FORTITUDE North Guam; Gustav Line; Hagen Line; Hindenburg Line (China); Hitler, Adolf; Hitler Line; howitzer; Ijssel Line; Insterburg corridor; Iwo Jima; Jitna Line; Königsberg Line; Maas Line; Maginot Line; Mannerheim Line; Mareth Line; Metaxas Line; Molotov Line; Monte Cassino; Mozhaisk Line; National Redoubts; Norway; Okinawa campaign; Ostwall; Panama Canal; Panther Line; Pomeranian Wall; Quaker gun; Scheldt Estuary campaign; Siegfriedstellung; Stalin Line; Stalluponen Defensive Region; Tarawa; Vercors; Westwall; Widerstandsnest; Winter Line; Wotan Line FORTITUDE NORTH A highly successful Western Allied deception operation in 1944 It was carried out with elaborate fake SIGINT, as well as direct access to the perception and thinking of Adolf Hitler and the OKW through double agents run by the XX Committee Its premise was a sham attack on Norway by a fictitious AngloAmerican “4th Army” in Scotland, which supposedly comprised 250,000 troops in three Corps, two of them British The Red Army and Soviet intelligence cooperated by faking offensive operations into Finland and northern Norway Its effectiveness was checked by ULTRA intercepts Success sprang in part from the COCKADE plan, which left the Abwehr with a gross misreading of the size of the Western Allied order of battle in Britain from 1943 The deception appears to have helped lock down 12 Wehrmacht divisions in Norway long after the main threat to Germany in the west was firmly established in Normandy Eight divisions were still in Norway when the war ended FORTITUDE SOUTH A highly successful Western Allied deception operation in 1944 It was carried out with elaborate false SIGINT traffic, the aid of double agents, and fake units, camps, weapons, and airfields comprising “1st U.S Army Group,” or FUSAG, under General George S Patton In a two-phase operation, FORTITUDE South persuaded Adolf Hitler and the OKW that the OVERLORD landings were merely a feint and that the main landings would occur in late July at the Pas de Calais This fact was confirmed by ULTRA intercepts Hitler therefore held back German 15th Army for seven weeks, until July 25 That allowed the Western powers to build out their lodgement in Normandy, and then to break out into northern France This was the most effective of the three major BODYGUARD operations Success was built in part on an earlier Abwehr overestimation of the Western order of battle in Britain, which it assessed as 79 divisions when in fact there were only 52 in May 1944 FORTRESS EUROPE See Atlantic Wall; Festung Europa FORTRESS HOLLAND See Festung Holland FORWARD AREA See combat zone FORWARD DEFENDED LOCALITIES See main line of resistance 396