Bevan, head of the London Controlling Section, attended the conference to present a draft Plan JaelJaël
Jaël, , is a singer-songwriter from the band Lunik. She also co-wrote and sang with Delerium on the song After All on their album Chimera, and the song Lost and Found on their album Nuages du Monde. She is both internationally famous in the Trance music community as well as domestically famous from...
(a reference to the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
heroine who killed an enemy commander by deception).
Bevan's outline was approved on December 6 and he returned to London to begin working on Operation Bodyguard. The new name was chosen based on a comment by Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
at the Tehran conference; "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Objectives
The main part of Operation Bodyguard was the plan to deceive the enemy as to the timing, weight and direction of the Normandy invasion. Roger Hesketh, who helped plan and carry out the operation while working at 'Ops B', the deception sector of SHAEF, recalled in his book the three main goals of this part of Bodyguard. These were laid down in Appendix Y of COSSAC, a previous deception plan, and were:- To induce the German command to believe that the main assault and follow up will be in or east of the Pas de Calais, thereby encouraging the enemy to maintain or increase the strength of his air and ground forces and his fortifications there at the expense of other areas, particularly of the Caen area.
- To keep the enemy in doubt as to the date and the time of the actual assault.
- During and after the main assault to contain the largest possible German land and air forces in or east of the Pas de Calais for at least fourteen days.
Operation Fortitude
Operation Fortitude was the codename for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy during the build up to the 1944 Normandy Landings...
North and South, and Operation Zeppelin
Operation Zeppelin (Allies)
During World War II, Operation Zeppelin was a deception plan carried out by the Allies designed to depict a potential amphibious landing on Crete, western Greece, or the Romanian Black Sea coast...
). A number of smaller operations were also designed to support the objectives of the three.
Fortitude
Operation Fortitude, one of the largest components of Bodyguard, was intended to convince the Germans of a greater Allied military strength than existed, and that this would be deployed to invade both Norway and Pas de Calais. Fortitude employed similar techniques a 1943 operation, CockadeOperation Cascade
Operation Cascade was the codename for an Allied deception operation during World War II for the Middle East and North Africa. Operation Cascade was one of the first successful Allied deception operations in World War II, and provided valuable experience for later operations.-Background:In 1942,...
; fictional field army
Field army
A Field Army, or Area Army, usually referred to simply as an Army, is a term used by many national military forces for a military formation superior to a corps and beneath an army group....
's, faked operations to prepare the ground for invasion and leaked information about the Allied order of battle and war plans.
Fortitude North centred around the fictional British Fourth Army
British Fourth Army
The Fourth Army was a field army that formed part of the British Expeditionary Force during the First World War. The Fourth Army was formed on 5 February 1916 under the command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson to carry out the main British contribution to the Battle of the Somme.-History:The Fourth...
, based in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. The Fourth Army had first been activated the previous year, as part of Cockade, to threaten Norway and tie down the German divisions stationed there. The Allies faked the existence of the army via fake radio traffic (Operation Skye) and leaks through double agents.
Special means
A large part of the various Bodyguard operations involved the use of double agents. The British "Double CrossDouble Cross System
The Double Cross System, or XX System, was a World War II anti-espionage and deception operation of the British military intelligence arm, MI5. Nazi agents in Britain - real and false - were captured, turned themselves in or simply announced themselves and were then used by the British to broadcast...
" anti-espionage operation had proven very successful from the outset of the war. The LCS was able to use double agents to send back misleading information about Allied invasion plans.
By contrast, Allied intelligence was very good. Ultra
Ultra
Ultra was the designation 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 at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
, signals intelligence from decrypted German radio transmission, confirmed to planners that the German high command believed in the Bodyguard deceptions and gave them the enemies order of battle
Order of battle
In modern use, the order of battle is the identification, command structure, strength, and disposition of personnel, equipment, and units of an armed force participating in field operations. Various abbreviations are in use, including OOB, O/B, or OB, while ORBAT remains the most common in the...
.
Normandy Landings
Operation Glimmer
Operation Glimmer was the codename for one of the deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings . In conjunction with Operation Taxable, this was conducted by aircraft of the Royal Air Force and small ships of the Royal Navy to trick the...
and Operation Taxable
Operation Taxable
Operation Taxable was the codename for one of the deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings...
) to simulate invasion fleets lying off Pas de Calais. At the same time Operation Titanic
Operation Titanic
Operation Titanic was the codename for an operation carried out on 5-6 June 1944 by the Royal Air Force and the Special Air Service in support of the Normandy landings during the Second World War...
involved the RAF dropping fake paratroopers to the east and west of the Normandy landings.
Joan Pujol Garcia, a British double agent (code named Garbo) in high standing with the Germans, transmitted information about the Allied invasion plan with a further warning that the Normandy invasion was a diversion.
Aftermath
In his 2004 book, The Decievers, Thaddeus Holt attributes the success of Fortitude to the trial run of Cockade in 1943; "FORTITUDE in 1944 could not have run as smoothly as it did if the London Controlling Section and its fellows had not gone through the exercise of COCKADE in the year before."List of operations
Whilst Bodyguard was the overall deception strategy for the Allied invasion, under Operation OverlordOperation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
, the implementation took the form of many sub-operations.
- Operation FortitudeOperation FortitudeOperation Fortitude was the codename for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy during the build up to the 1944 Normandy Landings...
(North and South)- Operation QuicksilverOperation Quicksilver (WWII)In World War II, Operation Quicksilver was a sub-plan of Operation Fortitude, the 1944 deception plan designed to induce the Germans to hold troops away from Normandy in belief that the Normandy landing was only a feint and that the major invasion would come in the Pas-de-Calais...
(South) and Operation Skye (North) - Operation IronsideOperation IronsideDuring World War II, Operation Ironside was a deception carried out by the Allies in 1944 in support of the invasion of Normandy. Ironside falsely threatened an Allied invasion of France along the Bay of Biscay, near Bordeaux during the summer of 1944....
- Operation TitanicOperation TitanicOperation Titanic was the codename for an operation carried out on 5-6 June 1944 by the Royal Air Force and the Special Air Service in support of the Normandy landings during the Second World War...
- Operation TaxableOperation TaxableOperation Taxable was the codename for one of the deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings...
and Operation GlimmerOperation GlimmerOperation Glimmer was the codename for one of the deception operations used by the Allied forces during World War II in connection with the Normandy landings . In conjunction with Operation Taxable, this was conducted by aircraft of the Royal Air Force and small ships of the Royal Navy to trick the...
- Operation Quicksilver
- Operation ZeppelinOperation ZeppelinOperation Zeppelin may refer to:* Operation Zeppelin , part of Operation Bodyguard, a deception plan with the object to keep the Germans occupied in the Balkans due to perceived Allied offensive, thereby reducing the number of German troops which would be otherwise engaged by the Allies in France...
- Operation Royal Flush
- Operation Vendetta
- Operation Graffham