Rare THE GHOST ARMY; CONNING the THIRD REICH by Souter [Paperback] GERRY AND JANET SOUTER

by Gerry Souter

This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection

Genres: Nonfiction, History

233 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe The Ghost Army as a must-read for those into history, world war II curio, military tactics and general non-fiction as it is such a fascinating account of a truly inspired and highly successful attempt to mislead the Hitler, Germany and the Axis Powers to gain military advantage. This book breaks down the several bold strategies that were utilised in order to trick the Nazis, and let's face it, in the heat of battle everyone needs as much working for them as possible. It comes across as thorough in its breadth and depth as well as meticulously researched and compiled and the attention to detail and nuances didn't escape my notice.

With General George S. Patton at the helm, we journey through the remarkable and astonishing adventures of a wholly unique concept; a band of ragtag brothers in arms who were instructed to carry out an original clandestine operation never seen on this scale before. This group worked stealthily towards the ultimate con which would be widely recognised as being one of the single most important activities in WWII which would allow D-Day to unfold as it did, signifying the Allied victory. It's only now retrospectively that we are able to explore fully the crucial role The Ghost Army played in the defeat of German forces. Many thanks to Arcturus Publishing for an ARC.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe The Ghost Army as a must-read for those into history, world war II curio, military tactics and general non-fiction as it is such a fascinating account of a truly inspired and highly successful attempt to mislead Hitler, Germany and the Axis Powers to gain military advantage. This book breaks down the several bold strategies that were utilised in order to trick the Nazis, and let's face it, in the heat of battle everyone needs as much working for them as possible. It comes across as thorough in its breadth and depth as well as meticulously researched and compiled and the attention to detail and nuances didn't escape my notice.

With General George S. Patton at the helm, we journey through the remarkable and astonishing adventures of a wholly unique concept; a band of ragtag brothers in arms who were instructed to carry out an original clandestine operation never seen on this scale before. This group worked stealthily towards the ultimate con which would be widely recognised as being one of the single most important activities in WWII which would allow D-Day to unfold as it did, signifying the Allied victory. It's only now retrospectively that we are able to explore fully the crucial role The Ghost Army played in the defeat of German forces. Many thanks to Arcturus Publishing for an ARC.

[Cynthia Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ghost Army: Conning the Third Reich by Gerry and Janet Souter. This book is an excellent account of the secret unit formed to create military illusions aimed at tricking Hitler’s armies, giving the WWII allies strategic advantages that led to Germany’s defeat. But after the war was over, the efforts of this group disappeared from the public eye and became ironically lost in a hidden file like the very name it was given, ‘The Ghost Army.’ This book is an excellent account of all the players, work, collaborations, and strategies required to produce and stage the theatrics that helped win the war. It's well-written with wonderful photos to support the content of this amazing story. I moved through the history at a comfortable pace. I highly recommend it!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject matter is very interesting, and the authors clearly put great effort into researching the facts and details. However, the presentation lacked the flow of storytelling. Without a continuous thread to hold on to, I got lost in the names, places, battles, and operations that were described in an order that did not correlate to either time or space.
I am not a student of WWII history, so those who are might have more success with this book than I did.

[Peter Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing that struck me with this audiobook was the cover, an old photograph of four soldiers holding up a tank, not in the highway robber sense, but physically holding it in the air! This is clearly impossible and the subtitle/strapline of ‘conning the Third Reich’ gives a big clue, it is not a real tank but an inflatable one. If that doesn’t pique the reader’s interest, I’m not sure what will, and you certainly don’t need to be a student of military history to be fascinated by this book. It is one of those true-life stories that seem to be impossible but merely showcase the ingenuity of man.
The first part of this book covers the work done by the British in deception some detail, but then it goes on to cover how deception was used by the US Army, particularly First US Army Group (the so-called 'Ghost Army') and the 23rd Camouflage Engineers.

Battlefield deception was nothing new, but during World War II it was taken to new heights. This initially was born out of necessity, the Allies (at this time UK, Commonwealth and European) were woefully prepared for war. They were well behind the Germans in the rearmament phase and lost a great deal of artillery, vehicles and equipment during early skirmishes. To win the war they needed to stay in it until they amassed superior power in fighting men and armament. The more they could confuse and delay the enemy the better. From this came superior knowledge and skills in camouflage, the ability to trick the enemy to see what you wanted the to see and the use of mock ups as well as making tanks look like lorries and lorries look like tanks, as the need arises. All perfectly described and in some detail.

Once the US joined the war (after the attack on Pearl Harbour) they were impressed to see what had been achieved by the Allies at short notice and with limited resources and naturally they were keen to do it bigger and better. They had greater resources and the skills of Hollywood to draw from, turning it from the illusionist’s work of ‘smoke and mirrors’ to a big budget extravaganza of sights and sounds. It is here that the book excels.

The tricks they managed to pull off and how they did it are best left to the detail in the book, but some of the human aspects are particularly interesting. The authors have clearly researched well and made use of documents that have remained classified for over fifty years. They have also managed to interview some of the veterans of the ‘Ghost Army’ and their recollections bring a real personal touch. A timely action because there are few of these men still alive. My abiding observation is that these veterans didn’t believe that they were doing anything extraordinary at the time, when many were, remaining modest and humble even when given their voice.

War is tough mentally and physically and not everyone is frontline soldier material. The more practical intellectuals and scientists could work in signals or intelligence services, but what of all those men who work in the arts. Well, this book shows how they played an important role in the conflict by using their specific skills and talent, demonstrating their adaptability and ingenuity. Artists and painters became experts in camouflage, perfecting the art of hiding in plain sight. Set and prop builders created virtual weaponry (including inflatable tanks) that could be moved around battlefronts to sow confusion. Even sound recordists and engineers got in on the action. They recorded the sounds of artillery, the movement of vehicles and tanks, which were broadcast over specially built speakers which in combination with smoke cover to cause terror and confusion.
Even actors who weren’t making films to support the war effort got in on the ‘action’ in Europe.

Some thespians were instructed to fool locals in the bars with misinformation, whilst others were role playing soldiers, some starting the day as a private but somehow ending the day as Majors! It clearly worked as it confused men on both sides of the conflict and must have provided some levity in very dark times.

Overall work of the First US Army Group was so successful that captured German battle maps showed the fictional army stationed just where they were intended.

The narration is well judged, steady with just the right amount of gravitas, allowing the incredible story to speak for itself.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ghost Army performed many feats of distraction, daring, and devilry, again and again diverting the attention of the German military from actual battle plans toward reacting to lies and trying to destroy immense rubber decoys. The book implied there were as many large contingents of stronger soldiers involved in faking it as there were on the battlefield and in the air defeating the other side’s combatants.The work of transporting and assembling and later breaking down an and moving was back breaking and exhausting, and was sad that the Ghost Army never had public recognition of their excellence and importance.

My specific complaints about the book:
1) The plethora of unfamiliar regional and village names coupled with soldiers’ units named with numbers and titles as long as five words of jargon made reading more than a few pages at a sitting virtually impossible to actually understand who was where and what they were doing. Even looking them up brought little clarity. That’s the military in all its complexity and specializations, I guess, but while I grasped what the ghosts were doing and extrapolated their actions’ impacts at a high level, I very seldom really understood what they accomplished even though it was “good”. Again and again I wondered what would have been consequences had the Ghost army not been involved.
2) There were no females, military or civilian, engaged in ghost work of any kind. It seems impossible to me but background on why not would have helped.
3) Although I gleaned their work was critical in bringing in British and American wins over the Axis, I still have only the faintest notion of how that happened.

A shorter book with more analogies and in depth descriptions about why the fakes worked, how the German soldiers felt and thought about being brought low by trickery, how the ghost soldiers felt and thought about their training, their work transporting and building and later deconstructing fake tools of war, only to do it over again and again. For me more stories with more details and more emotions and personal reflections would have made this book more appealing and useful.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic non-fiction book on the illusions, magicians and clever tactics used and deployed during the war!

I’ve always been intrigued and interested in this area after hearing about Jasper Masqueline and his ‘Magic Gang’. The clever misdirections, the use of illusion and magic in deceiving the enemy, the inventive use of resources and how it all changed the turn of the war, it makes for very interesting reading.

This book was informative and read well. Flowed effortless and was easy to listen to in its audiobook form (narrated well too which added to its ease of listening!).

It’s one that could be read or listened to again and again as there’s always extra information to glean and learn from a second time round. I think if you find military history, history or wartime snapshots into the past, it’s one for you. And even if it isn’t, it’s super interesting even if you’ve never ventured into this topic before.

Thank you to the author and publisher for this audiobook on NetGalley in return for my honest thoughts and review.

[John Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Authors Gerry and Janet Souter (http://www.avril1.com) published the book “The Ghost Army: Conning the Third Reich” in 2019. They have published more than 50 books on a variety of topics.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this book as ‘G’. The book tells the stories of British and American forces going to unusual lengths to fool the Nazis. The first part of the book looks at efforts by the British in North Africa. The remainder looks at the US 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. Each of their assignments is described in detail.

I enjoyed the 6.5 hours I spent reading this 226-page WWII history. I have read other accounts of these units and always find them fascinating. I do like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4 out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

[Simon Clayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting insight into the deceptive talents of the Allied forces. I leant quite a lot about the techniques involved and the depth to which secrecy had to be maintained

It was to be expected that the stories would become a little repetitive, as the techniques deployed were limited in number. Nonetheless it's worth a read

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting aspect of war that is often over looked, deception. This covers major deception operations and how they were achieved using mixture of tricks and tactics to either fool the enemy into staying put or move reinforcements in the opposite direction.

[RH Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written. Lots of detail, with a few photographs thrown in. A few bits of humor, make it a good read. Operations are capitalized, which makes it suitable for research later on.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting! I knew nothing about all these interesting schemes to fool the Nazis!

[Sarah A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chapter 8 was interesting. The rest is dry and disjointed.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerry and Janet Souter bring the story of the Ghost Army to life in this fascinating book. Their extensive research and stellar story telling skills make this book a must read for anyone interested in military history, tactics and especially WWII. I so appreciated the background they provided in other distract and deflect actions in fooling the Nazis. I have seen a documentary regarding the Ghost Army, and read other mentions, but The Souters' provided more insight and revelations than anything else I've seen or read. I would love to see a film based on this book, but at the very least it would make a superb book discussion selection.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.