Winston Churchill once said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a body guard of lies.” And thus the deception to divert Hitler’s forces away from Normandy was aptly named “Plan Bodyguard.” Plan Bodyguard was a series of well planted lies to ensure the success of the Allied invasion of Normandy; Lies so important to the mission that all other global deceptions were planned around them.

Within the military deception has a very specific purpose; to provide the enemy with misinformation which causes the enemy to take a particular action. This allows the military to take an entirely different action with little resistance. In the case of Plan Bodyguard, Allied forces intended to convince Hitler that Normandy was actually a diversion for greater attacks on Norway, Northern France, and the Balkans.

Plan Bodyguard was divided into two main operations; Operation Fortitude and Operation Zeppelin. Operation Fortitude was further divided onto three sub divisions; Fortitude North, Fortitude South and Fortitude South II. The plan required all operations were executed in perfect synchronicity.
Fortitude North threatened an invasion of Norway by British, American and Russian forces. Due to Hitler’s belief in this operation 150,000 German troops were stationed in Norway awaiting battle; successfully eliminating them from the battle at Normandy.

Fortitude South played on Hitler’s belief that if Allied forces were to come to France’s aid they would travel through the English Channel at the shortest possible route, Pas de Calais ( The Straits of Dover). Knowing this, the Allied forces created the fictitious First U. S. Army Group (FUSAG) code named “Quicksilver”. The fictitious group consisted of “one million men” including; dummy landing craft, dummy paratroopers, light and sound schemes. Fortitude South II was a communication ruse to support Fortitude South. Both operations succeeded. Eighteen divisions of the 15th German Army were stationed near the Straits of Dover to prepare for the great battle.

Operation Zeppelin diverted German forces to the Balkans, creating unrest and playing on Hitler’s feelings of vulnerability in the area. Consequently, Hitler sent several divisions from the Atlantic Wall to Hungary.

The success of the ruse was fantastic. Hitler was so convinced of an attack at the Straits of Dover that the German forces stationed there were not diverted for a week after the Allied landing at the beaches of Normandy. Without Plan Bodyguard, the Normandy invasion may be a very different memory.