One reason the Allies chose Normandy as the D-Day invasion site was it would be a surprise. That element of surprise was crucial and needed to be maintained. Fortunately, the Germans (specifically Hitler) were fixated on the Allies doing what they would do – invade the closest place to Great Britain, the Pas de Calais. The Anglo-Americans were determined that the Germans kept believing that. So Operation Fortitude was hatched. There were two parts – Fortitude South and Fortitude North. South was used to convince that the invasion was at Calais, North was aimed at Norway. Both used four methods: physical deception through fake infrastructure, bogus communications traffic, fake leaks through diplomatic circles, and the use of double agents. A nonexistent army was created under Lt. Gen. George Patton. Patton was under suspension for slapping two PTSD soldiers on Sicily, but the Germans did not believe this. They respected him as the best Anglo-American general, so wherever he was, that was the main invasion force. Patton toured the fake army bases and allowed himself to be photographed. Speaking of photographs, the area in Great Britain where Patton’s fake army was located had dummy landing craft, fake airfields, and inflatable tanks (some historians dispute the tanks). This was to fool German photoreconnaissance. It turns out the Germans did little flying over. Actually, the biggest success was the use of double agents. MI5 (British intelligence) had turned every German agent and “convinced” them cooperating was better than being hanged. Hitler swallowed this hook, line, and sinker. He put Erwin Rommel in charge of the Atlantic Wall, but denied him control of most of the tank units in France. Not only did Hitler retain a large force in Calais, but he held many divisions inland rather than close enough to counter an invasion near the beach (like Rommel wanted). Fortitude North worked because when Rommel requested five divisions from the thirteen held in Norway, Hitler turned him down. In fact, it worked so well that even after the invasion of Normandy, Hitler retained forces in the Calais area because he thought the invasion was a diversion!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude
https://www.history.com/news/d-day-hitler-germany-defenses-miscalculations
a dummy tank
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