The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was a U.S. Army tactical deception unit during World War II. The 1100-man unit was given a unique mission within the Allied Army: to impersonate other Allied Army units to deceive the enemy. They staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions, often operating very close to the front lines. Many of the men in this unit were artists, recruited from New York and Philadelphia art schools.
About Ghost Army in brief
The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was a U.S. Army tactical deception unit during World War II. The 1100-man unit was given a unique mission within the Allied Army: to impersonate other Allied Army units to deceive the enemy. From a few months after D-Day, when they landed in France, until the end of the war, they put on a \”traveling road show\” utilizing inflatable tanks, sound trucks, fake radio transmissions, scripts and pretence. They staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions, often operating very close to the front lines. The unit’s elaborate ruses helped deflect German units from the locations of larger allied combat units.
Many of the men in this unit were artists, recruited from New York and Philadelphia art schools. Their unit became an incubator for young artists who sketched and painted their way through Europe. Several of these soldier-artists went on to have a major impact on art in the postwar US. Their story was kept secret for more than 40 years after the war,. until it was declassified in 1996. The unit was the subject of a PBS documentary The Ghost Army in 2013.
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This page is based on the article Ghost Army published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
