Insane and Inspiring Enterprising Stories from History

23. This Misdirection Plan Flim-Flammed the Axis Into Defeat

The British fed the Germans misinformation via turned spies. Borrowing from stage magic, they built wood and canvass contraptions to fool German aerial reconnaissance by making concentrations of armor appear like trucks, and make transport trucks look like menacing concentrations of tanks. To misdirect the buildup of supplies and munitions, the CDTC set up fake ammunition dumps. Water was the most precious resource in the desert, and its concentration offered strong indicia of intent. So the CDTC built a 200-mile dummy water pipeline to the southern sector of the Alamein line.

The enterprising deception worked. When the Battle of El Alamein commenced on the night of October 23^rd, 1942, enemy commanders were surprised that the British Eighth Army’s main thrust came in the north, and not in the south as had been expected. As had been predicted, fuel shortages prevented the Axis from effectively redeploying troops from the southern sector to reinforce and meet the threat to the north. The battle ended in a complete British victory, and a retreat that ended six months later with the surrender of all Axis forces in North Africa.