ABSTRACT
The Purposes of the battlefield it is desirable for the wily commander to fool all of his opponents,. Most accepted ILLUSIONS are intended to be temporary, giving a advantage of time and usually containing an element of surprise. Few military illusions are intended to be long-lived or permanent. The deception planners had to role-play the enemy, trying to visualize and anticipate the types of ILLUSIONS he could accept that would be consistent with the desired STRATAGEMS. Each ILLUSION needed one or more appropriate RUSES that the enemy could "verify." Thus the enemy should accept the ILLUSION that a large, mobile combat force existed in the Middle East, supporting the STRATAGEM that the Allies intended an invasion of the Balkans, thereby diverting German strength far from the real scene of future action in northern France. In order to project this ILLUSION, the Army Group Mure Ruse was devised.
