The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is continuing its Think and Drink Series tomorrow (October 5th).
The topic this month is the United States “Ghost Army” during World War II.
Museum Program Coordinator Caroline Diemer says the ghost army was created to make a U.S. Military unit look like it was traveling somewhere but everything about it was fake.
“They used things like rubber tanks, fake artillery, and loud sounds to trick the Germans,” she explained. “And then it was called the Ghost Army because the Germans would go scout the area and there would be nothing there.”
Author and Documentary Filmmaker Rick Beyer will present the stories and share multimedia presentations about the army and how they helped the US win the war. The Ghost Army does have some local ties.
Diemer says Albert “Al” Albrecht, a native of Two Rivers, was a member of the army just after he graduated high school.
She noted, “There’s a story where he said he was driving a truck with a giant boom box-like speaker playing noises of people moving and things like that to make it seem like there was a huge army there.”
The event starts at 6:00 p.m. with drinks available for purchase with the talking portion beginning at 6:30.
The program is funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities.
