User:ErrantX/Sandbox/List of Allied fictional units during World War II
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During the Second World War the Allied nations created a number of fictional army units, usually as part of a military deception. Most notable were those used in Operation Cascade (Dudley Clarke's 1943 order of battle deception aimed at inflating the size of Allied forces in North Africa) and in Operation Bodyguard (the strategic cover deception for the 1944 Normandy invasion).[1]
The created formations ranged in size from battalion to field army and were faked using documents, photographs, double agents, news reportage and physical subterfuge. Some of the units were either based on existing decommissioned formations (usually World War I formations) or created afresh. Many were used multiple times, Clarke in particular believed that reusing units in the long term would help establish their existence in the mind of the enemy.[1]