First United States Army Group

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First United States Army Group
Insiginia of First United States Army Group
Active	Operation Quicksilver
Country	United States
Type	Army Group
Role	diversion phantom formation
Commanders
Notable commanders	Omar N. Bradley George S. Patton

First United States Army Group is a fictitious Army Group developed by the Allies as part of the Operation Quicksilver deception. To further attract Axis attention, George S. Patton was placed in command of the fictional unit.

1 History
2 Subordinate Units
3 See also
4 Further Reading
5 External links

[edit] History

First U.S. Army Group—often abbreviated FUSAG—was activated in London in 1943 as the planning formation for the Allied invasion of France under General Omar Bradley. When Twelfth United States Army Group was acivated on 1 August 1944, Bradley and his staff transferred to the headquarters of the new army group. Despite a lack of personnel, FUSAG continued to exist on paper as part of the deception of Operation Quicksilver. In order to make the German forces believe the Allied invasion would come at Pas de Calais, the phantom force was stationed at Dover, directly across the English Channel from the site. To further attract the Axis commanders' attention, General Eisenhower placed George Patton in command of the phantom force as well as increasing the formation's size to be larger than that of the British-led Twenty-first Army Group under Bernard Montgomery. The deception worked so well that even long after the invasion at Normandy, German forces continued waiting for what they thought would be the true invasion force.