美国国家公共电台 NPR He Led A Platoon Of Artists Who Fooled The Germans: 'Imagination Is Unbelievable'（在线收听）

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for StoryCorps. This Memorial Day weekend, we hear from a World War II veteran named Gilbert Seltzer. He was an architectural draftsman when the war broke out. Soon after he joined the Army, he was told he was being put on a top-secret mission - and an unconventional one at that. The Army decided to have him lead a platoon of men in a unit dubbed the Ghost Army - mostly made up of artists, creatives and engineers. Their mission was deception - inflatable tanks, phony convoys, misleading conversations in bars intended to spread disinformation, any and every possible trick to fool the enemy. Gilbert Seltzer is now 104. And at StoryCorps, he sat down with his granddaughter, Sarah, to remember.

GILBERT SELTZER: Shortly after we arrived in Normandy, my platoon was directed to take the place of an anti-aircraft battery. And the farmer on whose land this took place - when he got up in the morning, he saw us there. So he took his fist, and he rammed it down on one of our guns, and it was a rubber gun. His fist bounced back, and he looked at it, and he said, boom, boom, ha-ha. And in four syllables, it described the mission of our outfit - to fool the German army.

In the Ghost Army, there were 1,100 men - three arms. One was visual. One was radio. And the third was sonic. We would move into the woods in the middle of the night, going through villages in France, Belgium, Germany. We would turn the sound on so that it sounded like tanks moving on the roads. The natives would say to each other, did you see the tanks moving through town last night? And they were not lying. They thought they were seeing them. Imaginations are unbelievable.

SARAH SELTZER: But you saw actual combat.

G SELTZER: Oh (laughter).

S SELTZER: Can you talk about that? Yeah.

G SELTZER: Yes, indeed. There were five campaigns in Northern Europe. We were in all five of them. The goal was to draw fire away from the real battery to us.

For instance, when the Rhine was crossed, we were able to get the German army to assemble opposite us, firing at us. And when the actual crossing was made about 20 miles to our north, there was practically no resistance. Some people say we saved 30,000 lives. I don't believe there was 30,000. But if we saved one life, it was worth it.

It was classified top secret for 50 years. Practically everyone I knew in those days has died. It was an experience that can't be translated. It was funny. It was distasteful. It was crazy. We did it to overcome a terrible, terrible enemy. And the fact that we did so successfully is probably the biggest source of pride.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRIS ZABRISKIE'S "JOHN STOCKTON SLOW DRAG")

SIMON: Gilbert Seltzer speaking with his granddaughter, Sarah Seltzer, about what it was like to be part of the Ghost Army. And at 104, he is the oldest StoryCorps participant that we've ever had on the air. Their full interview will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. And you can hear more stories from veterans on the StoryCorps podcast.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRIS ZABRISKIE'S "JOHN STOCKTON SLOW DRAG")