'Ghost Army': How a top-secret unit employed the art of trickery in WWII

Posted Saturday, March 10, 2018 2:09 pm

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If you go ... What: Multimedia presentations, including excerpts from "The Ghost Army" and a Q&A with author Rick Beyer When: 6 p.m. Friday Where: Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington Cost: $22 Presentations also scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Latchis Theater, 50 Main St., Brattleboro, Vt., and 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Laumeister Art Center, 44 Gypsy Lane, Bennington, Vt. Admission is $20 for Vermont events.

GREAT BARRINGTON — If war is truly an art form, these guys were creative geniuses.

Fake tank formations, inflatable equipment, phony radio transmissions and dummy airfields.

These were just a few tricks used by a World War II unit trained in deception to thwart the Germans in 1944 and 1945.

The tactics used by the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops to throw off the enemy was a long-kept secret.

That top-secret unit was also known as the "Ghost Army." The unit would make it look and sound like tanks were moving in formation, like encampments were being built.

Or they would impersonate generals, create mock headquarters, move phantom troops.

But it all got declassified by the Pentagon in the mid-1990s. In 2005, documentary filmmaker Rick Beyer had a fateful introduction to a woman named Martha Gavin.

Gavin's uncle, John Jarvie, had been a soldier in the unit, and Gavin told him the story, and showed him binders full of photos and Jarvie's artwork.

Excited, Beyer, a former journalist, made a documentary film, "The Ghost Army," which aired on PBS in 2013, and the story has found what appears to be an insatiable audience ever since.

"The Ghost Army has sort of taken over my life," Beyer said by phone from New Orleans, where he was presenting the documentary at a symposium for WWII buffs.

"They were blown away," he added.

Since the documentary's release, Beyer has co-authored a New York Times best-selling book about the unit with award-winning illustrator Elizabeth Sayles, whose father, William Sayles, was a member of the Ghost Army.

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Now, Beyer is going to give us a dose of it soon with multimedia presentations in Great Barrington, as well as Brattleboro and Bennington in Vermont, all sponsored by New England Newspapers Inc., which owns the Bennington Banner, Brattleboro Reformer and Manchester Journal, all in Vermont, and The Berkshire Eagle.

Beyer said the tales of this unit take the WWII story into new territory.

"It takes place at the intersection of art and war," he said. "This was performance art. You are putting on a show and the enemy is your audience, and your audience is a bunch of people who would kill you if they could get their hands on you."

He said that if the unit failed to be convincing, "you and thousands of others are going to get killed."

No tall order. And yes, there were casualties: Three were killed and several dozen were wounded over the course of the war.

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But they did a great job, one the Germans never cottoned to. Their artists would paint airfields so German reconnaissance couldn't spot them from air, for instance.

Many of the men in the unit were already artists, and recruited to be part of the camouflage battalions.

It was one of these battalions the Army said would become the visual deception unit, Beyer said.

And they playacted, too. Beyer said the men would talk loose at the pubs near enemy lines.

"Anything to convince a spy," he said.

Beyer said people are so delighted and surprised to learn about this unit. No one knew, he said, because it was kept quiet for so long.

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"Many of the men were told not to talk about it. So many of these guys didn't tell anyone about this for 40 to 50 years after the war. In general, the Pentagon was trying to keep the operational details secret to preserve that as military capability. There was a real sense that this was something different and you didn't want to alert potential enemies."

But war has changed.

"Technology is different, war is different, and it didn't make sense to keep it a secret anymore," he said.

Beyer said the story has enchanted him for so many reasons.

"I met some of the soldiers, interviewed about 25 of them on video, read their letters, looked at their photos," he said. "I fell in love with them. And they were modest."

He said he and Sayles have created a nonprofit, the Ghost Army Legacy Project, in an attempt to bring the unit Congressional Gold Medal honors and other recognition.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts is a fan.

"These brave soldiers brought unique, creative skills to the most dangerous and critical missions," Markey has said. "They epitomized the American can-do, innovative spirit."

It's so compelling that Hollywood already has its paws on it.

Producers of the movie "American Sniper" are working on a film about it. Actor Bradley Cooper is one of the producers, he said.

Heather Bellow can be reached at hbellow@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter at @BE_hbellow and 413-329-6871.