6th May 1944 – the British Fleet resume air attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz as part of Operation Fortitude North, a D Day deception to suggest the Allies were going to land in Norway. Meanwhile Operation Fortitude South pretended that there was a large American force (the fictional 1st US Army Group known as FUSAG) in South East England ready to land at the Pas de Calais – this was the fictional 1st US Army Group led by General Patton. Even when the Allies had landed in Normandy the Germans still expected an attack further east.
Fortitude was part of the D Day deception strategy known as Operation Bodyguard: “In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies” (Churchill).
The Balkans and Southern France were also suggested as Allied objectives and intelligence ruses indicated that the invasion of NW Europe would take place later than actually planned or simultaneously on a number of fronts.
Apparently British counter-intelligence operations operations had also ensured that "every Abwehr agent in Britain was in the hands of M15" (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).
*German military intelligence
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