Intercepts of German communications indicate that at least some of the landings were believed to be real and they sowed some confusion during the early part of the Normandy invasion.

[1] The most complex portion of Bodyguard involved a wide-ranging strategic deception, organised by the London Controlling Section (LCS), in southern England called Fortitude South.

[3] As D-Day approached, Allied planners moved on to tactical deceptions (roughly under the umbrella of Fortitude) to help cover the progress of the real invasion forces.

The D-Day naval deceptions (Taxable and Glimmer) were planned for the eve of the Normandy landings to develop threats against the Pas-de-Calais region.

Altogether this could create the effect of troops engaged in a firefight for up to six hours, with each plane able to drop material sufficient to simulate a platoon-sized group.

[6] Titanic was divided into four operations (I to IV), consisting of various combinations of dummy paratroopers, noisemakers, chaff (codenamed Window) and SAS personnel.

He first approached the head of 1st SAS Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Mayne, who refused to take part in an intelligence operation, having had a bad experience implementing deception plans while in North Africa.

[8] 2nd SAS provided twelve men under the command of Captain Frederick James Fowles (Chick) and Lieutenant Norman Harry Poole.

After landing these teams were to locate and open fire on the German forces, allowing some to escape in the hope they would report the parachute drops.

[9] To deceive the Germans into thinking there was a large parachute landing in progress, the SAS teams played 30 minute pre-recorded sounds of men shouting and weapons fire including mortars.

[9][10] A further fifty dummies were dropped, as Titanic III, in the Calvados region near Maltot and the woods to the north of Baron-sur-Odon to draw German reserves away to the west of Caen.

At 02:00 on 6 June 1944, German units reported the landing of parachutists east of Caen and in the Coutances, Valognes and Saint-Lô areas and hearing ships' engines out at sea.

[14] However, Generalfeldmarshall Gerd von Rundstedt ordered the 12th SS Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend to deal with a supposed parachute landing on the coast near Lisieux which was found to consist solely of dummies from Titanic III.

[14] The combination of Taxable and Titanic I appears to have been interpreted as intended by the German command with communications indicating they felt it had been defeated and turned back.