[Milsurplus] FOLLOW-UP to Robert Watson-Watt post

[K4TQF at yahoo.com]

"Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day" 

While billed as the "... true story behind D-day..." This tome of information is really the story of the dis-information after the Brits had broken the Enigma codes. They had to make it look as though the information was obtained from "conventional" intelligence sources. 
IMHO, the best book I have ever read concerning the "behind the scenes" look at WW2.

>From Amazon: 
   
   - Hardcover    
from $3.95   

    
   - Paperback    
from $2.65

 "On June 6, 1944-D-Day-six thousand Allied ships, the largest fleet in history, arrived off the French coast to begin the liberation of Europe. To their enormous relief, the Allies had obtained complete tactical surprise; the Nazi eagle slept. D-Day, which could have been one of history's bloodiest disasters, became instead one of its greatest victories.
How this astonishing surprise was achieved is the subject of Bodyguard of Lies, one of the most exciting volumes ever written about the Second World War. Telling the most complete story of the biggest and most complicated intelligence operation in the history of war, Bodyguard of Lies presents a large and fascinating cast of heroes and rogues and sweeps through dozens of dramatic stories of plot and counterplot, stealth and treachery, lies and deceits. It provides the full story behind Churchill's agonizing decision not to warn the city of Coventry that it was about to be destroyed, and follows the deadly cat-and-mouse games between Allied agents in France and the Gestapo, the near fiasco of Montgomery's "double," who could not be kept sober, and the heroic but doomed efforts of the anti-Hitler German underground to eliminate the Fuehrer, including the role of the chief of the German intelligence service in passing secrets over to the British. These and many more explosive stories, of code-breakers and deceivers, of plots and ruses at the highest and lowest levels, make up the tapestry of this monumental book."


Wiki:
Synopsis
Insignia for the fictional FUSAG("First US Army Group")
Bodyguard of Lies opens with an introduction to Ultra, the codename for decrypted signals intelligence. It goes on to document the origins of the London Controlling Section (LCS) and the work of Dudley Clarke in the Middle East. In late 1942, Allied high command in London became aware of Clarke's successes during the North African Campaign. Based on his theories of deception, the LCS was created under Colonel John Bevan and granted broad powers to plan deception strategy. The introduction finishes with a discussion of how the Allies evolved deception strategy prior to 1943, including the Double-Cross System (the Allied system of double agents). The second section of the book introduces the German intelligence forces, in particular Admiral Canaris and his Abwehr intelligence agency. Brown discusses early deceptions, such as those surrounding Operation Torch, conducted against the Germans, and how the Abwehr struggled to decipher the information it was being fed.






The third section of the book covers Allied deceptions during 1943, in particular Operation Mincemeat. Brown introduces Plan Jael, the early revision of Operation Bodyguard, and follows Bevan's work in creating the deception plan.[1] The fourth section covers the events of early 1944, leading up to the Normandy landings on 6 June. In particular, Brown discusses Operation Fortitude and the fictional First US Army Group, a key part of Bodyguard, calling it "the greatest charade in history".[5] The final section of the book covers events on and after D-Day, including physical deceptions carried out on the night of the invasion, and the continued impact of Bodyguard in the months after the landings.






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