Bodyguard of Lies

Anthony Cave Brown's first major historical work recounts the Allied deception campaigns that gave the Normandy invasion its surprise in the Second World War. Its title comes from Winston Churchill's remark that in wartime truth is so precious it needs a bodyguard of lies. Brown moves from Ultra codebreaking and the founding of the London Controlling Section to Admiral Canaris and the Abwehr, Operation Mincemeat, and Operation Fortitude with its fictional First US Army Group. Refused access to British war records, he relied mostly on oral testimony, plus some American documents declassified late in his research, which began in 1961. Reviews of the 1975 book have generally grown more critical, and later reviewers have found errors using records released since.

Ryan Holiday, listing it among the best books he read in 2017, called it a masterclass in strategy and noted it was a favorite of John Boyd.