'Ghost Army' Comes to Pelham Picture House

Thanks to Rick Beyer for submitting the following:

During World War II, Richard Syracuse was a ghost. Now 90, and living in New Rochelle, Syracuse served in a top-secret unit that duped Hitler’s army with rubber tanks, sound effects and all the illusions they could conjure. Syracuse and his fellow deceivers are the subjects of a new documentary film, The Ghost Army, which will have a special one-night screening at The Picture House, in Pelham, on Sunday April 14, at 5 pm. It is a chance for area residents to see the film on the big screen before it is broadcast nationwide on PBS in May.

This special theatrical screening, the film’s official New York State premiere, is sponsored by Andrea Syracuse-Silverstein of Pelham and Rina Syracuse of New Rochelle to honor their father’s wartime service. Richard Syracuse, who went on to a successful career as a builder and developer, plans to attend, as does filmmaker Rick Beyer of Lexington, MA. Tickets to the screening ($25/$20 for students and veterans) are available at ghostarmypelham.brownpapertickets.org or by or by phone:  1-800-838-3006. Proceeds go to benefit the PBS broadcast of the film.

In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of GIs landed in France to create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret and their story was hushed up for decades after the war’s end.

Each deception required that they impersonate a different (and vastly larger) U.S. unit. Like actors in a repertory theater, they mounted ever-changing multimedia show stailored to each deception. The men immersed themselves in their roles, even hanging out at local cafés and spinning their counterfeit stories for spies who might lurk in the shadows.“I used to refer to us as the Cecil B. DeMille warriors,” says Syracuse. Painstakingly recorded sounds of armored and infantry units were blasted from sound trucks; radio operators created phony traffic nets; and inflatable tanks, trucks, artillery and even airplanes were imperfectly camouflaged so they would be visible to enemy reconnaissance. The Ghost Army staged more than 20 deception operations in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, often operating dangerously close to the front lines. In the final days of the war they faced their ultimate test: a deception along the Rhine River in which thousands of lives depended on their delivering a convincing performance. What they accomplished was kept secret for nearly fifty years.

“It’s the highest kind of creativity in the art of war.” – General Wesley Clark (Ret)

A self-styled “kid from the Bronx,” Syracuse served as an officer in 3132 Signal Service Company, the 23rd’s sonic deception specialists. They operated half-tracks jammed with audio equipment that could project sound 15 miles to mimic the sound of armored columns on the move at night.

The heart of the documentary is the collection of interviews with nineteen Ghost Army veterans. It may be one of the last World War II documentaries told in the words of the men who took part.  Filmmaker Rick Beyer has devoted a major portion of the last eight years to producing this independent documentary, which has been entirely funded by contributions from more than 600 individual donors.

More than 65 years after the end of the war, the surviving members of the Ghost Army are proud that they used creativity to save lives. Theirs is not just another war story but a multi-layered tale of showmanship, creativity and humanity.

For more information on the film, visit www.ghostarmy.org.