Many readers who have some knowledge of WW2, and especially the D Day landings, will have a passing knowledge of the deception that was intended to make the Nazi hierarchy believe that the invasion would focus on the Pas de Calais. However, this book takes the reader through a much broader tapestry of deception and attempts to mislead the Germans using a much wider variety of methods and considerable creativity. In this regard it is a useful addition to the vast library of books on WW2.

Like many similar books that aim to focus on a narrow field its efforts to provide context means that it often strays into providing considerable detail over the military operations these deception techniques were intended to influence. This can be forgiven, however, since readers less familiar will find this valuable, whilst readers with greater familiarity can either refresh their memory or skip the relevant sections. In passing, this reviewer feels that the author may be rather too kind to Field Marshall Montgomery compared with many other accounts and has sometimes let serious errors creep into the text. General Patton, for example, did not divert his forces south in the heroic efforts to relieve the town of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, since that would have taken them further away from the fighting!

Overall, however, this book makes a valuable contribution by providing much useful additional information over the scope and techniques of these deception operations.
Recommended

This book details the leadup to D-Day and the deceptions the Allies used to deceive the Germans on the actual invasion areas, quite detailed and also give other examples the Allies did before like the invasion of Italy and the double agents used as mentioned earlier in operation mincemeat .
enjoyed this book overall especially in this the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Tales of military deception from North Africa to Normandy, involving some of WWII’s great military heroes and their speeches to armies of troops who didn’t exist, a history of secrets Taylor recounts with real excitement!
Inflatable tanks, large model fuel dumps and fake airfields, which had to be guarded like the real thing as spies were operating nearby, were all parts of a massive jigsaw puzzle of a pretend army created to trick German reconnaissance missions and delude Hitler into positioning his forces in the wrong location,
giving the allies the upper hand ahead of D Day.
The UK Film industries role in creating the fantasy forces was amazing to read about, the skills of prop masters and cameramen - few knew of their secret work!
This mammoth undertaking of deception was solidified with the role playing of mighty figures of General Paton and Field Marshal Montgomery.
Operation Fortitude was the most complex and successful deception operation in military history. Taylor knits the story together with Paton and Montgomerys front and the mystery of now infamous spies like the Spanish double agent Juan Pujol and Brutus the ex Polish Intelligence Agent working with Abwehr.
This is a fantastic book, 5 stars from me!

I received a free e-book copy of this book from Net Galley. I give this review without any influence from the author, publisher etc, as these are my views alone.

I finished this book about a week ago, but I wanted to sit back and think about it. I felt like I was being brought through a whirlwind, because the author doesn't restrict the book to D-Day. He branches out into other aspects of the war, other characters, and especially other intelligence work that the Allies were doing up to D-Day. And this, I felt, really expanded the novel to help the understanding of the reader. I never thought that the book was being bloated by what was included, as the back story is absolutely fascinating. I enjoyed having various characters brought to the forefront, especially the ones that I thought I knew. There were so many people involved that I had no clue of, and I wanted to learn more. I've taken what was listed about them here, and gone searching other books on the roles of spies during World War 1.

Just to note: I've purchased 'Agent Zigzag' by Ben MacIntyre as my first branching out.

Even the characters that were only known by code names; the way the author described their personalities. Sometimes I truly feel as though their handlers had a very good view of exactly what kind of characters they were dealing with, and named them accordingly.

And also, to entice a few readers who may not think that this book isn't for them... There was a movie studio involved in the deception. How they were involved, and what they did? I really hope I can find more about that.

The author has a great conversational style of writing. It was an easy read for me, and I have purchased the Audible version of this book because I love the narrator. And I know that Peter Noble, as always, will make listening to it even more enticing.

This book is a solid 5 Star, even before the addition of Peter Noble narrating. When I find a book that I really enjoy, I also try to buy an e-book version so that I can show my appreciation for it. The fact that I also bought the Audiobook is because I know that will probably be my preferred version to listen/read through it again.

Highly recommend.

A fascinating insight into the deception techniques utlised by the allied forces in the planning and execution of D Day. The initial part of the book does cover some familiar history, that many readers may already know, with accounts of Operation Mincemeant and some other well known WWII stories. As a result it took a little while to get to the crux of the story in the specifics around D Day, but nevertheless, it is very well written and moves along swiftly with some unexpected back stories bringing to life the personalities of many major historical figures and, in many cases, their relationships with each other.
Thank you to netgalley and Icon books for an advance copy of this book

Many readers of WWII history will have heard of the decoy plan and actions that took place to deceive the Germans as to where the invasion of France would take place. This book goes into great detail of the operation, the individuals involved, and the ingenuity employed to pull off a gigantic confidence trick that some German Generals did not believe was a hoax even at the end of the war. It was probably the last time in a conflict of the scale of WWII that such a feat could have been successful given the technology of the time and the blind thinking gullibility of the German High Command.
The complexity of the operation together with the credibility of Gen George Patton who appeared personally to front up the deception, was indeed inspirational to the extent that some of the details of the operation are still classified today. A great revealing read.