Hoodwinking Hitler: The Normandy Deception

Despite the mighty invasion force the Americans and British mustered in England in early 1944, a top Allied general warned: If the Germans have even a 48-hour advance notice of the time and place of the Normandy landings, we could suffer a monstrous catastrophe! For his part, Adolf Hitler planned to inflict such a massive bloodbath on the invaders that the Allies would agree to a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany.

Hoodwinking Hitler is an action-packed, you-are-there account about a colossal and incredibly intricate deception scheme created and implemented by ingenious and diabolical minds, machinations intended to bamboozle the Germans on true Allied invasion plans. Facets of the global chicanery included electronic spoofing, double agents, diplomatic deceit, whispering campaigns, femmes fatales, camouflage, strategic feints, the French underground, murder plots, phony military installations, misleading bombing raids, sabotage, propaganda, traps, fake codes, and kidnap schemes. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies gained total surprise, mostly because of what Winston Churchill called the greatest hoax in history. But not until two months later, when the Allies broke out of Normandy, did the deception scheme pass into history. By that time, ultimate Allied victory in Europe was assured.

Author: William Breuer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 03/24/1993
Pages: 298
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.58h x 6.44w x 1.11d
ISBN: 9780275944384

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/1993 pg. 1404
Library Journal 04/01/1993
Publishers Weekly 04/12/1993

About the Author

WILLIAM B. BREUER landed with the first assault waves in Normandy on D-Day, then fought across Europe. Later, he founded a daily newspaper on a string in Rolla, Missouri, and after that, a highly successful public relations firm in St. Louis, Missouri. He has been writing books full time since 1982, twelve of which are now out in paperback, and eight of which have become main selections of the Military Book Club.