Fourth Army Was Entirely Fictional

During World War II, Britain revived the name of its First World War-era Fourth Army as a phantom force that never took the field. Although the army itself was fictional, its invented order of battle combined real formations with nonexistent corps and divisions. Under Operations Cockade and Fortitude North, its supposed headquarters at Edinburgh Castle helped convince Germany that the Allies were preparing to invade Norway, keeping German units away from Normandy. The imaginary army was later placed under the fictitious First U.S. Army Group to threaten Pas-de-Calais and was reused for notional assaults on the Dutch and German coasts.

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