Customer Reviews

Secret Soldiers: The Story of World War II's Heroic Army of Deception

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I generally have little interest in military stories, but this book is exceptional. I can't recommend it too highly. I had trouble working last week because my reading hours ran long.

The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops makes for a great story to begin with. This specialized and highly secret unit of guys put on "shows" throughout the Allied campaign from Normandy into Germany with inflatable tanks, stereo broadcasts over the countryside of moving tanks and equipment (where nothing was moving but show-people), and pyrotechnic light shows -- all designed to cover up weak spots in the Allied line, tie up German divisions where they were ineffectual, and to draw attention away from actual troop movements.

But who do you round up to do such work? For camoufleurs you need artists, including a guy who's spent years studying how birds blend into their habitat; for producing "shows" you need scriptwriters and other show people. Fashion designer Bill Blass was involved. The antithesis of gung-ho Army grunts became a unit that saved untold numbers of lives. The interplay of contrasting styles between unconventional creative artists and career Army officers is captivating. Yet, for the most part, they all made it work. You get a sense of even the men themselves shaking their heads in wonder.

Philip Gerard's writerly craft brings much to the story. The book is arranged chronologically, introducing the various players and their training before following them to England and through the operations in Europe. Early on, certain readers might find some of the technical detail a bit much, but later when the action cranks up overseas we understand exactly what's going on and appreciate the careful preparation. We know the characters, their personalities and their functions, and we know the hardware, so the stories flow during the cross-country race toward Berlin. And the technical matters are delivered through warmly human stories throughout the book, profiles of unlikely heroes, men thrown into circumstances that demanded more than they knew they had in them.

Gerard's meticulous and wide-ranging research -- and surely some luck as well -- are plainly evident, not only in the stories but in the extensive notes, bibliography, and index. There is far more to the book than I can say here without giving away too much. Read it.

My last 40 months in the Army (1996 - 2000) were spent at Ft. Drum, New York. While there I soon learned that such well known divisions as the 45th Infantry Division and Patton's famous 4th Armored Division trained there before shipping out for combat in Europe. What I also learned about was a signal corp unit which did top secret or "hush-hush" work. Unfortunately there wasn't much else in the way of information. When I was there I heared that the surviving members of the unit had a reunion and that an author was researching for a book. I made a mental note to look for the book, but after a couple of years forgot.

Well this year for Fathers Day my seven year old daughter bought Secret Soldiers for me. It's a great read. It keeps your attention and shines a light on a part of the war effort that has been dark until recently. No these men did not engage the enemy in hand to hand combat, sieze a vital target or hold out for several days against overwhelming odds. What these men did is harder to measure in those terms. But their contributions were important in so many ways. This is a well researched book and also well written. Those two things don't always go together. The author goes technical just enough so one can understand exactly how the various operations worked and he also explains how these soldiers and their ruses could lead the Germans to deploying their forces where they shouldn't have.

If for no other reason this book should give one an appreciation for the pioneering efforts in developing speakers and tape recorders. One could argue this unti is the reason why we now have compact discs. But it should also give one a sense of appreciation for those soldiers who served in ways other then on the front line in a foxhole.

I picked up this book expecting one thing, and got another. The Hardback version ~seems~ to promise an overall history of Deception Warfare in WWII, the most famous of which is probably "Fortitude" - the deception of Rommel into believing Patton would lead the D-Day forces to Calais, closely followed in general public awareness by the story of "The Man who Never Was".

Well, while these are indeed touched on, they're not dealt with in depth. What you get in its place, however, is admirable. The story of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops is a great one - ESSENTIAL, I'd say, because it helps open your eyes to the activites of US Army "support" Units, which you must know to have a well rounded view of WW II.

As I've said in another review on the 3AD's WW II Maintenance Operations (Deathtraps), most books on the War in Europe give the view from the Foxhole or the View from HQ, with little said about the activities of other units, which were just as important to the success of the overall campaign.

The Good Points of this book:

- Needed light shown on a unfamiliar topic

- Great attention to the detail in portraying the individual work of the units of the 23rd(Camofleur ops with Dummy vehicles & Encampments, Sonic Operations, Radio Spoofing, etc), and how that work evolved and improved over the course of their operations

- Great attention to the personalities of the men who made up the unit. An unlikely mix of combat men, artists, showmen and techies who found a way to work together against the enemy and upon occasion, shortsighted leadership. Whoda' thunk Bill Blass or Douglas Fairbanks Jr. played such roles in WWII? The 2000 reunion at the end of the book was effectively recounted

Things I wish were better:

- The cover blurbs promise more than the book really aims to deliver. Probably more a marketing thing than the authors true intent, which was primarily the 23rd. However, I still wish the Author could have talked about Fortitude, and if/how the 23rd learned anything from the operation

- As another reviewer noted, we learn a lot about Douglas Fairbanks Jr's naval deception experience - a lot more than we learn about Fortitude, in fact. While this was welcome information, I would have preferred it to be covered in either a larger book about all WW II Decpeption OPs, or edited out of this book, where its a bit less relevant.

- The disorganized nature of the 23rd, which was really cobbled together from separate units, and their loose affiliations in the field, make for difficult history telling. The author does not always make it clear how the units worked together, and how they did not. A "chain of command" diagram would have been much appreciated

I do recommend this book. I think it could have used a bit more editing and could have been shorter, but the enthusiasm of the author for the material shines through, as does the depth of his research. The story is a great one, and the book is well worth purchasing for anyone seeking a well rounded view of WWII.

As an amateur history buff dabbling in several different periods, I found this book to be a very interesting read on a small but very important unit that arguably contributed greatly to the final year of the war.

This book gets into the technical details just enough to let the reader understand the basics of the various deceptions the units "played" without bogging the book down. Its strength is painting a whole picture of how the unit formed, the key leaders that made the unit successful, the unusual mix (for the Army) of artists that had the initiative and innovation to pull off their deceptions, the daily routines for the enlisted men, and of course the various operations that were conducted.

Well balanced between interviews with the actual soldiers and the facts of the operations while setting the scene of what wartime Europe was like during their short deployment, Gerard has done a great service in documenting the unit's once top-secret history.

The title, "Secret Soldiers: the Story of World War II's Heroic Army of Deception", by Philip Gerard, is a bit misleading. This is the story of the 23rd Special Troops, a battalion sized organization stood up to pioneer American efforts in camouflage, cover, and deception operations. While the stories presented by Gerard are fascinating, yet it fails to paint an accurate or complete picture of US Army deception operations.

Gerard does an excellent job of portraying the heroic accomplishments of the men who served in the 23 Special Troops. Their job in the war was to make armies appear where they were not and to make armies not appear where they were. They accomplished this through the use of inflatable decoys, painting techniques, and sonic deception. As an example of this, the 23rd had the ability to place an inflatable 155mm howitzer in a position to make it look real. They would paint the ground to simulate the flash burns that would appear on the ground after a real weapon fired. So the unit would emplace the decoy and then use pyrotechnics, sonic deception, and simulated radio traffic to make the Germans think it was a real weapon emplacement. This book chronicles how the 23rd supported many operations in the drive across Europe. The book's strength is in describing how the tactical level efforts of the 23rd fit into the overall operation.

On the negative side, there are a lot of loose connections made by the author. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, was a dashing actor in the 1930s and 1940s. Like many of his peers, he did his patriotic duty and joined the Navy. Gerard documents Fairbanks' revolutionary work with "sonic deception" used in conjunction with amphibious operations. Gerard includes a vignette about Fairbanks' unsolicited presentations to the War department in 1942. The reader may assume that Fairbanks was the one responsible for the creation of the 23 Special Troops. A chapter later, he writes "But in April 1942, [Julian] Sollohub was ordered to select a cadre from the 84th [Engineer Camouflage Battalion] and form a new battalion at Fort Meade." Apparently, the Army was thinking about these ideas well before Fairbanks presented his findings the following October.

"Secret Soldiers" does a great job of chronicling the contributions of 23rd Special Troops, and Gerard should be commended for his great work in this area. Overall the book is very good, but however interesting the story is about Fairbanks, it appears to be completely unrelated to the unit history.

If you are interesting in learning more about deception operations during World War II, I also highly recommend Anthony Cave Brown's "Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day" for a far more complete picture on the `Heroic Army of Deception' that supported the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

This review is from a first edition hardback copy of the book published in 2002.

This is a really interesting book. Intriguing in every sense, and difficult to put down once you start reading. Some really great portraits of creative, resourceful people.

I commend Mr. Gerard for bringing this amazing story to print. It should be required reading by all students and buffs of WWII history. It is an excellent story and well told.
This book is about the 23d Headquarters Special Troops; a group of actors, artists and skilled illusionists that became soldiers in one of America's most secret outfits of WWII. Not until 1979 were any of them permitted to openly tell of their exploits during the war.
The book begins with the concept of using deception in warfare and carries forward through examples in various battles. It then tells of the birth of this deceptive warfare unit and the men instrumental in its formation. Among them Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
The sections on the formation of the various units, Sonic Deception, Camouflage, Radio etc, explain the importance of using these techniques in combat. Battle plans are "scripted" and the soldiers are "actors." But what the reader comes away with is the knowledge that these artists and actors, in doing their jobs, became frontline combat soldiers. To insure their success, missions frequently were kept secret from the other soldiers in the area. Many times they purposely drew enemy fire into their formations of "rubber" tanks, and artillery pieces so that the real weapons and soldiers could move to a new position undetected.
Mr. Gerard sprinkles through out the book, reflections from the surviving members of this unit. And finishes the book at a small reunion of the dwindling number of veterans of the 23rd Special Troops, reminding me so much of the reunions I've attended of my father's 29th Infantry Division and the awe of being in the company of heroes. By Dale Lane, author of "All My Love, Forever: Letter's Home From A World War II Citizen-Soldier"

The book was well presented and each chapter primed my interest for the next. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and hated the moments I had to put it down.
I'm not a fan of war stories but this book was different. These men were unknowingly heroic and contributed to the successful outcome of World War II. Their behind-the-scene story should have been told long before. Recognition at least by recording for all of us to experience secondhand is much deserved. Not all heroes need suffer wounds or aim guns.

This is a very interesting book. Not one like many which reiterated the war so much so you felt like you were reading the same book for the umpteenth time. There are new perspectives on what he's saying here. I'd recommend it for your home library if your a war buff and have true history interests.

This is a great story about a company of soldiers who brought deception to WWII for America. Mush of the story was kept classified until the last few years (although the author never tells us why or when it was declassified). Unfortunately, the book is poorly organized.

The author also gets bogged down in minutae which often is not relevant to the story or just plain uninteresting. The book is at its best when it steps back and looks at the big picture of this small company or is describing the methodology it used. Those parts are too thin in the book.

Also, the author tries to walk the tightrope of relating a very specialized aspect of the US Army in WWII while at the same time attempting to put that small aspect into the overall. Thus the reader gets two sentence analyses of major events, which are often insultingly simplistic. One would expect that if a reader is going to pick up this book devoted to one company, he would know the general aspects of the war.

Many of the characters are compelling as are the battles (for lack of a better word for the activities of deception troops) in which they contributed. The technology is also interesting. I think this would have been a much better book had it been 100 pages shorter.

It also could have been improved if the author did not gush so over Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The amount of space devoted to him in the opening chapter is disproportionate to the role this Navy man in the US Army deception comapny. An example of the author's obsession with Fairbanks and the unorganized nature of this book is seen when, in the middle of a long chapter on the deception techniques the company is using France on its way to Germany, the author breaks in with a two page update on what Fairbanks was doing at the time -- in the Mediterranean and in the Navy and nothing to do with deception!!! Nothing at all to do with what was going on in the 75 pages before and after. A glaring example of the superfluous and disorganization running through the book.

I wish I could recommend this because of teh great accomplishments of those described in this book. Unfortunately, it is a long hard journey to get from beginning to end.