 In March 1942 Clarke had begun to draft ideas for an ambitious order-of-battle deception. He had found that the process of convincing the enemy of the existence of a notional force was long and tedious. Operation Cascade was intended to create the fiction of a much increased Allied force in North Africa, including eight divisions, three new brigades, and even the 1st SAS. At first the plan was intended to deter the Axis from extending an offensive against the USSR southward into the region.
