Working days and far into the nights, Messrs Bevan and Wheatley devised a plan whereby the destination of the vast armada would be concealed - they would lead the enemy to believe that its true destination was Norway, with a simultaneous action against the Pas de Calais to prevent the Germans from reinforcing their Norwegian positions.
The plan was accepted in principle in early August. As DW put it, 'Johnny Bevan had won his spurs. And he had deserved them.'
Now that they were moving into implementation, the strength of the London Controlling Section had to be increased; first Major Harold Peteval and shortly thereafter Major Ronald Wingate (cousin of Orde Wingate) was recruited; in the end the core of LCS would comprise seven men.
False information was conveyed to the enemy in a variety of ways - via double agents, via activities in neutral countries, and by misleading all but the most senior men in the forces involved regarding their final destinations so any careless talk would re-inforce the deception plans.
It became a hugely complex task, involving changes in apparent destination of the fleet to the Azores, then as it progressed further to Malta, to the South of France, to Sicily and Greece.
At one stage at the suggestion of LCS, all the military's key deception planners, Dudley Clarke, Peter Fleming and the others gathered in London for a co-ordinating conference. DW distinguished himself by arriving late - for his account, click here
When the armada finally landed it had not lost a single ship - and the value of deception had been proved.
References : The Deception Planners pp 75-6, Chapters 7 & 8.
Drink & Ink p231
Phil Baker p 419.
Craig Cabell Chapter 23.
Tina Rosenberg Chapter 6
It is worthy of note that when DW came to cover 1942 in his novel 'Traitors' Gate' (1958), he inserted his hero Gregory Sallust into the events of the day, and had him help sell the cover plan for the final parts of the operation to the Nazis.
