Operation+Bodyguard

Operation Bodyguard was the code name for a World War II deception plan employed by the Allied states before the 1944 invasion of north-west Europe. The plan was intended to mislead the German high command as to the time and place of the invasion. The plan was used to delay the German soldiers in showing up to the Normandy beaches during the infamous D-Day.

From January 1942 until the end of the war in 1945, coded messages were secretly transmitted by FBI agents and radio technicians that were working undercover. The Nazis had spies operating in New York and they thought that the messages were coming from them. The Nazis were led to believe their spies were actually receiving significant details about U.S. forces and their war preparations. However, the transmissions were being controlled by the FBI. The Nazi spies were actually FBI double agents. The Bureau’s work was central to our counterintelligence operations throughout the war. The Allied effort got its name from a statement by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies”. The long preparation for the June 6, 1944 landing of 160,000 Allied troops in Normandy, France was the main reason for telling lies and half-truths that misled Adolf Hitler's intelligence services. Operatives set out to deceive the Nazi leader about the nature and location of the main Allied invasion into Normandy. This would keep the Germans from being prepared to meet the invasion. The key to Bodyguard’s success was the Allies’ control of a number of German spies and ability to read coded German messages that confirmed the Nazis didn’t know their agents were compromised. Learning about Nazi espionage, who was involved, and how they worked was the initial reasoning for the FBI participating in this effort. Even after the fall of Germany in 1945, Nazi intelligence officials believed that the hundreds of messages sent by their one double agent’s transmission indicated the spies in the U.S. were real. The FBI’s efforts to contribute to the Allied “bodyguard of lies” were among the many Bureau intelligence efforts during the war and were surely some of our most significant.

This was important because it fooled the Germans and Hitler and was a vital part of winning the war. Operation Bodyguard is regarded as a tactical success, delaying the Fifteenth Army in the Pas de Calais for seven weeks thus allowing the Allies to build a beachhead and ultimately win the Battle of Normandy.