First U.S. Army Group
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - First U.S. Army Group
OR:
First U.S. Army Group on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

First United States Army Group (often abbreviated FUSAG) was a fictitious (paper command) Allied
Army Group An army group is a military organization consisting of several field army, field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organizatio ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
prior to
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, part of Operation Quicksilver, created to
deceive Deception is the act of convincing of one or many recipients of untrue information. The person creating the deception knows it to be false while the receiver of the information does not. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Tort of ...
the
Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
about where the Allies would land in France. To attract
Axis An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics *A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular: ** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system *** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...
attention, prominent US general George S. Patton was placed in command of the fabricated formation.


History

First U.S. Army Group was activated in London in 1943 as the planning formation for the Allied invasion of France under General
Omar Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (12 February 1893 – 8 April 1981) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He wa ...
. When Twelfth United States Army Group was activated on 1 August 1944, Bradley and his staff transferred to the headquarters of the new army group. Despite a lack of personnel, FUSAG continued to exist on paper as part of the deception of Operation Quicksilver. In order to make the German forces believe the Allied invasion would come at
Pas de Calais The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait, historically known as the Dover Narrows, is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, and separating Great Britain from continental ...
, the phantom force was stationed at
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
, directly across the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
from the site. To further attract the Axis commanders' attention, General
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
placed George S. Patton in command of the phantom force and increased the formation's apparent size to be larger than the British-led 21st Army Group under
Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the ...
. Patton was considered by the Germans to be a formidable offensive commander; he was temporarily unemployed as punishment for slapping a battle-fatigued soldier in Sicily. The deception worked so well that significant German forces remained in the Pas de Calais region for seven weeks after the real invasion at
Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
to defend against what they thought would be the true invasion force. Agents infiltrated by Germany into the United Kingdom who became double agents acting for Britain in the Double Cross System—notably
Juan Pujol García Juan Pujol García (; 14 February 1912 – 10 October 1988), also known as Joan Pujol i García (), was a Spanish spy who acted as a double agent loyal to Great Britain against Nazi Germany during World War II, when he relocated to Britain t ...
(Garbo)—played a vital role in persuading the Germans that FUSAG was real. After it had become clear that Normandy, not Calais, was the invasion site, to preserve the credibility of the Double Cross network's agents in spite of the totally false information they had persuaded the Germans to believe, the Germans were persuaded that FUSAG had been real, but had been disbanded and attached to the forces at Normandy because the Normandy "diversion" had been so successful that the Calais landing had become unnecessary.


Subordinate units

What follows is the order of battle for the First United States Army Group at one point during
Operation Fortitude Operation Fortitude was a military deception operation by the Allied nations as part of Operation Bodyguard, an overall deception strategy during the buildup to the 1944 Normandy landings. Fortitude was divided into two subplans, North and So ...
. The various formations changed as the operation continued in order to mislead Axis intelligence. * First United States Army Group ** British Fourth Army; fictitious (was real in WWI) – Edinburgh *** British 2nd Airborne Division; fictitious – Bulford *** British VII Corps; notional – Dundee ****
55th Infantry Division (United States) The US 55th Infantry Division was a 'phantom division' created in October 1943 to cover the departure of the 5th Infantry Division (United States), US 5th Infantry Division from Iceland. An entirely notional force, its existence was reported to ...
; fictitious – Iceland **** 80th Division; fictitious – southern England **** 7th, 9th, and 10th US Ranger Battalions; fictitious – IcelandThaddeus Holt. ''The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War''. Phoenix. 2005. *** British II Corps; notional – Stirling **** 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division; notional — Three Bridges **** 58th Infantry Division; fictitious — Gravesend **** 35th Armoured Brigade; notional — Maresfield ** US 14th Army; fictitious — Little Waltham *** 9th Airborne Division; fictitious — Leicester *** 21st Airborne Division; fictitious — Fulbeck *** XXXIII Corps; fictitious — HQ Bury St Edmunds **** 11th Infantry Division; fictitious — Bury St Edmunds **** 48th Infantry Division; fictitious — Woodbridge **** 25th Armored Division; fictitious — East Dereham *** XXXVII Corps; fictitious — HQ Chelmsford **** 17th Infantry Division; fictitious — Hatfield & Peverel **** 59th Infantry Division; fictitious — Ipswich ** Ninth United States Army; fictitious until 15 April 1944, when the name was taken by a newrealUS field army, which deployed to battle September 1944


See also

*
Operation Fortitude Operation Fortitude was a military deception operation by the Allied nations as part of Operation Bodyguard, an overall deception strategy during the buildup to the 1944 Normandy landings. Fortitude was divided into two subplans, North and So ...
*
Operation Bodyguard Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II military deception, deception strategy employed by the Allies of World War II, Allied states before the 1944 invasion of northwest Europe. Bodyguard set out an overall stratagem for mislea ...


References


Further reading

* Jon Latimer, ''Deception in War'', London: John Murray, 2001


External links


GlobalSecurity: First US Army Group

Omar Nelson Bradley, Lt. General FUSAG 12TH AG
– Omar Bradley's D-Day June 6, 1944 Maps restored, preserved and displayed at Historical Registry {{Allied Military Deception in World War II Operation Quicksilver (deception plan) formations 01