First United States Army Group
| First United States Army Group | |
|---|---|
 Insignia of First United States Army Group | |
| Active | 1943–44 |
| Country |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Type | Army group |
| Role | Military diversion, phantom formation |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
|
First United States Army Group (often abbreviated FUSAG) was a fictitious (paper command)
Operation Quicksilver, created to deceive the Germans about where the Allies would land in France. To attract Axis 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
Bernard Montgomery. 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.[1]
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 to defend against what they thought would be the true invasion force.[2]
Agents infiltrated by Germany into the United Kingdom who became double agents acting for Britain in the
Double Cross System—notably Juan Pujol García
(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. 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); fictitious – Iceland
80th Division; fictitious – southern England
7th, 9th, and 10th US Ranger Battalions; fictitious – Iceland[3]
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 Edmonds
11th Infantry Division; fictitious — Bury St Edmonds- 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 new – real – US field army, which deployed to battle September 1944
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See also
References
- ^ "The Crucial Deception Page 3 - Articles & Publications - Military History Institute - Projects - Dolph Briscoe Center for American History". Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-307-88876-1.
- ISBN 0-7538-1917-1
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
