D-Day deception Operation Fortitude: The World War Two army that didn't exist

Eighty years ago, during World War Two, a significant deception operation known as Operation Fortitude was carried out in England. This operation involved the creation of an entirely fake Army group, complete with dummy tanks and decoy aircraft, to mislead the Nazis. The goal was to make the enemy believe that an invasion was imminent in the Pas-de-Calais, across the English Channel. Even after the actual Normandy landings, the German High Command continued to believe that they were just a diversion and that a larger invasion was still to come. The origins of Operation Fortitude can be traced back to 1940, when Colonel John Turner began constructing decoy airfields to confuse the Luftwaffe about the size of Britain's fighter defenses. Turner, who had previously served as the Director of Works and Buildings for the Air Ministry, was tasked with building fake airfields and lining them with dummy aircraft. However, his efforts faced opposition from Air Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding, the Head of RAF Fighter Command, who believed that resources should be focused on real fighters and airbases. Despite this, Turner was instructed to continue with the project. The challenge he encountered was the complexity and cost of the dummy aircraft made by traditional manufacturers. This led him to seek out a new supplier, which is where Norman Loudon, a Scottish businessman who owned a film studio, entered the picture. Loudon recognized the film industry's expertise in creating sets that looked real on camera. He saw an opportunity to create work for his technicians and successfully bid for the contract to build dummy aircraft for Operation Fortitude. This marked the beginning of the film industry's involvement in the deception operation.