This week we celebrate the successful Allied invasion of Europe on the Normandy beaches of northern France. On 6 June (Thursday), it will be the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the Allied push into Germany.

I will be giving a one-hour on-line presentation this Thursday for Bonjour Paris (see below). I decided to reprint our 2018 blog on Operation Double Cross that happens to be my presentation topic. Our discussion will expand the story of Operation Double Cross. I hope you can join us on Thursday.

Join Stew Ross for a Discussion on

France Today

“REMEMBERING D-DAY:

Operation Double Cross”

Thursday, 6 June 2024

11:30 – 12:30 (EST)

Click here to watch the trailer for the presentation.

An inflatable “dummy” M4 Sherman tank. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

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BONJOUR PARIS is a digital publication dedicated to all things Paris. Visit the web-site here.

Undoubtedly, many of you have heard the story of the fake army which was used to deceive Hitler and his generals into planning for a cross channel invasion (across the Strait of Dover to Pas de Calais). It is true but the story is somewhat more complex and as wartime documents seven decades old are declassified, historians are only now able to fill in missing gaps and answer why Hitler reacted the way he did to the Normandy invasion.

Did You Know?

Did you know that 1st Lt. Paul Chaufty was a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot who was flying an armed reconnaissance mission on 13 August 1944 when he was shot down over the French villages of Ciral and Saint-Ellier-les-Bois? It was the day Allied armies were liberating Ciral. Lt. Chaufty bailed out of the plane, but his parachute never opened, and he fell to his death in a field. A mile away, the plane crashed.

Marie Bastien was fourteen at the time and watched the young pilot’s plane come down. The following day, her father found the body and brought Chaufty’s remains back to the farm where he was buried wrapped in his parachute. Four days later, the pilot’s remains were removed and buried in a temporary military cemetery before final relocation to the Fairview Cemetery in Carthage, New York.

Marie never forgot her experience watching Lt. Chaufty fall to his death. She vowed to keep his memory alive and over the years, discussed this with her daughter who eventually reached out to Lt. Chaufty’s family. One week ago, Marie, her daughter, and members of the Chaufty family stood in the village of Saint-Ellier-les-Bois as a plaque honoring Paul Chaufty was unveiled.

Thanks to one woman’s tenacity, a brave American’s legacy will not be forgotten.

Locals erected a makeshift American flag marking the site where Chaufty's plane crashed in near the village of St. Elliers Les Bois, France. (NBC News) — Locals erected a makeshift American flag marking the site where Chaufty’s plane crashed in near the village of St. Elliers Les Bois, France. (NBC News)

Deception strategies were used by the Allies and Germans against one another throughout World War II. However, by 1942, the Americans and British held the upper hand: intelligence was gained through the top secret Ultra program by decrypting German messages using the Nazi military Enigma machine at Bletchley Park. Deception methods created primarily by British intelligence were becoming increasingly complex and successful. As Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin agreed in late 1943 on plans for an invasion of Europe, the Allies came up with the largest deception plan to date to be used against the Nazis.

Bletchley Park. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons.

Four rotor German naval Enigma. Photo by Magnus Manske (2005). Bletchley Park. PD-GNU Free Documentation. Wikimedia Commons

Operation Bodyguard and Fortitude

Operation Bodyguard was the American and British-led umbrella deception plan to mislead the Germans into thinking the inevitable invasion of Europe would take place at a location other than the real invasion site. Additionally, the plan was to deceive Hitler about the actual date, time, and size of the assault force. It was formulated in 1943 once the Allies agreed to a 1944 invasion date.

There were many directives under Operation Bodyguard including Operation Cockade, Plan Jael, Operation Quicksilver, and the Torrent Plan. However, the largest and most successful was Operation Fortitude. Read More The Double Cross System

I have not written much about the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War II (click here to read the blog, Tommy, Fritz, and Ivan), but I have written quite a few blogs on women’s roles during the war, especially in the French Resistance and as foreign agents [read the blogs, The Naked Heroine (click here), Women Agents of the SOE (click here), The White Mouse (click here), and The Sussex Plan and a Very Brave Woman (click here)]. Today’s blog combines each of these topics.

During World War II, America and Great Britain did not allow women to fly combat missions. However, Gen. Hap Arnold (1886−1950), head of the U.S. Army Air Forces, authorized an elite women’s air squadron to be formed (click here to read the blog, Killed in the Service of Her Country). Female pilots such as Betty Gillies and Cornelia Fort, delivered new planes from the manufacturing facilities to their assigned airfields located around the country. Arnold believed this would free up more male fighter pilots for combat duty.

Betty Gillies (1908−1998), the first American women pilot to be accepted by the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Gillies and Nancy Love were the first women to pilot a B-17, Flying Fortress. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

Stalin on the other hand, created three all-female combat air regiments for the purpose of harassing and bombing German military targets. The women of one regiment devised a bombing technique that earned them the nickname, Die Nachthexen, or “The Night Witches.” They were so feared by the Germans that any soldier or pilot who downed a Night Witch aircraft automatically earned the Iron Cross medal. While American bomber crews were expected to fly twenty-five missions before going home, most of the Soviet women bomber crews flew more than eight hundred missions while one of them flew more than a thousand.

The “Witches” report to the commander for instructions for the night’s bombing missions. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Cdn.history.com. Sovfoto/Uig Getty.

Tag: Joseph Stalin

The Double Cross System