2. For over a year and a half the Allied Forces began their plan to open a Western Front in
Europe to help alleviate pressure on the Eastern Front and defeat the Nazi’s. The plans called for
the heavy use of Military Deception (MILDEC), Command and Control Warfare and
unparalleled Operational Security (OPSEC). Early in 1943 the British Intelligence agency, MI5,
set the conditions for the allies to be able to control the Information Environment leading up to
June 6, 1944 by capturing or turning every spy the Germans had in England.1All information
flowing out of England back to the Germans was manipulated by the Allied Forces and their vast
double agent network. Even with the control of such information flow the Allies expected to
take heavy casualties forecasted at 20,000 KIA or more on the first day of D Day Execution
alone. The Allies were even more successful than they ever expected to be through the
employment of several current Information Operations tasks, namely the great use of OPSEC,
MILDEC and Command and Control Warfare.
No matter how good and elaborate a plan is, it will not be successful if its integrity is
protected from the enemy. The Allies made sure this did not happen through the use of OPSEC.
It was enforced to the extremes for months leading up to D Day. Military Police did not let
civilians within 20 feet of US, British or Canadian soldiers preparing for the invasion2. In
addition the Supreme Allied Command did not release the official plan to their subordinate units
until T – 72 hours of execution. Also the planners for the Normandy Invasion did not receive
COA approval until ten days prior to execution. Troops were mustarded 2-3 times a day to
ensure they all were present. There were times when Soldiers left and missed roll call. Some
1(Ernest S. Tavares,2001)
2 (Marion Miline,2004)
3. were found in Pubs and they and other patrons were arrested and held in jail temporarily until the
Operation was under way so there would be no chance of an information leak.
MILDEC was used incredibly with misinformation given to the Nazi’s by GARBO, a
double agent who defected to the allies, bombings on Objectives never planned to be attacked
and the famous Operation Fortitude North and South. Additionally the Allies found out, through
their double agent spy network, that the Germans expected the Allies to attack the Calais region
of France because that was the shortest distance across the English Channel and Hitler had
planned to use it in his planned invasion of Great Britain. Due to this and GARBO’s credibility
with the German’s the Allies showed the German’s exactly what they wanted to see by heavily
bombing the Calais region and positioning a fake Army there to resemble the Main Effort of the
attack. The Allies allowed GARBO to tip the Nazi’s off about current operation bombings to
help lend credibility to their deception, and also intercept the radio transmissions of their
Deception Force.
This Deception Force was Operation Fortitude which had locations both in the North and
South of England. The allies knew the Germans would confirm information given to them by
GARBO and other spies through use of their aerial recon so they placed inflatable tanks, trucks
and buildings camouflaged along these locations. Lending more credence to Operation Fortitude
was that Lieutenant General (LTG) Patton was the Commanding General, and he was extremely
respected by FM Rommel the German Commander who made a bad assumption that Patton
would definitely be the main effort. The intercepted transmissions the Germans received led
them to believe that D Day was weeks away and Calais was definitely the main Objective. This
deception worked so well that Field Marshall (FM) Rommel was absent from the beginning of D
4. Day because he did not believe the Allies were ready to make the crossing and invading
Normandy (He went to Germany to surprise his wife for her 30th B-Day).3
Command and Control Warfare was successfully conducted by the French resistance who
were working with the British Intelligence Agency and disrupted the German’s communication
and resupply system when instructed by cutting telephone communication lines and crippling
specific railways. The British Intelligence Agency in coordination with the French Resistance
planned with the Allied forces to attack the Germans Command and Control Infrastructure just
prior to D Day. The British sent over spies who integrated into the already eager French
Resistance and identified where critical communications nodes were. The Allies planned to send
the French resistance an execution order through the French media who signaled select agents to
listen to the BBC from secret locations and then get word out to the members to begin the
sabotage. The sabotage was very successful in not allowing lower HQ’s from communicating to
their superior units and vice versa in some instances. Also they broke apart some of the rail
ways which brought German resupply and reinforcements.
The Allies had agents who were working for FM Rommel as his butler and maid and
knew that he left for Germany and was feuding with his higher Commander over not moving
more reinforcements to secure the French Coastal line. The OPSEC for the sabotage that
occurred was extremely critical as well. If the French Resistance did not receive word through
their secret communications that D Day was delayed then their entire mission could have been
compromised.4
3 (Omar N. Bradley,1971)
4(Marion Miline,2004)
5. In the end, the combination of OPSEC, MILDEC and Command and Control warfare
reduced the amount of Allied casualties from the projected 20,000 to half at 10,000. It also had
the Germans focused in the wrong areas and even kept 400,000 German Soldiers in Norway until
the Surrender in 1945 (These Germans didn’t participate in the War for over a year, Operation
Fortitude North Convinced them Norway would be attacked!!) The allies were able to gain a 50
mile long by 10 mile deep foothold in France which set the conditions for the opening of the
Western Front and the eventual Collapse of the 3rd Reich.
SOURCES
Bradley,O.N.(1971). D Day The Normandy Invasion in Retrospect. Lawerence,Kansas:The Universityof
Kansas.
ErnestS. Tavares,J. M. (2001). Operation Fortitude:TheClosed Loop D-Day Deception Plan. Maxwel
Airforce Base,Alabamal .
Miline,M.(Director).(2004). Ten Daysto D-Day [MotionPicture].
Ricklefs,R.G.(2000). Fortitude South. Military IntelligenceProfessionalBulletin.
