The Ghost Army of WWII

[Sage]

Take a look at the map.... J&K is still Indian... so you FAILED in retaking it.

Sorry to burst your bubble dude.

Do I have to remind you 1947 'dude' ....

 

[Koovie]

Do I have to remind you 1947 'dude' ....

No.... you tried to capture the independent state of Kashmir... You made good progress until the IA intervened and stopped your advance. Thats why there are two Kashmirs today

 

[Sage]

No.... you tried to capture the independent state of Kashmir... You made good progress until the IA intervened and stopped your advance. Thats why there are two Kashmirs today

Do I have to remind you 1947 again

 

[Koovie]

Do I have to remind you 1947 again

Do I have to remind you about J&K ? Think again... the aim was to capture the nation of Kashmir...


But a look at this should tell you whether it was a success or not.

 

[OrionHunter]

Two Sikh members of an Indian camouflage unit in Baghdad, with a dummy Stuart tank mounted on a car chassis, 25 March 1942.

This is a strategy used by most armies. It's part of Surprise and Deception. The IA did it during 1965 and 1971 too in the Western Sector but on a very limited scale.

 

[Sage]

Do I have to remind you about J&K ? Think again... the aim was to capture the nation of Kashmir...


But a look at this should tell you whether it was a success or not.

 

[Koovie]

View attachment 232683

As you can see J&K is still Indian.

Now stop going off topic. You can discuss this in another thread

 

[Didact]

Well, it appears we Indians were faced with a similar incident, though on a much lower scale, strategically. It probably belongs to the 1965 or 71 war or maybe even during Brasstacts, but I cannot be sure of the exact timeline.

The gentleman(late) was with the battalion HQ when they were put on battle readiness alert by Division command. A massive build-up in the Pakistani side was noticed, and the most likely route of advance would put his battalion slap-bang in the middle of an armored spearhead. The Division HQ and presumably the Higher Command was freaking out, while the battalion prepared to go into imminent action.

The Div HQ stunned by the intelligence failure at noticing the movement of so many assets called up RAW, and had an ARC surveillance flight conducted to recon the enemy. Sure enough, images confirmed atleast an armored division, and possibly an entire corps poised to attack. The MI got into action identifying this huge unknown force, the RAW on possible plans and the Div Command on how to best retreat with face. Nobody knew what the Corps HQ was doing, not even the Corps HQ people themselves.

Then came a simple smuggler who worked part-time for IB. These were usually double or even triple agents; You wouldn't survive too long being a loyal agent for one party at the borders. They feed information to both sides, but are also often the only people who can move through the borders. He was sent to do a field recon just as the Division prepared to go into battle.

The next day, the assumed day of invasion of the force, the smuggler returned and made his report: The tanks were haystacks covered with cloth and made to look like tanks, the rows of artillery were poles, again camouflaged with cloth. The only thing real were the camps, being made of cloth, with ghosts living in them.

When his handler officer refused to buy that explanation, he showed him a tank, or well, the skin of a tank. A senior commander came down personally to laugh about it.

The gentleman, reporting to his commander just after writing what he thought was going to be his last letter, was duly informed of the gravity of the threat.

 

[Koovie]

Find the decoy

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

believe it or not, Americans fooled the Germans with their fake tanks for over an year.

It is undeniable that Hitler believed that Calais was the main target for an invasion,
but I have never seen any source showing that the ghost army had any effect
on German thinking.