On this episode of History with Mark Bielski, filmmaker and author Rick Beyer returns to discuss in further detail the extraordinary deception soldiers better known as the Ghost Army. Rick made the PBS documentary, The Ghost Army, and co-authored the book,The Ghost Army of World War II. As we discussed in Part I, the Ghost Army specifically refers to the 23rd HQ Special Troops. They ran series of deception operations so secretive that few of their fellow GIs knew anything about it, and the Army kept it top secret—during the war and for decades afterwards. To put it succinctly, The Ghost Army was about fooling people. Their goal was to make the enemy believe that something is happening even though it is not. Imagine the German soldiers on the front lines thinking there is an armored division moving into position just beyond the woods on their perimeter. Or, Luftwaffe air reconnaissance reporting back to HQ that there were scores of American tanks and aircraft preparing for invasion. Imagine is the key word, because the Ghost Army made it all happen with illusion and trickery. Rick Beyer produced the PBS special entitled The Ghost Army of WWII, as well as co-authored with Elizabeth Sayles, the…
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