This proximity meant that the 406th Engineer Combat Company’s security mission was genuinely dangerous work. The company maintained a defensive perimeter around the fake positions, alert to the possibility of German patrols that might discover what the unit was actually doing. A German fighting patrol that reached the dummies and reported back what it had found would blow the entire operation within hours. Preventing this required active patrolling and position-holding that was no different from the work of any other infantry security force.
The unit also faced the specific danger of German artillery directed at the deception positions. When a deception was working — when German intelligence had accepted the fake position as real — German artillery would inevitably engage it. Artillery fire directed at an inflatable tank hits the ground around the inflatable tank, and the men deployed near those positions could be killed by that fire even if the rubber vehicle itself survived relatively intact.
The three members of the 23rd who were killed in action and the approximately thirty who were wounded were casualties of a unit that was, by design, trying to attract German attention. The deaths and wounds were a direct consequence of successful deception: the Germans were shooting at the unit because they believed it was something worth shooting at.
## The 603rd: Painters as Soldiers
The 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion was the visual heart of the Ghost Army, and its composition was unlike any other American military unit of the war.
The battalion had been established before the 23rd was formed, as part of the Army’s effort to create specialized camouflage units drawing on the expertise of artists and designers who understood visual space and perception. By the time it was incorporated into the 23rd, it had developed a culture that blended the discipline of military service with the particular working habits and sensibilities of people who had been trained to see and represent the visual world.