How the Ghost Army Hoodwinked Hitler by Rebecca Siegel, due for release from Peachtree Publishing in November, offers new insight into America’s “Ghost Army”, the Combat Con Artists of World War Two.
Utilising first person interviews, the book offers a new take on unbelievable but true story of the American soldiers who used inflatable tanks and fake radio broadcasts as weapons during the last year of the global conflict.
The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the “Ghost Army,” was the first mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit in US Army history. Consisting of an authorised strength of 82 officers and 1023 men under the command of Army veteran Colonel Harry L. Reeder, this unique and top-secret unit was capable of simulating two whole divisions – approximately 30,000 men – and used visual, sonic, and radio deception to fool German forces during World War Two’s final year.
The Smithsonian (the first media outlet to reveal the existence of The Ghost Army in 1985) notes the unit was inspired by the British troops who fought the Germans in North Africa led by Erwin Rommel, in Autumn 1942. To trick the Germans, the British disguised tanks, weapons and supplies as trucks, masking the army’s progress and convincing the enemy that the attack would come from the south, not the north, two or three days later than actually planned.
The small, unarmed American army unit was deployed to Nazi-occupied France in 1944. Instead of artillery, this unit – today the focus of The Ghost Army Legacy Project – fought with stagecraft, artistry, and deception. Their “weapons” included inflatable rubber tanks and giant speakers broadcasting fake military manoeuvres.
The soldiers called themselves the Ghost Army. Many of them had creative backgrounds in fashion, theatre, and music, and they used their talents to trick and confuse the enemy. Members included biographical cartoonist Walter Wendell Arnett, who worked for the Courier-Journal when he returned to Louisville after the war; sculptor Carl Julius Beato, one of the earliest developers of a 3D printer; and future millionaire fashion designer, William Ralph Blass.
Illustrator Arthur Shilstone, another veteran, provided art for the Smithsonian’s 1985 article on the unit, and offered firsthand testimony of his wartime experiences. But its existence wasn’t officially declassified in full until 1996.
Often, their mission was to draw enemy fire away from other soldiers and toward themselves. Their work proved highly effective. The Ghost Army successfully carried out mission after mission, saving the lives of an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 American servicemen – and undeniably helped secure Allied victory.
Rebecca Siegel, a Chicago-based author of well over 200 nonfiction books and essays for audiences ranging from early readers to adults, uses original research, declassified records and photos, and a boots on the ground narrative style to tell the incredible experiences of these heroic soldiers.
Rebecca Siegel’s previous books include To Fly Among the Stars, the hidden story of the fight women astronauts, named a 2020 Mighty Girl’s Book of the Year and was a National Science Teaching Association’s Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students. She’s also the author of the recently published Wrecked, illustrated by British artist Howard Gray, revealing the gripping stories of conflict and courage behind some of the world’s most iconic shipwrecks.
• How the Ghost Army Hoodwinked Hitler by Rebecca Siegel is published on 4th November 2025 | ISBN: 978-1682637586 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
• Rebecca Siegel is online at rebeccasiegel.org
Head downthetubes for…
• The Ghost Army Legacy Project
Not only offering online insight into the unit, it includes a searchable database of soldiers who served in the Ghost Army, which has been carefully constructed from a variety of wartime rosters, supplemented with years of painstaking research. A work in progress, the goal is to appropriately remember every soldier who served in the Ghost Army.
For the curious, you may also want to check out The Ghost Army of World War II, by Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles, republished in 2023 by Princeton Architectural Press, which also details the fascinating story of this top-secret unit.
Their book provided the inspiration for award winning The Ghost Army documentary, first broadcast on PBS America in 2013, which is available on Amazon Prime.
• Smithsonian magazine: How the Ghost Army of WWII Used Art to Deceive the Nazis
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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