The D-day deception operations TAXABLE and GLIMMER

The use of deception in warfare is as old as warfare itself; we have only to recall the story of the siege of Troy and the wooden horse. It is now more than 70 years since the D-day landings on 6 June 1944. Their success was, in no small measure, due to an elaborate set of deception operations at both strategic and tactical levels. As the German commander von Rundstedt reported the day before the landings The anticipated front line point of attack is still somewhere between the Scheldt [in the Netherlands] and Normandy but ‘…where within this area the enemy will attempt a landing is still problematic’, and further: ‘That the invasion is imminent does not seem to be indicated as yet.’ [1]