From D-Day to the crossing of the Rhine, the Army's top-secret 23rd Headquarters Special Troops unit used inflatable tanks, trucks and artillery pieces; bogus radio traffic; 500-pound loudspeakers blasting recordings of divisions on the move; and other means of fakery to confuse the Nazis. In the process, it may have saved the lives of 15,000 to 30,000 American troops, according to Army historians.
More than 75 years after they conducted visual, sonic and radio deception against German forces during World War II, soldiers who served in the so-called “Ghost Army” will receive the Congressional Gold Medal.