Operation Barclay was a
World War II deception
Deception or falsehood is an act or statement that misleads, hides the truth, or promotes a belief, concept, or idea that is not true. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda and sleight o ...
by the
Allies in support of
Operation Husky, the
Allied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It beg ...
in July 1943.
The goal was to deceive the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were N ...
as to the location of the Allies' assault across the
Mediterranean and to divert the Axis military command's attention and resources. Operation Barclay used bogus troop movements, radio traffic, recruitment of Greek interpreters, and acquisition of Greek maps to indicate an invasion through the
Balkans.
Operation Barclay created a sham army in the eastern
Mediterranean: the
Twelfth Army consisting of 12 fictitious divisions.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
suspected that the Allies would invade Europe through the Balkans, and ''Barclay'' served to reinforce this.
As part of Barclay the British also launched
Operation Mincemeat, where faked documents were planted via Spain, and
Operation Waterfall, in which a decoy invasion force was assembled in
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...
. To reinforce the impression that an Allied invasion was imminent the
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...
(SOE), in co-operation with the Greek
andartes, mounted
Operation Animals
Operation Animals was a World War II mission by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), in cooperation with the Greek Resistance groups ELAS, Zeus, EDES, PAO and the United States Army Air Force. The operation took place between 21 Jun ...
, a series of attacks on rail and road networks.
The deception was successful. The
German High Command concluded there was a greater concentration of Allied forces in the eastern Mediterranean than was the case and held to this assessment, making subsequent deceptions more credible. German forces in the Balkans were reinforced from 8 to 18 divisions, and the
Italian fleet was diverted into the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to the ...
. The Allied invasion of Sicily thus achieved total surprise.
The greatly increased number of German occupying forces in Greece resulted in negative consequences for the
Greek Resistance. Wide-ranging
counterguerrilla
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...
operations were carried out, culminating in mass reprisals such as the
Massacre of Kalavryta
The Kalavryta massacre ( el, Σφαγή των Καλαβρύτων), or the Holocaust of Kalavryta (), was the near-extermination of the male population and the total destruction of the town of Kalavryta, Axis-occupied Greece, by the 117th ...
and the
Distomo massacre
The Distomo massacre ( el, Σφαγή του Διστόμου; german: Massaker von Distomo or ''Distomo-Massaker'') was a Nazi war crime perpetrated by members of the Waffen-SS in the village of Distomo, Greece, in 1944, during the German occu ...
.
References
Further reading
*
Jon Latimer, ''Deception in War'', London: John Murray, 2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barclay, Operation
Operation Mincemeat
World War II deception operations
Allied invasion of Sicily
Code names
July 1943 events