The Army's 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was made up of artists, musicians, actors and other creative types. Their ranks included Bill Blass, William Flemer and Elseworth Kelly (among others -- I've posted a hyperlinked list of some of them below).

They were trained to decieve the enemy and to conceal the allies' weaknesses. They learned as they worked, inventing principles of deception that are still used by the U.S. military today. They used inflatable tanks, fake artillery, camoflage, radio, pre-recorded sounds and costumes to impersonate other divisions, confuse the Germans (deceiving the Japanese was much more difficult), and frequently to draw enemy fire away from "real" troops. Most famously, they tricked the Germans into thinking that the D-Day invasion would not occur at Normandy.

Since most of their work (both their actions and their techniques) was classified until 1996, this is one of the first comprehensive tellings of their exploits (there are at least two other books that were published in 2001-2002 about the 23rd). It's very gung ho, and the end is overly sentimental (when Gerard attends a reunion of the Special Troops), but it is fascinating. The rah-rah edge is tempered a bit by Gerard's loving portrayal of Fred Fox, one of the Special Troops' commanding officers -- he was a pacifist and became a minister after the war, but voluntarily joined the Army because he thought it was his duty as a citizen.

The book is thought-provoking -- What can artists uniquely contribute to a military effort? Is deception ethical? Can deception backfire? The book doesn't answer all the questions it raises, but the questions are in and of themselves interesting enough. I recommend the book.

Some Members of the 23rd Special Troops
Bill Blass, clothing designer
Harold Dahl, sculptor
Geroge Diestel, actor and set designer
Victor Dowd, artist
Olin Dows, painter
William Flemer III, landscape artist
Ray Harford, cartoon artist (he drew "Captain Marvel")
Howard Holt, advertising designer
Art Kane, photographer
Ellsworth Kelly, painter
Harold Laynor, painter
Stanley Martineau, sculptor
Jack Masey, designer
Richard Morton, commercial artist
Robert Nisely, painter
Arthur Shilstone, watercolorist
Art Singer, painter
Bob Tompkins, commercial artist
Geogre Vander Sluis, watercolorist