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The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery by [Beyer, Rick, Sayles, Elizabeth]

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Rick Beyer

Elizabeth Sayles

The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery Kindle Edition

by Rick Beyer (Author), Elizabeth Sayles (Author)

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The Ghost Army of World War II describes a perfect example of a little-known, highly imaginative, and daring maneuver that helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. It is a riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way—ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously. – Tom Brokaw

In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey—landed in France to conduct a secret mission. Armed with truckloads of inflatable tanks, a massive collection of sound-effects records, and more than a few tricks up their sleeves, their job was to create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience.

From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Between missions the artists filled their duffel bags with drawings and paintings and dragged them across Europe. Every move they made was top secret and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. The Ghost Army of World War II is the first publication to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives.

Length: 256 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 38537 KB
Print Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (May 12, 2015)
Publication Date: May 12, 2015
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00WYJL0O0
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,088 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #4352 in History (Kindle Store)
- #1343 in World War II History (Kindle Store)
- #4282 in World War II History (Books)

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J. F. Sweeney

The second Ghost Army: 3133rd in Italy

November 21, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

My husband Jack F. Sweeney, Jr. was one of those 19-year-olds (a volunteer) who was part of the 3133rd Signal Service Company -- one of only two Ghost Armies -- fighting in Italy. They were actually Army Signal Corps diguised as a tank company. Their M-10 tank destroyers had dummy guns and huge loudspeakers mounted on them. Using synchronized wire recordings, they immitated large troop movements that were not there to hold the Germans in position while the real push came elsewhere. The sounds of trucks going uphill, complete with gear changes, building bridges across rivers, along with blow-up dummy tanks as part of the ruse. The Brits provided the dummy tanks and had to get up early to pump them up since the tanks "guns" would droop overnight. Also phoney communications. Yes, it worked. His outfit was packing up after VE Day to be sent to Japan when the Pacific war ended. Thank you, President Truman. Jack is 92 now and healthy.

53 people found this helpful

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RC Mayer

A MUST READ FOR ANY FAN OF WWII

May 25, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Imagine, captured German maps showing 15,000 Allied troops in a location that there were no troops. Imagine, Nazi’s keeping their soldiers out of position opposite what they think are thousand of enemy troops. Imagine, they can hear the US tanks lining up on the opposite riverbank. They can even here the soldiers yell “Hey Private! Put out that cigarette! There’s gas tanks over there!” Imagine, Nazi civilian spys transmitting radio broadcasts to Berlin that they overheard conversations in a pub in from soldiers in 4th Infantry Division that they were moving into Metz this evening. They also saw jeeps with the 4th Infantry Division markings. Nazi radio interceptors also reported to Berlin that they overheard the 4th Infantry radio transmission reporting heavy traffic as they were moving into Metz.

All of this was an illusion created by US soldiers that were talented artists, camouflagers, radiomen, soundmen, and actors. Because of their great and successful illusions and deceptions, the 23rd Special troops are more commonly called the Ghost Army of WWII. They saved many American lives while impersonating many different Infantry Divisions including the 4th, 8th, 90th, 75th, 80th, 87th, 95th, 30th, and 70th. They also faked being the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Armored divisions. In most of their 21 operations, the real combat divisions were able to move to a better strategic position. Operating mostly behind the front lines, as the war progressed and their rouses became more successful, they were moved front and center at the crossing of the Rhine, allowing Montgomery's 9th US Army to cross the Rhine with minimal casualties. Their top-secret mission was one of the longest kept US Government secrets of WWII and hence there is very little written about their fascinating role in the war.

Rick Beyer and Liz Salyes have put together a magnificently detailed and entertaining book, that not only details the many rouses the Ghost Army perpetrated on the Nazi’s, but also follows many of these talented soldiers beyond their war years. Any aspiring or practicing artist will love this read and will feel proud that their profession truly saved lives and contributed to the Allied victory in Europe.

The section on "Selected Postwar Biographies" is a fascinating read about many of these soldiers that went onto fame in their private lives. A small sample of these: designing the Ellis Island Museum and WWII Museum in New Orleans, awards from Presidents Obama and Kennedy, & dress designer Bill Blass

The book details many covert operations of the 23rd Special Troops that will be exciting news to even the most ardent World War II buff. For example that Patton met with the Ghost Army to request their help to deceive the German while he tried to breakthrough the Nazi grip on Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Physically the book is very classy and honors and exemplifies the creative talents of the men of 23rd Special Troops. It is a combination of art and history and contains hundreds of actual war photos, declassified documents from the National Archives, and Ghost Army artwork produced by the soldiers while deployed in Europe.

A MUST READ FOR ANY FAN OF WWII

67 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Poor conversion to an e-book

April 3, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was interested in this book because it fit in well with a course I teach. However, the e-book version had numerous blank pages (apparently wherever there was a picture) and as a result quite a bit of the text was missing. I'll try to find a printed version, since what I could read was interesting and well written. I'd give the content 4 stars, but the e-book implementation gets 0 stars

32 people found this helpful

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Janet K. Schwartzkopf

Not Your Regular Blood-and-Guts

May 16, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although it's not one of the great history books of World War II. However, it does tell an interesting story that almost sounds like it could be a novel. The idea of recruiting people to make a concerted effort to fool the enemy takes the work done by Gen. George Patton to disguise the site of the D-Day landing and carries it onto the battlefields of Europe, where a small group of men capable of changing uniform patches and vehicle markings, deploying rubber tanks and trucks, sending and receiving faked radio messages and making one heck of a lot of noise all combined to confuse the Germans as to just who they were facing across the line, and in what numbers. It's also interesting that some of these men -- Bill Blass and Ellsworth Kelly, for two -- went on to have quite distinguished careers after the war. Their original drawings and the end of the book outlining the subsequent activities of several of the men featured was especially appreciated. It's not a deep read, but it's definitely a fun one, and certainly worthy of a movie -- except there's a lightness to the story that helps remove it from the regular blood-and-guts tales.

10 people found this helpful

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Western Reader

A part of WWII not known to me before

July 3, 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

What a remarkable book! It's informative, has many helpful diagrams and illustrations, and has heightened my appreciation for what our soldiers achieved under very trying circumstances. The authors have put together a story steeped in history, using prose that delights, intrigues, and educates, and have paid homage to what was previously an unsung collection of artists. It was a joy to read; it was intelligently presented; and I admit, several times I had tears in my eyes. Thank you, each of you, for sharing the story of a group of remarkable people during a terrible time in our country's history. I also appreciated the inclusion of paintings, drawings, and sketches by the respective artists. Their talent was tremendous!

2 people found this helpful

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Havedogwilltravel

Good story with a less than stellar presentation

May 30, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I already knew most of the story from watching all or most of the PBS program regarding the excellent work that did in the war. This book filled in many details and characters along with their entertaining sketches. I reduce the stars because of the presentation. I'm not certain which came first, program or book but it looks like it was program. For some much better written details on not these, but other allied deception operations in the Second World War read Ben McIntyre's books.

12 people found this helpful

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