page_title: 76th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)
section_title: Deception
hierarchical_section_title: 76th Infantry Division (United Kingdom) / History / Deception
context_page_description: The 76th Infantry Division of the British Army was raised during the Second World War to defend the Norfolk coast against a possible German invasion, before being transformed into a training division in late 1942. It was responsible for providing final tactical and field training to soldiers who had already passed their initial training. After five additional weeks of training, the soldiers would be posted to fighting formations overseas. The formation was used as a source of reinforcements for the 21st Army Group, that was fighting in Normandy. After all available British army troops left the United Kingdom for France, the division was disbanded in September 1944.
  In addition to the actual formation, a phantom 76th Infantry Division was formed for deception. The phantom division was part of the notional British Fourth Army, to be used for the fictitious Operation Trolleycar. This operation aimed to deceive the Germans into believing that an Allied landing would occur along the northern German coast. While the deception effort was not a complete success, it managed to divert German attention to the northern flank for the remainder of the war.
context_section_description: The creation of the fictitious division arose from an actual reorganisation of British forces. During 1944, the British Army was facing a manpower crisis. The army did not have enough men to replace the losses to front line infantry. While efforts were made to address this (such as transferring men from the Royal Artillery and Royal Air Force to be retrained as infantry), the War Office began disbanding divisions to reduce the size of the army and to transfer the surplus men to other units to help keep those as close to full strength as possible. The 76th Infantry (Reserve) Division was one of several "Lower Establishment" divisions in the United Kingdom, chosen to be disbanded.
  R Force, the Fortitude deception staff, seized upon this opportunity to retain the division as a phantom unit. A cover story was established to explain the change in the division's status. It was claimed that with the war nearing an end, several Territorial Army divisions would revert to their peacetime recruiting role and release their equipment and resources to other units. For the 76th, this was the 47th Division. With the transfer of equipment, the 76th was notionally raised to the "Higher Establishment" and assigned to reinforce the 21st Army Group.
  As a deception unit, the division was assigned to the bogus Operation Trolleycar. Trolleycar was initially envisioned as a fictitious amphibious assault upon the coast of the Netherlands, by the phantom British Fourth Army, to exploit the success of the authentic Operation Market Garden. When the Battle of Arnhem failed, the notional invasion plan was temporarily scrapped. Trolleycar was revived to convince the Germans that the Fourth Army would land near Emden, in support of an imaginary assault by the First Canadian Army, that would be launched west of Arnhem and through the Netherlands. The deception effort was kept up until 1945, being wound down in January. Despite the British ceasing their attempts to deceive the Germans about this possible landing and the Germans not believing all that had been reported to them, the Germans remained anxious about a landing along the northern coast for the remainder of the war.
caption: The front line, in North West Europe, following Operation Market Garden
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