Operation Fortitude

Operation Fortitude stands out as one of the most vital contributions made by the Allied staff during the planning and preparation for the D-Day invasion. Formulated as a plan "to induce the enemy to make faulty dispositions in northwest Europe before and after the Overlord assault," Fortitude took shape in early 1944 under the direction of General Eisenhower and a special staff at SHAEF headquarters. Overlord would be the western allies' principal military operation of World War II, one that endeavored to topple the Nazi regime within the year. To help ensure the invasion's success, Fortitude's foremost goal was to convince the enemy that a major Allied amphibious operation against occupied Europe would take place not against its actual target, Normandy, but against one or more other locations, notably Norway and the Pas de Calais region of France. Should Fortitude successfully deceive the enemy, the German high command would retain significant forces in locales far removed from Normandy and expend monumental effort to build coastal fortifications in areas the Allies would ultimately ignore. , , The Fortitude deception plan would not end at D-Day, as Eisenhower resolved to convince the enemy that the Normandy invasion itself was a diversion and that a second, larger invasion would finally occur near Calais, In that event, Hitler would in all probability hold back reinforcements from Normandy, thus allowing the pace of Allied troop buildup in the beachhead after D-Day to exceed the rate by which the enemy reinforced the Norman front. , , Fortitude strove to convince the enemy of the existence of First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), a major but entirely fictitious command in southeast England under the command of Lt. Gen. George Patton. Radio traffic between American units that did not exist, dummy vehicles and artillery, and made-up field exercises eventually led German intelligence to conclude that FUSAG would be launched against Pas de Calais, Frequent Allied air raids against enemy coastal defenses in that locale, in greater numbers than raids on Normandy, sustained the ruse. Further, the daring of a few exceptional espionage agents, trusted Allied operatives who deluged German intelligence officials with misinformation about the Allied military buildup in Britain, cannot be overstated; nor can their mastery of the art of deception. The most notable among them, the Spaniard Juan Pujol (codenamed "Garbo" duped the enemy in the period after the D-Day invasion with what seemed a dismissive remark: "The present attack is a large-scale operation, but diversionary in character." Before D-Day and beyond, Operation Fortitude achieved its purpose by sowing confusion within the German high command and preventing the enemy from recognizing Normandy as the focal point of the Allied effort in Western Europe. The successful establishment of a beachhead by the Allies in Normandy on 6 June 1944, and their subsequent victory in the Normandy campaign, would, in not inconsiderable measure, owe a debt to those who framed and carried out Operation Fortitude. , In remembrance of Sgt. Harold Garrett Obenchain (31 December 1922 - 4 February 2008), A U.S. Army (1943 - 1946) veteran, during World War II, he proudly served in campaigns with the 547th Heavy Maintenance Company in Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe, to include the Battle of the Bulge, dedicated on Veterans Day 2009.