Strategy: Dudley Clarke, Charles Richardson Tactics: Geoffrey Barkas
Objective
1) to conceal preparations for the real attack in north 2) to suggest attack in south 3) to minimise apparent scale of overt preparations in north 4) to suggest attack would not be ready for 2–3 days[1]
Date
September–October 1942
Executed by
Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate
Outcome
Complete tactical surprise
El Alamein
Location within Egypt
v
t
e
Western Desert Campaign
1940
Invasion of Egypt
Compass
Nibeiwa
Sidi Barrani
1941
1st Bardia
Tobruk 1941
Mechili
Beda Fomm
Kufra
Giarabub
Sonnenblume
Tobruk siege
2nd Bardia
Twin Pimples
Brevity
Skorpion
Battleaxe
Crusader
Flipper
1st Bir el Gubi
Point 175
2nd Bir el Gubi
1942
Acrobat
Gazala
Bir Hakeim
Tobruk 1942
Mersa Matruh
1st Alamein
Sidi Haneish
Alam Halfa
Agreement
Bigamy
Caravan
Nicety
2nd Alamein
Bertram
Braganza
Outpost Snipe
El Agheila
Associated articles
Frontier Wire
Devil's gardens
Fort Capuzzo
Maletti Group
Camouflage
Babini Group
Combeforce
3rd Indian Motor Brigade
Baggush Box
Sonderkommando Blaich
Operation Bertram was a Second World War deception operation practised by the Allied forces in Egypt led by Bernard Montgomery, in the months before the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942. Bertram was devised by Dudley Clarke to deceive Erwin Rommel about the timing and location of the Allied attack. The operation consisted of physical deceptions using dummies and camouflage, designed and made by the British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate led by Geoffrey Barkas. These were accompanied by electromagnetic deceptions codenamed Operation Canwell, using false radio traffic. All of these were planned to make the Axis believe that the attack would take place to the south, far from the coast road and railway, about two days later than the real attack.
Bertram consisted of the creation of the appearance of army units where none existed and in concealing armour, artillery and matériel. Dummy tanks and guns were made mainly of local materials including calico and palm-frond hurdles. Real tanks were disguised as trucks, using light "Sunshield" canopies. Field guns and their limbers were also disguised as trucks, their real wheels visible, under a simple box-shaped "Cannibal" canopy to give the shape of a truck. Petrol cans were stacked along the sides of existing revetted trenches, hidden in the shadows. Food was stacked in piles of boxes and draped with camouflage nets to resemble trucks.
Trucks were parked openly in the tank assembly area for some weeks. Real tanks were similarly parked openly, far behind the front. Two nights before the attack, the tanks replaced the trucks, being covered with "Sunshields" before dawn. The tanks were replaced that same night with dummies in their original positions, so the armour remained seemingly two or more days' journey behind the front line. To reinforce the impression that the attack was not ready, a dummy water pipeline was constructed, at an apparent rate of 5 mi (8.0 km) per day. Some days' worth remained to be built at the time of the attack; dummy tanks, guns and supplies were constructed to the south.
After the battle, the captured German Panzerarmee general Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma told Montgomery that he had believed the Allies had at least one more armoured division than they did and that the attack would be in the south. Rommel's stand-in, general Georg Stumme, thought the attack would not begin for several weeks. Bertram had succeeded; when announcing the victory at El Alamein in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill praised the camouflage operation.
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from the British units who had honed the deception technique for OperationBertram during the battle of El Alamein in late 1942. The unit had its barracks...
of Tobruk; a dummy railhead at Misheifa, and the largest of all, OperationBertram, the army-scale deception for the decisive battle of El Alamein in...
had been developed during the North Africa campaign, especially in OperationBertram for the attack at El Alamein. For Bodyguard, the Allies put less reliance...
false idea of the strength of forces or likely attack directions. In OperationBertram for the decisive battle at El Alamein, a whole dummy armoured division...
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possess. Example: The Allied use of "sunshields" in OperationBertram and inflatable decoys in Operation Bodyguard during World War II to deceive the enemy...
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(2012). The Phantom Army of Alamein: How the Camouflage Unit and OperationBertram Hoodwinked Rommel. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-2910-3. Sykes, Steven...
Sunshield removable covers for tanks, making them resemble trucks, in OperationBertram Sunshield meaning a Space sunshade James Webb Space Telescope sunshield...
many of the essential tools and servicing manuals needed to maintain operation—stolen or lost in transit. As tanks broke down, a lack of spare parts...
large-scale deception for the decisive second battle of El Alamein, OperationBertram. From the Camouflage staff I was given a most devoted and effective...
but as to when the battle was likely to occur. This operation was codenamed, OperationBertram. A dummy pipeline was built, stage by stage, the construction...
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Camouflage Directorate was present in Helwan. Geoffrey Barkas designed the OperationBertram while heading Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate. RAF Helwan...
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June 1942 and was responsible for planning the deception operation codenamed OperationBertram. Promoted to the acting rank of brigadier, he served on...
intelligence accepted a strength of about 70 divisions in the theatre. OperationBertram Howard, pg 33 Howard, pg 43 Howard, pg 34 Crowdy, pg 168 Latimer,...
were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during...
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Adolf Bertram (14 March 1859 – 6 July 1945) was archbishop of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Adolf Bertram was...
(2012). The Phantom Army of Alamein: How the Camouflage Unit and OperationBertram Hoodwinked Rommel. Bloomsbury. Sykes, Steven (1990). Deceivers Ever:...
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