“The Ghost Army.” This painting depicts two Frenchmen looking shocked upon seeing four American soldiers lift a 40-ton tank. (Arthur Shilstone) Shortly after the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, two Frenchmen on bicycles managed to cross the perimeter of the United States Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and what they saw astounded them. Four American soldiers had picked up a 40-ton Sherman tank and were turning it in place. Soldier Arthur Shilstone says, “They looked at me, and they were looking for answers, and I finally said: ‘The Americans are very strong.’” Patriotic pride aside, the men of the 23rd were not equipped with super-human strength. They did, however, have inflatable tanks. Shilstone was one of 1,100 soldiers who formed the unit, also known as the Ghost Army. They were artists and illustrators, radio people and sound guys. Handpicked for the job from New York and Philadelphia art schools in January 1944, their mission was to deceusuive the enemy with hand-made inflatable tanks, 500-pound speakers blasting the sounds of troops assembling and phony radio transmissions. Over the course of the war, they staged more than 20 operations and are estimated to have saved between 15,000 and 30,000 U.S. lives. The illusion was never broken and not even their fellow soldiers knew of their existence. Kept secret for 40 years, the story of the Ghost Army first broke in Smithsonian magazine in the April 1985 issue, when then-illustrator Shilstone shared his part in the war. Now, Shilstone and 18 other members of the 23rd are part of the new PBS documentary, “The Ghost Army.” Read more: smithsonianmag/history-archaeology/When-an-Army-of-Artists-Fooled-Hitler-208304561.html#ixzz2Z9Ltyp9S
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 09:49:26 +0000
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