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D-Day Deception Operation Fortitude and the Normandy Invasion
Book Code: C9479
ISBN: 0-275-99479-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99479-2
280 pages, 12 photos
Praeger Security International General Interest-Cloth
Publication: 10/30/2007
List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £27.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Barbier (history, Mississippi State U.) provides a comprehensive account of Operation Fortitude from planning to conclusion that pays more attention to Fortitude North than many previous accounts and, in addition to presenting the Allied perspective, discusses German responses. In her final assessment, she judges the impact of Fortitude to be minimal.
    —SciTech Book News
    February 2008
Description: On 6 June 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy. The invasion followed several years of argument and planning by Allied leaders, who remained committed to a return to the European continent after the Germans had forced the Allies to evacuate at Dunkirk in May 1940. Before the spring of 1944, however, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other British leaders remained unconvinced that the invasion was feasible. At the Teheran Conference in November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill promised Josef Stalin that Allied troops would launch Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, in the spring. Because of their continuing concerns about Overlord, the British convinced the Americans to implement a cover plan to help ensure the invasion's success. The London Controlling Section (LCS) devised an elaborate two-part plan called Operation Fortitude that SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) helped to fine tune and that both British and American forces implemented. Historians analyzing the Normandy invasion frequently devote some discussion to Operation Fortitude. Although they admit that Fortitude North did not accomplish all that the Allied deception planners had hoped, many historians heap praise on Fortitude South, using phrases such as, "unquestionably the greatest deception in military history." Many of these historians assume that the deception plan played a crucial role in the June 1944 assault. A reexamination of the sources suggests, however, that other factors contributed as much, if not more, to the Allied victory in Normandy and that Allied forces could have succeeded without the elaborate deception created by the LCS. Moreover, the persistent tendency to exaggerate the operational effect of Fortitude on the German military performance at Normandy continues to draw attention away from other, technical-military reasons for the German failures there.
Table of Contents:
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  • GLOSSARY
  • CHAPTER ONE: SETTING THE STAGE
  • CHAPTER TWO: DEVISING A PLAN
  • CHAPTER THREE: THREATENING NORWAY
  • CHAPTER FOUR: DECIDING HOW TO IMPLEMENT: FORTITUDE SOUTH
  • CHAPTER FIVE: PUTTING FORTITUDE SOUTH INTO PLAY: FROM THE BEGINNING UNTIL D-DAY
  • CHAPTER SIX: CONTINUING THE DECEPTION
  • CHAPTER SEVEM: REACTING TO THE DECEPTION
  • CHAPTER EIGHT: ASSESSING OPERATION FORTITUDE
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
LC Card Number: 2007027854
LCC Class: D756
Dewey Class: 940
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