During

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 ...

, Operation Pastel was the U.S.

deception 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 ...

plan scheduled to protect

Operation Olympic Operation Downfall was the proposed Allies of World War II, Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese archipelago, Japanese home islands near the End of World War II in Asia, end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Su ...

, the planned invasion of southern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Pastel would have falsely portrayed a threat of an

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

n-led invasion against ports in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

via attacks on

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...

. One of the notional military formations that was designated for use in the deception was the fictitious XXXV Airborne Corps. The Corps formed part of Operation Pastel Two, the deception plan for Operation Olympic. The final version of Operation Pastel incorporated notional airborne landings, using dummy parachutists similar to those used on

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 ...

, in the interior of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

the day before the actual landings were to take place. The two-division fictional

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

that was to carry out the landings was designated XXXV Airborne Corps. Under Operation Pastel, the first elements of the XXXV Airborne Corps, quartering parties of the notional 18th Airborne Division, were depicted as reaching

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

on August 15, 1945. Following this, glider pilots would reach Okinawa around August 20, 1945, followed by the troops of the real 11th (in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

) and notional 18th Airborne Divisions, starting to arrive in Okinawa on September 1, 1945. On the same day, the notional corps headquarters would have been activated.

References

Sources

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External links

* World War II deception operations Cancelled military operations involving the United States Japan campaign Cancelled invasions Cancelled military operations of World War II {{US-mil-operation-stub