Operation Quicksilver

Strategy and Tactics

The primary tactic of Operation Quicksilver was the creation of a fake element of the U.S. Army. German leaders—including Hitler himself—were, over time, convinced that there was an American Army group preparing to land in the Pas-de-Calais for the major invasion that had long been expected. The group, fictitiously called the First U.S. Army Group, was allegedly training under General George Patton in the United Kingdom while finalizing details of the invasion. The key player in the scheme was [Page 738]Joan Pujol Garcia. He was a double agent loyal to the Allies who supplied the Germans with all of the detailed information created by the Allied forces to help steer the Axis leaders away from the Allies' actual plans.

Operation Quicksilver focused on utilizing fake radio signals to show Allied forces in southeast England preparing for a massive invasion. Likewise, double agents such as Garcia were depended upon to add credence to the fake plans with Axis officials. Aware that German officials would be suspicious of getting too much direct information, the Allies were strategic in permitting agents to only report on minor, secondary details. But they provided so many secondary details that, when considered together, Axis leaders had no choice but to believe the Allied forces were in fact going to come aground close to Dover instead of Normandy.

Reports provided to Axis leaders suggested that there were many troops located in south central England, very few in the southwest, and the fake groups in the southeast. By creating such reports, it painted a picture for the Axis that the Allied forces were likely to attack from the southeast because that was where the largest number of forces and subsequent activity were reported. Through the German battle order that was prepared in response to Operation Quicksilver, attention turned toward Pas-de-Calais, just as the Allied forces had hoped it would.

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