ABSTRACT
The moon glowed as the Nazi army leader crawled over the rough ground. His rifle was armed and ready. The men in his zugtrupp (platoon) followed, crawling silently behind. Just a few more yards and they would reach their target: an American battalion they had been spying on for days. The German soldiers called them the “Phantom army” or “Ghost army” because they would appear in one place, then mysteriously vanish, only to reappear to attack Germans from behind. The Nazis could not understand how the Allies could move tens of thousands of soldiers so quickly. The Ghost Army’s inflated tanks, trucks, and guns fooled the Nazis and took more than 20 rounds of enemy fire. The real 6th Armored Division was not fired on during entire move. The Ghost Army was split up and sent to do a variety of work, but most of the men were assigned the task of helping take care of the nearly 100,000 people.
