Page 18 - Oundle Life September 2024

D-DAY DECEPTION
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
– Winston Churchill
There will
be a military
history evening at
Oundle Library
on Wednesday 9th
October at 6pm,
when the Oundle
Military History
Boys will give a talk
about Operation
Bodyguard – the extraordinary ways the Allies managed to deceive the Nazis as the date of the D-Day landings approached.
Known as Operation Overlord, the D-Day landing in June 1944 was the largest military seaborne operation ever attempted, transporting and landing tens of thousands of troops in Normandy to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.
But essential to the success of Operation Overlord was the element of surprise. The Allies had to convince the Nazis that the invasion would be coming from anywhere but Normandy. And so, in the seven months before D-Day they orchestrated a smokescreen of false operations designed to baffle and confuse the German High Command.
These false operations – collectively known as Operation Bodyguard – were a combination of controlled spies, leaked plans, misdirection, phantom field armies, jamming and faulty analysis. And it was so successful that German Intelligence could only conclude that the invasion would come in June, July or August 1944, somewhere between Greece and Norway! In fact, even after Allied troops had landed in Normandy, Hitler kept forces close to Calais for nearly seven more weeks because he expected a
second invasion there.
The talk at Oundle Library about Operation
Bodyguard will consider the deception planning at both strategic and tactical levels – from the use of dummy rubber tanks, ships and planes, to fake radio traffic and false intelligence supplied by the double agent known as Garbo. It’s bound to be a fascinating evening.
at Oundle Library
Supported by: Friends of Oundle Library
Deception and D-Day
A talk by Oundle’s Military History Boys on the deception and subterfuge employed by the Allies in the run-up to the D-Day landings in Normandy
Oundle Library Wednesday, 9 October 2024 @ 6.00pm
Tickets £6.00 on sale from 16 September at Oundle Library. Doors open 5.30pm. Refreshments.
Tickets cost £6 and can be booked or purchased in advance from 16th September at Oundle Library. Doors will open at 5.30pm and the talk will start at 6pm. There will be an interval and refreshments and the evening will end around 8pm.
For more information or to obtain tickets, visit Oundle Library or email oundle. libraryplus@northnorthants.gov.uk
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