Chatter: The Ghost Army of World War II with Journalist Rick Beyer
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2023
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the summer of 1944, a group of artists, visual designers and sound engineers--all of them GIs--began a series of secret operations in occupied France. Their mission: to deceive German forces about the location and size of U.S. military units, using a combination of inflatable vehicles, sound recordings, and “actors” posing as officers.
The ranks of the “Ghost Army” included future stars of the worlds of art and design, including Ellsworth Kelly, Bill Blass, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey. Journalist Rick Beyer has chronicled their ingenious exploits in a book and a documentary.
December marks the 80th anniversary of the order that created the unit, which remained secret for decades. Shane Harris talked with Beyer about its creation, its success, and the ghost army’s role in the storied history of intelligence deceptions.
Among the works mentioned in this episode:
The Ghost Army book
https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/ghost-army-of-world-war-ii
The Ghost Army documentary
https://shop.pbs.org/WC3752.html
The Ghost Army Legacy Project
Smithsonian magazine feature
The National WWII Museum
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Transcript
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| 1:01.0 | T's and sees apply. |
| 1:10.0 | This is Chatter. I'm Shane Harris. This week, filmmaker and author Rick Byer on the Ghost Army of World War II. |
| 1:17.0 | This idea of having a unit that's dedicated to deception that's mobile that's multimedia can work on |
| 1:26.2 | the battlefield I have never seen anything like it anywhere in history and I've talked to a lot of people. |
| 1:34.0 | Any given deception probably starts with radio. |
| 1:40.0 | One of the soldiers called it the stage setter because you can start radio 50 miles away and you can be sending all these phoning transmissions to make it seem to the Germans like a whole unit is coming. |
| 1:52.0 | You know every guy who I interviewed for that documentary film has passed away, but I do feel |
| 1:58.7 | that what these guys did was incredibly important and unusual and really worth honoring. |
| 2:16.0 | Rick Beyer, welcome to Chatter. Thanks so much for joining us. Oh, it's great to be here. Thank you. |
| 2:18.0 | I'm really excited to talk with you about your book, The Ghost Army of World War II. |
| 2:23.1 | One of the reasons I really was interested in speaking with you |
... |
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