Why did Germany know nothing about the preparations before the allied forces landed in Normandy?

1943 12, Lieutenant General Morgan, Deputy Chief of Staff of Allied Supreme Command, suggested that relevant deception and confidentiality measures should be formulated to ensure the successful landing. Code-named "Jay", the participating organizations of this plan include: British Military Intelligence Agency, Special Operations Bureau, Counter-Intelligence Agency, Double Cross Committee, Political War Executive Office, Strategic Service Office (the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency), Federal Bureau of Investigation, and intelligence departments of allied forces, navy and air force. The core department is the London Inspectorate, whose office address is 2 Great George Street, where Churchill's wartime cabinet is located. Mainly responsible for formulating and implementing strategic deception and reconnaissance actions, and coordinating major actions organized by British and allied intelligence agencies. Now it has become an organization that cheated the Normandy landing strategy. Its motto is wit, cunning and exquisiteness, and its badge is a statue of Saturn, the god of agriculture and animal husbandry who is half man and half sheep. Saturn is an elf who specializes in making waves in ancient Roman mythology. The current director is Lieutenant Colonel John Bevan of the British Army. His nickname is fraud manager. Although his position and rank are not high, his authority is great, and even Churchill and Roosevelt sometimes arrange activities or make statements according to his requirements.

This kind of strategic deception, with its wide scope, ingenious conception and high difficulty, is unimaginable. 1944 65438+ 10, the "Jielun" project was renamed as the "Guardian" project. There are two main purposes: one is to induce the Germans to disperse to all parts of Europe through various channels, so as to reduce the German troops stationed in France, especially Normandy, to a minimum. The second is to convince the German high command that the Normandy landing was just a feint, with the aim of inducing the Germans to put in reserve forces too early, thus creating conditions for the next large-scale attack. The latter purpose is the core content of the "Guardian" plan, which cannot directly fall into the hands of the Germans. But must be virtual and real, true and false, in an indirect way, let the Germans make great efforts to get that little bit, and then analyze, reason and summarize it according to this little clue, and draw a wrong conclusion that conforms to the hope of the Allies. After listening to Bevan's plan, Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied Forces, wrote down the instructions of "I like all this" and sent the deception expert of the Supreme Command, the director of the "Special Means Committee" and the American Colonel Wilder to fully assist Bevan.

In order to realize the first goal of the "Guardian" plan, that is, to disperse the German army, Bevan implemented the "Zeppelin" plan in southern Europe:1At the beginning of 944, Soviet troops had approached Romania and Hungary, and both countries had a premonition that Germany was doomed, so they sent emissaries to contact Britain and the United States to secretly discuss surrender. However, British radio and newspapers revealed the secrets of both sides intentionally or unintentionally. Germany could not tolerate traitors in southern Europe, so it decided to send troops to occupy Hungary. But at that time, the Germans were on the Soviet battlefield on the eastern front, and the situation was too tense to withdraw. In the south wing of anzio Beach, there was a fierce battle and no soldiers to draw. Finally, three armored divisions and 1 infantry divisions were transferred from France. In March, 1944 and 19 occupied the whole of Hungary and put Hungarian Prime Minister Kali in a concentration camp. Romania was frightened and stopped secret contact with Britain and the United States. In this way, although Germany controlled the situation in southern Europe, it lost four elite divisions in France.

In northern Europe, Bevan organized the "Northern Perseverance" program. 1944 65438+ 10, Biwan visited the Soviet Union and joined hands with Soviet intelligence agencies to create the illusion of attacking Norway and Sweden. Britain established the nonexistent headquarters of the Fourth Army Group in Edinburgh, Scotland, and made radio contact with similar fake headquarters in the Soviet Union. With its excellent radio monitoring and positioning technology, the German army quickly found out the location of this fake army group headquarters and sent planes to bomb it. The British army also issued an engine maintenance manual for polar regions to the troops stationed in Scotland, supplemented equipment for cold regions such as skis, and conducted skiing training. Looks like it's going to be played in northern Europe. Moreover, the British BBC radio asked the Norwegian and Swedish people to prepare for air defense and reserve food, fuel, medicine and other necessities as much as possible. These measures enabled the Germans to deploy 13 divisions in Norway and Sweden, including 1 armored divisions, to cope with the allied attacks. This 13 division did not leave Norway and Sweden until the end of the war.

On the Soviet-German battlefield on the eastern front, the Soviet Union actively cooperated. Before June 1944, no new attack was launched, but troops were frequently mobilized, which made the Germans unable to recognize the Soviet attempt and dared not withdraw easily. After landing in Normandy, the Soviet army launched three large-scale offensive campaigns in Karelia, Belarus and western Ukraine, which firmly attracted the German troops on the Eastern Front.

The second and most crucial purpose of the "Guardian" plan was to convince the Germans that the Normandy landing was just a feint, so as to prematurely consume their reserve troops. However, people with a little military knowledge can be sure that this is the main attack as long as they find that the first echelon of Normandy landing has the size of eight divisions. Bevan tried to work miracles in the impossible. Even if he can't convince the Germans, he will at least disturb their judgment and try to delay the time for the Germans to make a correct conclusion. To this end, Bevan has designed dozens of subsidiary plans.

The most important one is project mercury: in the southeast of England, a fictional unit named the First Army Group of the United States was created. First of all, more than 300 operators disguised as radio communication between group armies, armies, divisions, regiments and battalions, and kept in touch strictly according to the daily communication volume of units at the same level. A fake headquarters was set up in Dover to communicate with subordinate units by high-power radio. Even some orders to actually land at the headquarters of Army 2 1 Army Group were first sent to the fake headquarters in Dover by telephone, and then sent out by the radio station of the fake headquarters. -German radio monitoring and positioning forces detected these radio communications of the allied forces, thus judging that Calais was the main attack direction of the allied landing, because the allied command was opposite Dover in Calais. Secondly, barracks, warehouses, expressway and oil pipelines were built in the southeast of England, and Hollywood props set up fake material storage sites, fake airports, fake planes, fake tanks and fake cannons, which also vividly created the oil traces of warships sailing on the river and the traces left by tanks on the road. Then some troops who had no combat mission at the beginning of landing were transferred here for training. In this way, true and false, true and false, and then the German reconnaissance plane that worked hard to break through the Allied air defense line took pictures, causing the illusion that the Allies assembled the first army group composed of about 40 divisions in southeast England. As for the commander of the landing troops, it is well known that both Lieutenant General Patton of the United States and Lieutenant General Montgomery of Britain can serve as the allied general. Bevan played along and asked Barton to be the commander of the first army group. 19441October 26th, Barton arrived in southeast England to inspect the troops, meet local officials and visit celebrities from all walks of life. The media kept reporting his whereabouts. 1In April, 944, Barton spoke at the opening ceremony of a club: "After the war, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union will rule the world ..." But when it was reported, the Soviet Union disappeared, which triggered a diplomatic storm. It is puzzling that just before landing, news censorship in Britain was extremely strict. It is impossible to make such an omission and make remarks that affect the unity of the allies. The only explanation is that this is a well-planned scam, just to strengthen Barton's impression in southeast England and make the Germans think that Barton frequently appears in southeast England as the commander of the landing force, which naturally means that the landing will be in Calais. Montgomery, the real commander of the landing force, was absorbed in planning and studying the battle plan at Portsmouth headquarters. Bevan also chose Lieutenant James, who looks like Montgomery, to stay with Montgomery for several months, to learn more about Montgomery's likes and dislikes, habits and other aspects of life details, and then dressed up as Montgomery to visit Gibraltar and Cairo, causing the illusion that Montgomery is not in Britain. This led the Germans to infer that if Montgomery was not in England at this time, he would not be the commander of the landing. "project mercury" made the German high command understand through deception and disguise in radio communication, camp, troops and commanders that in southeast England, the allied forces assembled about 40 divisions to form the first army group with Barton as the commander, so the main direction of landing must be Calais.

Project Dawn: Electronic Jamming and Electronic Deception of Allied Air Forces. According to the special instructions of the high command, the large-scale radio monitoring and decoding base set up by the German army in The Hague, the Netherlands in August 1943 was bombed and completely destroyed, thus eliminating the threat to allied radio communication. Secondly, in the large-scale air raid on German radar stations, nine German radar stations located in the north of the Seine River were deliberately not bombed, so that the Germans could use these radar stations to discover the fake fleet sent by the Allied forces before landing. This fake fleet sailed to Calais three hours before landing, and * * * consisted of 18 ships. Each ship drags a raft with a big balloon with a diameter of 29 feet, and a radar transmitter is installed in the balloon to send out radar. These measures are reflected on the screen of the German radar station, just like a huge landing fleet sailing to Calais under the cover of a large number of planes. In order to further confuse the Germans, the Air Force specifically stipulated in the pre-war air strikes that whenever a/KLOC-0 reconnaissance plane or a 1 ton bomb was sent to Normandy, two reconnaissance planes must be sent to Calais or a 2-ton bomb must be dropped.

The use of double agents is also an important part of the Guardian Project. Due to the excellent work of the British anti-espionage agency, all German spy organizations in Britain were uncovered shortly after the war, and German expatriates were quarantined for inspection, thus completely eliminating enemy agents in Britain. Although German intelligence agencies have been sending agents to infiltrate into Britain, on the one hand, the British anti-espionage agencies are efficient, and on the other hand, Britain's currency and weights and measures are completely different from those in continental Europe, and spies are easily detected, so Germany has been unable to carry out intelligence work in Britain. Britain set up a "Double Cross Committee" to turn arrested German spies into double-faced spies serving Britain. After long-term patient and meticulous training, we finally have four double-faced spies believed by German intelligence agencies: Garbo, Zhenbao, Tricycle and Brewster. Among them, the most trusted and influential one in Germany is "Garbo". After the war, the "Double Cross Committee" thought that "Garbo" was their greatest success. "Garbo" is Spanish, and his real name is unknown. His two requests to join the British intelligence agency in June 5438+094 1 and June 5438+094 1 were rejected. 194 1 In July, he took refuge in the German intelligence agency and was ordered to sneak into Britain via Portugal. However, after he arrived in Portugal, he lied that he had entered Britain, and according to some newspapers and magazines published in Britain, he fabricated some information with his ability to fabricate information, and most of them were correct, so he was highly valued and trusted by Germany. It was not until February 1942 that Britain discovered that the German navy and air force had dispatched a large-scale interception of an allied escort fleet bound for Malta, but there was no such fleet at all. British intelligence agencies immediately discovered that this was a masterpiece of Garbo, so they contacted him and secretly received him from Britain. With the assistance of the "Double Cross Committee", carefully planned true and false information was continuously sent to Germany, thus establishing the status of the ace agent of German intelligence agencies. Received the task of finding out the first army group (that is, the fictional troops of "project mercury"), and took the opportunity to publicly report the strength information of the first army group. Half an hour before landing on June 6th, Garbo reported to Germany that the Allied forces were attacking Normandy. -This time it was carefully designed by Bevan, and Germany didn't have time to respond when it received the information. On the contrary, it has improved the status of "Jiabao". At the most critical moment after landing on June 9, Garbo reported to Germany 120 minutes, reporting in detail that 40 divisions of the First Army entered a state of war, a large number of landing ships assembled in Dover, and the real landing was about to begin. This information seriously interfered with the correct analysis and judgment of the German high command on the war situation.

In the "Guardian Project", Britain also organized an extremely cunning and even cruel and despicable action. 1In July, 943, the resistance movement organization code-named "Prosperity" belonging to the British Special Operations Department in northern France was uncovered by the German Gestapo because of the informer of Henry Dracul, and dozens of members of the resistance movement, including Francis Sutil, were arrested. Gestapo coerced the arrested "Prosperity" group operator to keep in touch with the British headquarters, because the operator's sending and receiving fingerprints are like human handwriting, which is difficult to forge. The operator took the opportunity to fail to send the security code to the headquarters according to the previous regulations. The so-called security code means that a word is misspelled or repeated in a certain line. If the word is not misspelled or repeated in the agreed place, it means that the radio station has been controlled by Germany. However, despite the warning, the headquarters continued to keep in touch and dropped a large number of weapons, explosive equipment, communication equipment, activity funds and even new agents at the request of the German army. These materials and personnel fell into the hands of the German Gestapo as soon as they landed. As we all know, it is unbearable for ordinary people to extort a confession by torture from the Gestapo. All the British agents sent to the occupied areas carry highly toxic drugs in order to commit suicide when they are arrested or can't stand the torture. The Pope of the Vatican also issued an Amnesty for Christians who committed suicide because they could not stand the torture of the Gestapo. But the backbone of the "prosperity" resistance team and the agents who were later airdropped all carried non-toxic pills. After being arrested, they were tortured to death and finally gave up their task: attacking the German headquarters, communication center, shore guns and power supply system in Calais to cooperate with the allied landing. The Gestapo is convinced of the truth of these confessions, because most of them were obtained after repeated torture, and it is concluded that the allied forces will land in Calais. In fact, the informer Derikur gained the trust of the Gestapo in this way according to the top secret instructions of the London Inspectorate, thus infiltrating into the German intelligence agency. The Gestapo never imagined that British intelligence agencies would be shameless enough to provide false information at the expense of weapons and equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and the lives of dozens of loyal subordinates. It can be said that these talents are the most epic unsung heroes in the Normandy landing. They saved the lives of thousands of allied soldiers and people in occupied countries with their own lives. Most of them were executed by the Gestapo or sent to death camps, while Derikur was executed by the French resistance movement as a traitor. Before the end of the war, British intelligence sent special personnel to find the whereabouts of these people and posthumously awarded medals to some of them in recognition of their extraordinary courage and heroism in extremely dangerous situations. Today, this history is still kept secret by Britain and the United States.

In addition, French resistance organizations also played an important role. When landing on June 6, BBC Radio broadcasted a large number of code instructions to the resistance organizations in Normandy, asking them to destroy railways, highways, bridges and communication lines to help cooperate with the Allied landing. On June 9th, the battle in Normandy was at a critical moment. The BBC broadcast a large number of code instructions to the resistance organizations in Calais, Belgium and the Netherlands, asking them to attack the traffic lines and the German command and communication center as scheduled to cooperate with the upcoming landing in Calais. As the German intelligence department has cracked some resistance organizations and understood the meaning of the code instructions, it issued an imminent warning to the troops stationed in Calais.

When the landing began on June 6, Bevan's strategic deception entered a new stage, creating the illusion that the allied forces were about to land in Calais. In the statement of the allied heads of government about the Normandy landing, there are all contents carefully planned by Bevan, and there are hints between the lines that there will be greater victories. Only Charles de Gaulle, the leader of free France, could not restrain his excitement, put Bevan's speech aside and made an impassioned speech. Unexpectedly, these positive and negative statements confused the German high command again.

Biwan's strategic deception can be said to be amazing, but if we can't do a good job of confidentiality and reveal the true feelings, then not only the carefully planned strategic deception is useless, but it will also bring disaster to the landing. Therefore, Britain has taken unprecedented security measures, code-named "stubborn plan"

First of all, in order to prevent Germany and Italy from obtaining information from Ireland, Britain and the United States forced Ireland to close the German and Italian embassies in Ireland and confiscated their radio equipment. 1944 Since February 9th, Britain has suspended all non-governmental contacts with Ireland. March 17 further announced the blockade of Ireland, intercepting all planes and ships leaving Ireland without permission.

Secondly, in order to prevent diplomats in Britain from obtaining information, Britain announced on April 17 that diplomatic privileges were temporarily revoked, and diplomats were prohibited from traveling in Britain and entering and leaving Britain; Prohibit the use of diplomatic mail; Diplomatic embassies are forbidden to communicate with their countries by radio. In case of emergency, they can only use radio stations and operators provided by Britain. Put the diplomatic embassies of all countries on full alert.

Third, strict news inspection should be carried out on folk news reports, and all reports must go through multiple inspections before they can be published in newspapers. Journalists are prohibited from sending newspapers and exporting newspapers and magazines overseas to prevent Germany from obtaining information from them. Since May 25th, all letters from England have been postponed. Restrict citizens from entering and leaving Britain except for necessary personnel.

The security measures of the participating troops are unprecedented. On April 1 day, the coastal area of southern England 10 mile where the landing troops were assembled was declared as a military restricted zone. On April 6, the troops canceled their leave, and all official documents, letters and telephone calls of soldiers and civil servants were checked. American military personnel are prohibited from using overseas telephones and telegrams to communicate with the United States without authorization. From May 28th, all participating troops at the initial stage of landing were not allowed to leave the camp surrounded by barbed wire and were inspected by the military and police. Landing plans are always limited to carefully selected officers. Seven days before the landing date (i.e. the code of the landing date), the landing date and plan shall be issued to the divisional commander. D three days before, maps, charts and other enemy information of the landing area will be distributed to the battalion commander. Two days before the D-Day, we issued operational instructions to all units. At the same time, there are 2,000 intelligence personnel who closely monitor and inspect the officers and men at all levels of the participating troops.

Despite this unprecedented secrecy measure, leaks still happen from time to time, but thanks to timely remedy, the truth is not known to the Germans.

On March 22nd, 1944, the staff of Chicago Post Office opened the military package with landing plan without permission. The FBI immediately inspected and monitored the relevant personnel and finally found that this was just an accident.

1944 April 18, American army major general henry miller announced at a cocktail party in London, England that the allied forces would attack France on a large scale in early June. He was immediately dismissed, reduced to lieutenant colonel and sent back to China.

1On May 28th, 944, twelve top secret documents about landing operations were blown into the street from the window of the British General Staff and scattered on the road. At this time, everyone in the general staff, from senior officers to junior clerks, was on the verge of exploding and rushed out to look for documents scattered in the street. But only 1 1 copy was found. Just as everyone was in a hurry, a passer-by handed the twelfth document to the sentry on duty. What a false alarm.

So, how effective are the deception and secrecy measures exhausted by the allies? Allied forces deciphered the German code through "super secret" and paid close attention to the German reaction.

When the Normandy landings started on June 6th, Marshal Lundstedt, commander-in-chief of the German western front, turned a deaf ear to Wan's tactics. With a keen sense of military smell, he immediately judged that this was the main attack of the Allied forces. He asked Hitler to deploy 17 divisions from all over the country to carry out counter-attacks and was approved. On June 9, the Allies discovered that two SS armored divisions in Poland and the 15 Army in Calais all started to move to Normandy, and the Germans changed their passwords and used the new passwords that the Allies had not cracked. All this makes the Allied Supreme Command and the London Inspectorate uneasy. Have all the efforts been in vain?

At this time, the accident happened. The Germans found the bodies of two American officers on the beach of Omaha where the Allied forces landed. They carried all the battle plans of the 5th and 7th Army of the United States that could not be destroyed in time. When the battle plan was handed over to the German high command, Major General Ronal, director of the German Western Intelligence Agency, felt suspicious. He couldn't help thinking that before the allied forces landed in Sicily in 1943, the allied forces used a carefully prepared corpse, carried a fake landing plan for Sardinia, pretended to drown, and floated to the Spanish coast with the tide. After obtaining this fake battle plan, Germany transferred all its defense forces to Sardinia, which greatly weakened the defense of Sicily and finally made the allies take advantage of the virtual situation to capture Sicily. Rona thinks this is another clumsy trick of the Allies. Coupled with the information obtained from "Garbo" and "Prosperity" resistance organizations, I believe that the real main attack of the allied forces will be in Calais. German high command minister general Jodl also agreed with this view. The two men tried their best to explain to Hitler that the Normandy landing was just a feint, which eventually led Hitler to hold a military meeting on June 9 to discuss the counterattack plan again.

On June 10, General Marshall, the chief of staff of the US Army, rushed to London with the staff of the Supreme Command and the London Supervisory Authority to pay close attention to the German movement. It is being discussed whether to bomb all the bridges on the Seine, including those in Paris, to prevent German reinforcements. At midnight, the confidential secretary sent a "super secret" message: Hitler ordered 15 Army to return to Calais, and German troops from other parts of Western Europe rushed to reinforce Calais. -Everybody's relieved. Although the battle of Normandy was still fierce, everyone knew that the landing war had been won. The most surprising thing is Bevan, who never thought that the "Guardian Project" would be so successful. Marshal alan brooke, Chief of Staff of the British Army, said: "Since Hitler is such a fool, how can we spend so long and so much energy to defeat him?" Then, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and British Intelligence Director menzies came to the Supreme Command and spoke highly of the organization and implementation of the "Guardian Program": in the long history of British intelligence, this is the pinnacle of success!

All these strategic deception and secret plans around the Normandy landing have become amulets to ensure the success of the landing. As Churchill said:

"Truth is so precious in war that it should be defended by lies."