How did the Americans, British and the French deceived the Germans in the D-Day?

Question

I heard the Germans didn't expect the allied forces to disembark on the beaches of Normandy.

Answer 1

Dummy tanks and a dummy army led by Gen. Patton were set up opposite of Pas De calais. Misinformation by double spies also led the German's to think the invasion was at the most obvious point on the coast....Pas de Calais.

Answer 2

General Patton's huge phantom Army Group was the biggest and best part of the deception.

There was another element which convinced the Germans that the Normandy invasion was not the real thing, even after it had started. Every military expert knows that for an amphibious invasion to succeed, the attackers MUST capture a large port very early on, and Cherbourg was too far from the beach-heads. But the British had developed the floating "Mulberry Harbour", and the submarine cross-Channel fuel pipeline "PLUTO" (pipeline under the ocean), to keep the invasion force supplied with all its needs.

Answer 3

They established a fictional Army to be led by Patton and spread dis-information through double agents so the Germans would think the Allies were going in by the short route. Also, There were just about as many Poles (who fought better) and a whole lot of Canadians there, The French didn't contribute much to D-Day, except by the inept leadership at the start of the war that made it necessary
Read Keegan's 6 Armies in Normandy

Answer 4

True. They had spread false "secret info", allowing the Germans to intercept the false info, that the invasion would occur at a different location.
However, Normandy was extremely well defended.

Just an added note.
When I was in high school, in Sept., after the invasion, all juniors and seniors were called to the auditorium where we were shown actual battlefield films of that invasion. Those who reached shore did so by walking over the fallen as they disembarked from the amphibious landing craft.
The film was very graphic, with bodies torn apart, limbs scattered over the water and beaches.
"Saving Private Ryan" was nothing like the real thing.

Why was this done?
Several seniors enlisted at once.

Answer 5

The Germans were expecting an invasion, they just didn't know where or when and the Allies messed with them relentlessly.

For example, the Germans were convinced that Patton was going to lead the invasion, so the Allies gave Patton a "phantom" army to run, with a beach landing well north of Normandy.

They also took a dead soldier, dressed him in an officers uniform, gave him a satchel full of fake reports and landing details (all completely false), and put his body in the ocean off the coast of Spain where he was sure to be found. It had the appearance that his plane had been shot down. The Germans bought into it as well.

That's just a couple of examples. Others included false radio chatter and fake messages guaranteed to be intercepted.

Answer 6

Calais was the most likely landing. Calais was only 22 miles from Folkestone, England. So the Germans figured the Allied Forces wanted to land as quickly as possible. They didn't figure the Allied Force would try Normandy because the tides at Normandy beaches were more radical and it would be more difficult to land there.

Answer 7

Most germans expected the Allies to use the shortest crossing which was the Pas-de-Calais although others suspected Normandy.
The deception was achieved by inventing a ghost army called the American 1st Army which was supposed to be stationed opposite the Pas-de-Calais. It had dummy vehicle parks and bogus radio messages were constantly sent to and from this army.
In the weeks leading up tp D-Day the defences in the Pas-de-Calais were heavily bombed to give the impression that something was going to happen there.

Answer 8

As was mentioned there was a huge deception scam run by the Allies, all the way from playing to the Germans fear of Patton to messages sent in codes we knew were broken; innflatable tanks and fields of empty tents German recon planes could photograph looking like Pattons army about to launch at Pas De Calais.......but the guy in the water story.......while the poster has all the details right, it was a cover for the invasion of Sicily two years before; from finding the right body to dressing him up to stuffing the briefcase with false orders, personal letters,and a complete cover the whole deal was run by Britain's MI5 and given to three reservists.......the actors David Niven, Perter Ustinov and a guy named Ian Fleming who use his war years as a spy to write stories about someone named Bond.......

and it worked brilliantly.

google " The Man Who Never Was"

Answer 9

the Germans expected the invasion further south, but we had a decoder machine that told us they had less troops in Normandy so we attacked there.