Ghost Unit

The battlefield of World War II had such a secret unit, the soldiers of this unit are singers, illustrators, and sound engineers. They used their acting skills and creativity to keep the German army "frightened" again and again, their most effective weapon was art, and their job was - fooling Hitler.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, France, to open a second front. A few days later, two Frenchmen on bicycles crossed the cordon of the 23rd Special Forces of the U.S. Army Command and were deeply shaken by the scene before them: they saw four American soldiers lifting a Sherman tank weighing about 40 tons. One of the American soldiers, Arthur Hillsdon, said, "The Frenchman was somewhat dazed and waiting for our word, and I informed him that 'the U.S. Army is strong."

The soldiers of this particular unit had no superhuman military prowess other than a full-blown patriotic zeal - their tanks were inflatable. Known as the "Ghost Unit," the soldiers were artists, including singers, illustrators, radio announcers, and sound engineers, who enlisted in January 1944 from art schools in New York and Philadelphia with the mission of fooling the Germans. They did this by setting up inflatable tanks, using 500-pound loudspeakers to broadcast the sound of army rallies, and some fake radio messages. Jack Massey was 18 years old when he was recruited into the Ghost Unit, and when told they would be using inflatables to disguise themselves as a team to fool the Germans, Jack thought, "I've joined a rubber army.

From the time they entered combat in early 1944 until the end of World War II, they performed a total of 20 "cover-ups," saving the lives of some 15,000 to 30,000 American soldiers. They never revealed their "true colors," even to the other soldiers in the war.

After 40 years of secrecy, the story of this "ghost unit" first appeared in the press in 1985, when the painter Hillston revealed his own military experience. strange experiences in the war.

Rick Bell, the director of the documentary, was also surprised when he first heard the story, "When you first hear it people think you've misunderstood it, that it probably happened just once." This is also how many people feel. Once, when Rick Bell reported the story of the "ghost unit" to a senior citizen, an audience member raised questions. The elderly man was a veteran who had fought in General Patton's 3rd Army overall. During Rick Bell's prepared remarks, he pointed out that Bell's story was pure nonsense because he had never heard of any "ghost unit. But after Bell patiently showed the audience various pictures, the old man finally came up to him and said, "That's the most amazing story I've ever heard!"

Bell said, "This story shows that although it's almost 70 years since the end of World War II, there are still many amazing and even fantastical stories waiting to be discovered."

Deception and disguise have always been part of the history of human warfare, and the Trojan Horse is perhaps the most well-known example of this. Ghostly troops carry this spirit of disguise to the extreme. They used a variety of skills to perform a "tour de force" of sound and light, "acting" on the battlefield, designing sounds, and creating sets. Moreover, after the first day's performance, they packed up all the props for the next day and rushed to another location to put on the same show. To compensate for weaknesses in the Allied lines, the unit was able to use inflatable tanks and create the illusion of a large troop buildup with a large sound reinforcement with a 15-mile range, along with some fake wireless intelligence, making this battlefield "hoaxes" a success.

From the Normandy landings to the Ardennes War, this ghostly force performed several realistic "military shows. Their most successful performance took place shortly before the end of World War II. The Germans had already retreated to the country, resisting the Rhine River. The 9th U.S. Army as a whole prepared to cross the Rhine River and fight deep into Germany. The duty of the 23rd was to draw the attention of the Germans and gather their defensive forces. With only 1,100 soldiers, the XXIII Corps needed to disguise itself as the 30th and 79th Divisions, which had a combined strength of approximately 30,000 men.

The 23rd mixed real and inflatable tanks along the way, creating the illusion of a large army to confuse the enemy. The fake reconnaissance planes they created even fooled their men: some American pilots tried to park their planes next to these fake planes. Their realistic performance helped the Allied advance guard cross the Rhine without incident, narrowly missing German resistance. The Germans gave up the Rhine bridgehead, and the "ghost troops" were praised for this.

Because the army had to act in secret, they often disguised themselves as other troops. When on leave in town, their tanks were painted with false numbers and probably sewn with false insignia to avoid spying by secret agents.

The obligatory secrecy kept them separate from the rest of the troops, which provides a very unusual perspective on the war. On the march, they discovered a bomb-damaged church in the small town of Treville in northern France, and some of these artists stopped trying to paint the structure. In Paris and Luxembourg, the art soldiers recorded with their brushes what they saw: attractive women passing by on bicycles, skylines made of roofs, and picturesque street scenes. Bell collected more than five hundred of these sketches during the eight years he ran for the documentary, and the paintings will accompany the documentary on display at the Edward Hopper Center for the Arts in New York.

"When one speaks of war," says Bell, "one probably thinks of the bloodied soldiers on the front lines and the generals in command. The experience that war brings to ordinary people never seems to be neglected."

"Whether it's painting a bombed-out church, or having a depressing Christmas after the Ardennes, or comforting Polish orphans in a refugee camp in Verdun, these are all part of that war. I want to tell these humane stories of the war."

In July 1945, the Ghost Unit returned home. After the Japanese surrendered, the unit also ended its mission on Sept. 15, 1945, and was disbanded in place.

Many of the men in this particular unit went on to pursue careers in the arts, including painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly and fashion designer Bill Blass. They were not allowed to tell their wives, families, and friends about their experiences in World War II until classified documents were declassified, and the official history of World War II contains no statement about the unit. Bell says there is still much hidden here waiting to be discovered.

With this documentary, Bell wants to correct some American perceptions: Americans have always been fascinated by the "elegance" of British troops in playing their opponents in World War II, while American troops seem to have been courageous and unthinking, with only artillery and machine guns going up: "The history of the Phantom Menace informs us that U.S. camouflage forces are also very creative and imaginative."

General Wesley Clark, a retired NATO commander, agrees strongly with the documentary, saying, "At the heart of winning in war is the intention to defeat the enemy." And the ghostly forces with their imagination and creativity are the masters of this.