Veterans Day calls on us to remember all those who have served our country in the armed services. For those with family who have served, the call is personal.
Growing up in the 1950s, I knew my father had served in World War II, but by the strange clock of childhood, his time in the Army seemed long ago. Yet there were reminders in the garage closet — uniforms, a metal helmet, a bayonet my brothers and I lost while cutting sod in the backyard, and a strange machine that looked like a tape recorder but had wire where the tape should have been.
The story of that strange machine has only recently been allowed to be told. You see, my father served in the so-called Ghost Army, a top-secret tactical deception unit that helped lead to Allied victory in Europe. An exhibition currently at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie — “Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of WWII” — tells the mobile unit’s story.
Officially known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, this unit consisted of a carefully selected group of artists, engineers, professional soldiers and draftees. The first of its kind in Army history, its members used inflatable tanks and planes, fake radio traffic, sound effects and phony generals to trick the enemy. The sound effects are where that strange machine in our garage comes in.
My dad, Robert Hiller, served in the 23rd’s sonic deception unit known as the 3132nd Signal Service Company Special. This unit traveled through Europe with a library of sound effects recorded at Fort Knox in Kentucky; those strange spools of steel wire contained the recordings, as magnetic tape recording had not been invented yet. The unit used the recordings to simulate the sounds of men and tanks moving into position from up to 6,000 yards away. It played them on 500-pound speakers mounted on halftracks and pointed toward nearby German lines.
The idea was to make the Germans think they were facing much larger Allied forces than they were — the unit could simulate up to two whole divisions, some 30,000 troops, when in reality, it was made up of 82 officers and 1,023 men. This let the real divisions move elsewhere along enemy lines undetected.
The story of the Ghost Army was classified for more than 50 years. Military historians now credit the unit with saving thousands of lives and playing an important role in liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny. In recognition of this, the unit was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal last February.
The exhibition at the Holocaust Museum details the 22 large-scale deceptions the Ghost Army carried out from Normandy to the Rhine River between D-Day and the end of the war. It has some striking artifacts, including inflatables, photographs, artwork created by members of the unit during the war and memorabilia.
Some artifacts belonging to my father are on display, including his cap, a photograph of my parents at Pine Camp, New York, in 1944, and the journal he kept while training with the 3132nd. After he was deployed, my mother used the journal to save the letters, photographs and victory mail he sent to her in the U.S.
Above all, the Ghost Army serves as a reminder of how many stories of service and sacrifice our country holds. Many like this one are not well known, but all give reason to be grateful to those who have served over the years.
Veterans Day provides us with an opportunity to not just honor but to learn.
David Hiller is the retired president and CEO of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Before that, Hiller was publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.
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