The Ghost Army: Conning the Third Reich by Gerry Souter & Janet Souter

Author:Gerry Souter & Janet Souter [Souter, Gerry & Souter, Janet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Strategy, World War II, Military, history, Military History
ISBN: 9781789504439
Google: 9LWZDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
Published: 2019-05-20T23:27:34.501126+00:00

Created at the end of the war, this map shows the Ghost Army’s routes and operations. The 1,100 men belonging to 23rd Headquarters Special Troops were active in Normandy, northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and central Europe from April 1944 until June 1945.

When Simenson launched his enlistees into military drill and training, he made a discovery: instead of relying on constant repetition to drive the lessons home, these sharp recruits picked up training quickly. They treated the military’s mind-numbing drill and procedures as just something new to learn.

Camouflage came to mind first when organizing the 23rd’s capability and this component came with the invaluable 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion (Special). Training at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, the 603rd had already been in operation for two years before being incorporated into the 23rd. Its ranks included some of the best and brightest artists available from New York and Philadelphia. Fashion icon Bill Blass and photographer Art Kane headed a list of equally skilled commercial artists alerted to the enlistment opportunity through the Art Students League and a camouflage course taught at New York University. Theatre set-designer George Diestel and commercial artist George Martin had joined up along with artists Arthur Singer, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Shilstone and Bernie Bluestein from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Bernie, a tall, muscular twenty-year-old, had been a student at the Cleveland school in 1943. At that time the school’s curriculum focused on practical aspects of art, training students for careers in the applied arts. During the Second World War, courses such as medical drawing, map-making and camouflage were added. Bernie recalled:

“One day an instructor told me, ‘you’re about to be drafted. The government has set up a program to get enlisted men into a certain outfit of the army. You’d have to take a camouflage course.’”

Bernie attended the class for a term and learned about the rudiments of camouflage – including how to disguise an airfield – and later joined the 603rd Engineers Camouflage Battalion. After basic training in Fort Hayes, Ohio, Bernie joined the 603rd at Fort George Meade. Bluestein recalled that at that time the dummy tanks were constructed with wooden slats:

“We made them light so we could carry them and the slats formed the object we were making, whether it was a gun or plane or something else to give solidity to it. They were covered with burlap and then we painted them camouflage. Some [tanks] didn’t even have treads on them; they were pretty crude. Later – don’t know exactly when – the government said they we’re going to build them out of neoprene rubber and make them collapse; easier to transport and mass produce than the wooden things.”41

Bernie was in good company; in all, the 603rd TO had an above-average IQ of 119. As of 14 April 1944 it consisted of 28 officers and two warrant officers, who commanded 361 enlisted men divided into a Headquarters Company, four separate companies (A, B, C and D) and a 12-man medical department (MED Det).

The 23rd

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