Ghost army of World War II

The Twenty-third Headquarters Special Troops, a battalion-sized U.S. Army outfit during World War II, specialized in deception operations; to wit, fooling the Germans about the location of particular units and planned attacks. It used loudspeakers transmitting vehicle sounds; false insignia on well-briefed soldiers, rubber tanks, guns, and trucks; and the rampant creativity of its members, many of them recruited from the theater and the mass media and all possessing high IQs and a distaste for "Mickey Mouse" army regulations. Its achievements included 55 operations, in which it simulated troop deployments from a battalion up to a division in size and attracted the attention of as many as 30,000 Germans. Its personnel included the likes, if likes there could be, of fashion-mogul-to-be Bill Blass and Hilton Railey, a southern gentleman, field officer, and adventurer out of the pages of W. E. B. Griffin. Its story, not always smoothly told by Kneece, is worth having, especially since its achievements were declassified only in 1996, well after most of its veterans were gone. --Roland Green

While the broader activities of the U.S. Army 23rd Headquarters Special Troops are somewhat known deployment of inflatable tanks and tents, electronic sound simulations of troop contingents and radio traffic, fake paratroopers (or "Ruperts") the details remained classified until 1996. Freed from their code of silence, many of the remaining members of the 23rd (which included designer Bill Blass) contributed testimony to Ghost Army Of World War II by veteran reporter Jack Kneece, who fills in their testimony with a careful weighing of the documentary evidence ( Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Career journalist and newspaperman Kneece chronicles the story of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. With only 1100 men, the 23rd was repeatedly able to disguise itself as a much larger force, masking the Allies' real operations and saving thousands of lives. The Germans called them the "Phantom Army," while the 23rd preferred the nickname "Ghost Army." Using elaborate ruses of false radio traffic, sound effects, inflatable vehicles, and other techniques, these "ghosts" were so successful in over 20 operations that the Germans believed that they were facing a 30,000-man force. The unit's soldiers were actually artists, set designers, sound technicians, and other specialists (including Bill Blass, Elsworth Kelly, Art Kane, and George Stulten). Kneece uses numerous declassified documents and personal interviews with veterans to create a readable narrative of the unit's operations in France, Luxembourg, and Germany. This unit was classified top secret during World War II and remained so until 1996, and the author describes the "silent suffering" of the 23rd's men, who did not get due recognition because of this top-secret classification. While not scholarly, this book is a capable study of an elite military unit for public and academic libraries. David M. Alperstein, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.