ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: “The D-Day Deception” – with National WWII Museum Curator Corey Graff

SpyCast

Education, News, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2023

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Summary Cory Graff (Website, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter, LinkedIn) to discuss the D-Day deception operation to mask the landings at Normandy. Cory is a Curator at The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. What You’ll Learn Intelligence Deception tactics used by the Allies The core deception operations BODYGUARD and FORTITUDE The German secret agents who became British “double agents” The “Ghost Army” and General Patton’s fictitious First U.S. Army Group Intelligence in the World War II Museum Reflections Appearance and intention The essential unknowability of the world And much, much more … *EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE* Quotes of the Week “During the evenings, French Resistance is taking over and blowing up train tracks and sort of funneling people this way. And that's another thing to talk about when we talk about D-Day is, intelligence was gained from French citizens beforehand. And the night of the 5th & 6th, we witnessed something like a thousand points of sabotage within the area directed at the Germans.” – Cory Graff on the French Resistance’s contribution to D-Day Resources SURFACE SKIM Andrew’s Recommendation The D-Day episode of the landmark documentary The World at War (“Morning: June-August 1944 (Ep. 17 of 26)”) *SpyCasts* St. Ermin’s Hotel, London – The History of a Legendary Spy Site with Stephen Duffy (2023) Hitler’s Trojan Horse – Nazi Intelligence with Nigel West (2023) Nazis on the Potomac with former National Park Service Chief Historian Bob Sutton (2022) The Nuclear Doomsday Machine – with Sean Maloney on Cold War Emergency Plans (2022) *Beginner Resources* Here’s what happened on D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion ever undertaken, CNN (2021) [1 min. video] When and How Did World War II End?, R. Wilde, ThoughtCo (2020 [Short article] The 10 Things You Need to Know about D-Day, Imperial War Museum (n.d.) [10 quick facts] DEEPER DIVE *EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE* Primary Sources General Eisenhower’s Order of the Day, National Archives (1944) In Case of Failure Message from Gen. Eisenhower, Eisenhower Presidential Library (1944) Overlord – Anvil Papers, Eisenhower Presidential Library (1944) Report of the 82nd Airborne Division, “Operation Neptune”, Eisenhower Presidential Library (1944) Neptune Monograph, The D-Day Story Museum (1944) *Wildcard Resource* The crossword panic of 1944! In the run up to D-Day important codenames such as “Omaha,” “Overlord,” “Mulberry,” and “Neptune,” appeared in the Daily Telegraph newspaper crossword puzzle. Was someone signaling the Allies plans to the Germans? We don’t think so...but one possible explanation involves loose-lipped soldiers, a WWI veteran schoolteacher, and some naughty schoolboys! *EXTENDED SHOW NOTES & FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE*

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.
0:11.0	Welcome to Spycast.
0:15.0	The official podcast of the International Spy Museum.
0:18.0	I'm Erin T. Trick, your host, Dr. Andrew Hammond's content partner.
0:22.0	Coming up next on Spycast.
0:25.0	The UK, their forte is intelligence.
0:29.0	And of course they've been fighting the Germans a long time.
0:32.0	And so they sort of take the lead in bodyguard and fortitude in some of these other operations that you're going to see discussed when it comes to trickery when it comes to D-Day.
0:56.0	79 years ago on this day June 6, thousands of Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and southern France.
1:04.0	This invasion, known as the D-Day landings, was planned and executed by the Allies through the masterful use of deception techniques.
1:12.0	And who better to help us tell this story than Cory Graff, curator at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1:21.0	In this episode, Cory and Andrew discussed how the Allies tricked Hitler and the German military into convincing them that the landings would actually happen in Podicele across the country.
1:31.0	And how the success of a number of smaller operations and the work of double agents built up a network of deception around the D-Day landings that ultimately led to the Nazis demise.
1:41.0	If you enjoy this show, please tell your friends and loved ones and consider leaving us a five star review on Apple Podcasts.
1:48.0	The official podcast on intelligence since 2006, we are Spycast.
1:55.0	Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
2:02.0	Well, really happy to speak to you, Cory.
2:06.0	Coming up very soon, D-Day.
2:09.0	What a lot of people don't know, although I'm assuming that many people that listen to our podcast may know, is that the whole of D-Day was shrouded by what Churchill called a bodyguard of lies, Operation Bodyguard.
2:23.0	Can you just tell our listeners a little bit more about that? What was Operation Bodyguard?
2:29.0	So this was a Churchill admit stall in it, one of the conferences, and he had that famous quote that in warfare, the truth is so rare that it has to be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies.
2:44.0	And that gets us to an operation, codename bodyguard, and this D-Day preparations are filled with various codenames.
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