And so when they were trying to think of some way of reinforcing the deception for this fake army, they appointed a fake general to run it, and that was Patton. But it was known through intelligence that Hitler regarded Patton as the Allies' best general. And I think without that, they probably wouldn't have attempted it.' So they had a way of backing it up, which absolutely reinforced the deception. They could, in real time, follow what the Germans were thinking about what the Allied intentions were. 'One of the great advantages had was that, because they had access to all the decrypted German intelligence signals, they could tell whether the deception was working. On how the Allies knew the plan was working

MacIntyre, the author of the previous best-sellers Operation Mincement and Agent Zigzag, spoke to NPR's Scott Simon about what was ultimately one of the great military victories in history. The British effort to feign, trick and fool the Germans into believing the D-Day invasion would be anywhere but Normandy was largely the work of people plotting at desks: untrustworthy double-agents, West End set designers and at least one pigeon handler.Īuthor Ben MacIntyre tells their story in his new book, Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. The question was: Where would they attack? LIFE Magazine even ran photos of GIs in Piccadilly. It's hard to hide the largest invasion force in history.

The soldiers, pilots, sailors and Marines knew they were there to be launched into Nazi-occupied Europe. How?Įarly in 1944, Southern England bristled with 150,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers gathered for an invasion the Allies hoped would end World War II. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Double Cross Subtitle The True Story of the D-Day Spies Author Ben Macintyre

Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre