"During the Teheran Conference in November 1943 the "Big Three", Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, approved of a plan of deception.Germany was to be deceived as to the place, time and means for the future landing in Normandy, codenamed Overlord. Misleading an enemy is always part and parcel of any military plan, but never in history was this conducted on such a vast scale and with such success as in the deception plans for Normandy. This gigantic plan of deception was originally named Jael after a person in the Old Testament. This however was soon rechristened to operation Bodyguard. This name was chosen because of a remark by Winston Churchill: "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Aim of the deception
The entire Atlantikwall stretched from Norway to the south of France.German troops were housed in reinforced structures at the coast in order to be able to defeat an allied landing on the beach. The main targets of Bodyguard were to tie down German troops far away from the actual landing sites and to convince them that the landing in Normandy was a distraction for the real invasion that was to take place 45 days later. These main targets resulted in the following strategic aims, the Germans were to be convinced that the following allied actions were planned:
Invasion operations were to be started in the spring of 1944 with a combined attack on Norway by British, American and Soviet troops.
The allies would continue their operations in Italy where they already were active, and expand these operations to the Balkan and Greece.
If there would be an invasion in France this would occur near the Pas de Calais and certainly not before July,1944.
If landings on the French shore would take place, they would be a distraction for the real invasion near the Pas de Calais.
Germany's expectations
The personal vision of Adolf Hitler was an important part in the plans of deception. One of his solid convictions was that Imperial Germany had lost the Great War among others because her navy did not have access to harbours outside Germany, with the exception of minor harbours on the Belgian coast.Next to the access to Swedish iron ore via Narvik the ice free harbours and fjords of Norway were important considerations for the German attack in April, 1940. The Germans beat the allied convoys that were already on their way to conquer Norway. Up until the very end of the war a sizeable force of some 200,000 Germans and during the first years even an understrenghth armoured division were stationed in Norway for the protection of her harbours…"
Full article here
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Interesting what if the Allied invaded Norway in the path to Dennmark and Germany.
Amicalement
Armand
makes corrections when some models don't turn out the way he expected!
