Would D-Day Have Succeeded in an Era of AI, Satellites, and Social Media?

American troops walking in the water leaving a landing barge during the Normandy D-Day landings, France, 6th June 1944. (Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — In all of U.S. military history, few events have depended more on secrecy and subterfuge than Operation Overlord, which was launched on June 6, 1944 – D-Day, as it came to be known. The information war that preceded D-Day was as important as the military preparations themselves. 

It was no secret that an allied assault against German-occupied Europe was coming, and so the nations involved, led by Great Britain, created elaborate deceptions to mislead the Germans about the timing and location. An entire mission – dubbed Operation Double Cross – was set up to convince Hitler and his commanders that the landings were aimed not at Normandy but at Calais, some 150 miles to the east.

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