In the war against Hitler, the Allies had to use every ounce of cunning and trickery that they possessed. Combining military deceptions with the double-agent network run by the intelligence services, they were able to send the enemy misleading information about Allied troops, plans and operations. From moving imaginary armies around the desert to putting a corpse with false papers floating in the Mediterranean, and from faking successful bombing campaigns to the convoluted deceptions which kept part of the German forces away from Normandy prior to D-Day, Terry Crowdy explores the deception war that combined the double-agent network with ingenious plans to confuse and hoodwink the Führer.

In the war against Hitler, the Allies had to use every ounce of cunning and trickery that they possessed. Combining military deceptions with the double-agent network run by the intelligence services, they were able to send the enemy misleading information about Allied troops, plans and operations. From moving imaginary armies around the desert to putting a corpse with false papers floating in the Mediterranean, and from faking successful bombing campaigns to the convoluted deceptions which kept part of the German forces away from Normandy prior to D-Day, Terry Crowdy explores the deception war that combined the double-agent network with ingenious plans to confuse and hoodwink the Führer.

Discusses the deception scheme created and implemented by the Allies to gain total surprise against the Germans on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

“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 The first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives—now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—artists, designers, architects, and sound engineers, 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. 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. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, along with maps, official memos, and letters, accompany Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s meticulous research and interviews with many of the soldiers, weaving a compelling narrative of how an unlikely team carried out amazing battlefield deceptions that saved thousands of American lives and helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions also offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. This updated edition includes: A new afterword by co-author Rick Beyer Never-before-seen additional images The successful campaign to have the unit awarded a Congressional Gold Medal History and WWII enthusiasts will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.

In ruling against the controversial historian David Irving in his libel suit against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, last April 2000, the High Court in London labeled him a falsifier of history. No objective historian, declared the judge, would manipulate the documentary record in the way that Irving did. Richard J. Evans, a Cambridge historian and the chief advisor for the defense, uses this pivotal trial as a lens for exploring a range of difficult questions about the nature of the historian's enterprise. For instance, don't all historians in the end bring a subjective agenda to bear on their reading of the evidence? Is it possible that Irving lost his case not because of his biased history but because his agenda was unacceptable? The central issue in the trial -- as for Evans in this book -- was not the past itself, but the way in which historians study the past. In a series of short, sharp chapters, Richard Evans sets David Irving's methods alongside the historical record in order to illuminate the difference between responsible and irresponsible history. The result is a cogent and deeply informed study in the nature of historical interpretation.

With the use of false transmissions and forged documents on a strategically placed dead body, Britain was able to perpetuate a great ruse on the Nazi Machine.

'I suppose you know who I am? I was in charge of the actions in Germany and Poland and Czechoslovakia. I am prepared to sell you one million Jews: Goods for blood ... Blood for goods.' These were the chilling words uttered by one of the most notorious Nazi bureaucrats, SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann, to a young Jewish businessman called Joel Brand in the spring of 1944. Brand embarked on a desperate mission to persuade the Allies to barter with Eichmann – and failed. At the same time, the SS deported hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau packed in cattle trains. The majority were gassed, then incinerated. For decades after 1945, many blamed the Allies for callously abandoning a million Hungarian Jews to their fate. In Deception, Christopher Hale presents a new account of the 'Brand Mission' based on evidence in the national archives of Germany, Hungary, Britain and the United States. Hale reveals that Eichmann's offer formed one part of a monstrous deception designed to outwit the leaders of the last surviving Jewish community in Europe. The deception was more complex and – from the German point of view – more successful than any operation mounted by the secret services of the Allied governments.

They invited the Deputy Fuhrer of Germany, Rudolf Hess, to attend a peace conference at which Hitler would negotiate the coming invasion of the Soviet Union with the British "Peace Party.".

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING COLIN FIRTH • The “brilliant and almost absurdly entertaining” (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker) true story of the most successful—and certainly the strangest—deception carried out in World War II, from the acclaimed author of The Spy and the Traitor “Pure catnip to fans of World War II thrillers and a lot of fun for everyone else.”—Joseph Kanon, The Washington Post Book World Near the end of World War II, two British naval officers came up with a brilliant and slightly mad scheme to mislead the Nazi armies about where the Allies would attack southern Europe. To carry out the plan, they would have to rely on the most unlikely of secret agents: a dead man. Ben Macintyre’s dazzling, critically acclaimed bestseller chronicles the extraordinary story of what happened after British officials planted this dead body—outfitted in a British military uniform with a briefcase containing false intelligence documents—in Nazi territory, and how this secret mission fooled Hitler into changing military positioning, paving the way for the Allies’ drive to victory. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES

In the pre-dawn hours of April 30th, 1943, a Spanish fisherman Antonio was about to begin his day. The gossamer mists had not yet receded. But he knew the dwindling greyness would soon segue into the golden haze of the morning sun. The Second World War was in the fourth year, but for him, it was a business-as-usual day. Spain was a neutral country but the fact that Spanish echelons tacitly supported the Germans was the elephant in the room that no one had the chutzpah to question. German spies roamed the streets of Spain with impunity. Canards had been doing the rounds that even captains in some of the ships were German secret agents. Everyone turned a blind eye and Antonio was more than happy to comply. He set out to the sea off the coast of Spain; the iridescence on the ocean surface brought an instant glint on his eyes because it suggested the presence of shoals of sardine that will make an easy catch for him that day. But the Atlantic Ocean had something different to offer him. It was a human body dressed in military uniform, carrying a black briefcase. This dead man is about to change the course of the war. Operation Mincemeat was one of the most successful deceptions of the Second World War. The name could be weird, the operation could sound outlandish and morbid, and the master brains behind the plan risk being deemed insane, but the fact remains that Operation Mincemeat was one hell of a success and it aided the Allies in turning tables in the most decisive World War. The aim of Operation Mincemeat was simple. Germans had to be fooled into believing that Sicily wasn’t the target. But will Hitler swallow the lie?