Ghost Army, The 1x56

During World War II, a hand-picked group of American GI’s undertook a bizarre mission: create a road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the Nazi German Army as their audience. The U.S. 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable rubber tanks, sound trucks, and dazzling performance art to bluff the enemy again and again, often right along the front lines. This little-known unit’s knack for trickery was crucial to Allied success in World War II, but their top-secret mission was kept quiet for nearly 50 years after the war’s end. Using archival footage of this top-secret unit, dozens of still photographs, paintings, and sketches created by “ghost army” soldiers during the war, as well as interviews with veterans of this special unit, The Ghost Army tells their extraordinary story for the first time ever on film and demonstrates the power of creativity and of the WWII soldiers who found a unique way to employ it to save lives.

“World War II has provided an endless number of true stories…and we have perhaps grown to expect a certain rhythm in these accounts…The Ghost Army…reminds us that in a conflict as sweeping as the Second World War, not every story fits that template.” — The New York Times

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