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Seeing as how I have tendency to write to much when I talk about history I'm going to keep this short. I know that just before the Normandy Invasion there was a series of fictional units created in order to trick the Germans into believing the invasion was going to happen elsewhere. I have been looking for a list of said units for a project of mine and wouldn't mind a bit of help. I have tried several sources but have had no luck so far. I know that one of the fictional unit's patches was a disk with a black spider on a yellow background and I think it was listed as an airborne unit but I'm not sure there. I hope that bit helps.
 
Posts: 156 | Registered: Thu 23 April 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
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Thanks to anyone that helps out as well, I hit the "post now" button a bit prematurely there Big Grin
 
Posts: 156 | Registered: Thu 23 April 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
Feet - Fourth - Head
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That would be the "ghost"/"phantom" 135th Airborne Div.
 
Posts: 1496 | Registered: Fri 23 February 2001Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
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Awesome! Thank you kindly sir.
 
Posts: 156 | Registered: Thu 23 April 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
Widowmaker
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The 135th US Airborne Division was a not-existing unit created as a part of the 1st US Army Group. This unit was created to mislead the Germans in believing that the Allied-forces would land near Calais.
 
Posts: 9897 | Registered: Mon 02 May 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
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It was called OPERATION FORTITUDE and was a blend of real and fictional units and units activated but no yet formed. It changed composition to fool the Germans and had two parts, FORTITUDE NORTH and FORTITUDE SOUTH.
At one time FUSAG was to be made up of:

First U.S. Army Group [FUSAG]
General George S. Patton Jr.

U.S. 14th Army
U.K. 4th Army

14th Army
XXXIII Corps
17th Division (Fictional)
59th Division (Fictional)
XXXVII Corps
25th Division (Fictional)
11th Division (Fictional)
48th Division (Fictional)

U.K. 4th Army
II Corps
55th Division (Real)
61st Division (Real)
80th Division (Fictional)
35th Division (Real)
VII Corps
5th Division (Fictional)
58th Division (Fictional)
2nd Airborne Division (Fictional)

Later as part of FORTITUDE NORTH, an invasion ploy against Norway supposedly consisted of:

British Fourth Army
II Corps
55th Infantry Division (Real)
58th Division (fictional)
British 113th Independent Infantry Brigade (Real)
VII Corps
52nd Infantry Division (Real)
U.S. 55th Infantry Division (fictional)
Three U.S. Ranger battalions (fictional)
United States XV Corps (Real)
US 2d Infantry Division (Real)
US 5th Infantry Division (Real)
US 8th Infantry Division (Real)

Some of these units were fictional when used (1 Airborne and 9 Infantry Divisions that had been created but were not yet formed) and mixed in with 1 Armored, 5 Airborne, and 14 Infantry Divisions that were all fictitious. In many cases the exact details have fallen victim to the original deception they were supposed to create.
 
Posts: 779 | Registered: Mon 28 July 2008Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
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Awesome, I couldn't have hoped for such a fantastic response as this! Thank you for the help.
 
Posts: 156 | Registered: Thu 23 April 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
Experienced Member
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You can find all sorts of stuff by googling "ghost" or "phantom" Army/Division. Just a note, these units were not entirely fictional. They existed on paper and were staffed to a level sufficient enough to allow them to send communications traffic, go out for small unit training and head out on the town on passes wearing their unit patches. These units were nowhere sufficiently staffed and equipped to go into combat, but there was enough to have some visibility so they would come up on the radar screen of German SIGINT, recon aircraft and spies.
 
Posts: 3220 | Registered: Mon 08 August 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete Message
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