Operation Cockade

Part of the Western Front of World War II

Date	September 1943 – 5 November 1943
Location	Western Front
Result	Allied failure

Belligerents

Germany

United States

United Kingdom

Canada

Commanders and leaders

Adolf Hitler

Gerd von Rundstedt

Frederick E. Morgan

Ira C. Eaker

Strength

~22 Divisions

~2,300 heavy bomber, 3,700 fighter, and four hundred medium bomber

Bomber Command, ~13 Divisions

Casualties and losses

None

376 civilians
Village of Le Portel flattened

Operation Cockade was a series of deception operations designed to alleviate German pressure on Allied operations in Sicily and on the Soviets on the Eastern Front by feinting various attacks into Western Europe during World War II. The Allies hoped to use Cockade to force the Luftwaffe into a massive air battle with the Royal Air Force and U.S. Eighth Air Force that would give the Allies air superiority over Western Europe. Cockade involved three deception operations: Operation Starkey, Operation Wadham, and Operation Tindall. Operation Starkey was set to occur in early September, followed by Operation Tindall in mid September, and lastly Operation Wadham in late September 1943.

In March 1943, General Frederick E. Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), and tasked with operational planning in Northwest Europe. Morgan's operational orders from Allied high command, received in April, referred to "an elaborate camouflage and deception" with the dual aim of keeping German forces in the west, and drawing the Luftwaffe into an air battle. Deception strategy fell to the London Controlling Section (LCS), a Whitehall department established in 1941 and by then run by Colonel John Bevan. Bevan convinced Morgan to establish a specialist deception section on his staff, but Morgan's hierarchy was unable to accommodate it. So a department, Ops (B), was set up within the "G-3" operations division. A deception also required at least one notional amphibious invasion of the French coast. The real cross-channel invasion had already been postponed until 1944 and the main Allied push that year was toward southern Europe. Morgan's task was to help pin the enemy down in the west.

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Wikipedia