The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - Dennis Wheatley in World War II: a supplement

‘Operation Bodyguard’ – like ‘Operation Torch’, a complex array of deceptions

DW’s account of the Norway ruse
(part of ‘Operation Graffham’)

Click on the image to enlarge

While there were Deception Plans to do with timing such as ‘Monty’s Double’ (on which see later) and with exactly where the main thrust of the Allied attack on France would be (on which also see later), many of the Deception Plans were designed to deceive the Germans as to exactly where in the wider sphere they might be attacked, and even after the D-Day landings took place, there were Deception Plans which were designed to stop the Germans from sending reinforcements to the Normandy area post the landings.

One of the plans to achieve this involved the persuasion of the Germans that there was to be an attack in force on Norway.

As part of the plan, the former Air Attaché to Sweden, by then a senior figure in Bomber command, was sent to see the Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Air Force, and to broach with him the suggestion that if the Allies invaded Norway, without actually engaging with the Germans and damaging their own neutrality, Swedish forces might enter Norway as a police force to protect the well-being of the inhabitants.

Although the Swedish Commander in Chief was pro-British, the London Controlling Section fully expected the conversation to be leaked; but it was leaked in a fashion they could hardly have imagined. As told by DW, the Swedish Chief of Police was a Nazi sympathiser and he had the Commander in Chief’s room bugged. Accordingly, as DW learned from de-briefs after the war, Hitler was personally briefed about the conversation within three hours of its having taken place, and as a result sent a further two divisions (30,000 men) to Norway as reinforcements, thus drawing them away from Normandy, where the Allied invasion was really planned.

Another scheme which was put to DW and which he investigated, but I am not sure to what extent it was ever put into effect, involved the pipeline that was laid under the English Channel to supply the Allies with petrol when they reached France, which was codenamed ‘Operation Pluto’. While the main pipeline ran from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg, a pipeline had also been laid for future use from Dungeness to the Pas de Calais. DW enquired whether it would adversely affect security if an enormous fire was arranged at either the Dungess site or somewhere else along the adjacent coast which the enemy would either see themselves, or have reported to them by double agents, so as to reinforce the impression that the main offensive was to be against the Pas de Calais area.

These were but two of the many ruses dreamed up to deceive the enemy, a few more of which are mentioned in the coming pages, all of which were assessed – and if deemed practicable, implemented - under the auspices of the L.C.S.

As will be seen later, other ruses included the creation of Patton’s ‘phantom army’, and a Russian attack on Finland.