What is pictured above? Is it:
a) A Tank Graveyard
b) A British WW2 Command Post
c) A WW2 Tank Attack On The Strongest House Ever Built
Now, if you chose any of the above you just got invaded, but don’t worry the same thing happened to the Germans. Pictured above is actually a fake camp set up by the allies during WW2, and those tanks are really just piles of rubber, wood, and canvas. All of it is just one part of the largest deception of the Second World War.
Leading up to 1944’s D-Day Landing the Germans anticipated the Allies would eventually try to take back France. But when, and where? This was the only edge the allies had, but it proved to be vital in the success of the D-Day attack and eventually the war. The seemingly obvious thing for the allies to do was attack Pas de Calais as it was the closest to the British Coast, so the Allies decided to let the Germans believe that was what was going to happen, when in actuality the plan was to attack Normandy, one hundred and sixty Kilometres South West.
The allies knew the only way for this to work would be to truly convince the Germans that the battle would take place at Pas De Calais. This birthed the elaborate plan named Operation Fortitude. The plan was to create a ghost army that was just as convincing as a real one to distract the Germans while real preparations were made 100 miles down the beach.
So as to not use too many actual resources, set directors, construction workers, and even actors were flown in from allied countries to become part of this ghost army. They were to not only build the dummy camps but act as the soldiers residing there.
Pictured here is a real tank placed next to an inflatable tank
There is a story that a French man and his son wandered close to the camp one day and saw the camp. They returned to their town telling stories of how strong the American and Canadian troops were.
This tank might be remarkably similar to a real one, but you’d think the plywood aircraft below wouldn’t be able to fool any German Reconaissance soldier. 
Despite being made of flimsy wood, and being the wrong dimensions in many places, something like this still worked. This is because the Germans already “knew” what they were looking at since they were in a sense seeing what they expected. It’s like if I say hey look at this picture of a two headed dog
If you anticipate what you are going to see it is more likely that is what you are going to think you see (btw it’s two dogs, one behind the other).
The allies needed a convincing dummy invasion fleet if they were to fool the Germans, this made it one of the most intensive efforts of the operation. The dummies themselves, code-named Bigbobs, were made of canvas stretched over a steel frame, floating on 45-gallon oil drums.
The kit of one Bigbob had more than five hundred parts, filled six or seven three-ton trucks, and took twenty men six hours to assemble. When complete, each one weighed eight tons and looked convincingly like a real landing craft as you can see
The deception goes even deeper than that. To make sure German aircraft had a chance to spot the camp the anti aircraft gunners on the beach had to shoot close enough for it to seem real without actually hitting their target.
This leads to the non visual part of the operation. In what was called a “closed loop,” double agents leaked false information to the enemy. Thanks to the British code-breakers working at Bletchley Park, in northwest of London, the Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the British government deciphered radio traffic that showed the Germans were buying into the deception. Proving that the closed loop was successful. In addition to the closed loop other methods were also used. Fake radio transmissions were sent out, and every time the allies flew over Normandy they would fly over Calais twice.
On the day of the attack further tricks were carried out. Rubber paratroopers were dropped over Calais
and tinfoil was dropped by planes to confuse the German Radars.
Meanwhile, the part everyone knows about is taking place. The largest battle of World War Two. While the Germans were expecting an attack at Pas De Calais, the allies stormed the beaches of Normandy. 175,000 men were landed on the first day, a number that swelled to 325,000 in the first week and eventually to 2.5 million. They 
were delivered by 5,300 ships and supported by 50,000 vehicles and 11,000 planes. Never before or since have so many weapons of war been together in one place. Thanks to the success of Operation Fortitude the Allies took back France.
But Operation Fortitude didn’t stop there, long after D-Day the allies continued to keep the Germans guessing using their ghost army. The actors brought in were placed near the front lines and acted like a allied command post that the Germans wouldn’t dare attack.
This has put the war in a new perspective for me as I have realized most of the battle really took place at Bletchley Park, where the greatest minds of the time turned WW2 into a battle of strategy and deception. Thanks to them and the brave soldiers on both the front lines and the false lines the war shifted in the direction of the allies at the eleventh hour.