The Ghost Army archive contains both physical items, such as photographs, letters, maps and artifacts; and an even larger digital collection that includes more of those items as well as documents, video interviews and oral histories. You can find an overview of our collections here.  We have also  published our collection list to a Google Sheet, enabling you to browse the collection or search for specific items. We plan to post other finding aids in the near future. Eventually, our plans call for donating the archive to a major research institution so these materials will always be preserved and available to researchers.

Online Items 

A selection of items from our archive which appear on the website.  You can also use the search box at right to find something you are looking for 

• Official History

The Official History of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops was written in September, 1945, and the original is in the National Archives.  The text of the document, along with maps and photos, has been digitized and appears, in full, on the website.  

• Interviews

Selected interviews with Ghost Army veterans, accompanied by transcripts 

• Curtis Collection

Picture
The Curtis Collection contains 90 rare photos of infltable dummies used in World War II.  28 of the photos appear on the website.  They demonstrate the variety of the dummies used by the unit, as well as some of the details of their construction.

• Nussenbaum Scrapbooks

Ghost Army Veteran Seymour Nussenbaum's two wartime scrapbooks offer a treasure-trove of information about his wartime experiences.  The scrapbooks total more than 250 pages.  50 pages of each scrapbook are reproduced on the website.

• Dahl Letters

Harold J. Dahl was a young sculptur who served in the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. He later became a fine arts appraiser in New York City.  Over the course of the war he wrote more than 200 letters back home. Transcripts of 52 letters from the Dahl Collection are reproduced chronologically on the website. Dahl writes extensively about the other soldiers in his unit, and about his own  love affair with a nurse he met in Europe.  (Her letters reveal a far different take on the ill-fated affair.) 

• Katz Letters

Theodore “Ted” Katz served in the 603rd Camouflage Engineers.  An artist who joined the Army in 1943he later worked as an art director in multiple advertising agencies in Syracuse, New York.  THe 94 letters presented on the website are part of a larger collection now held by the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.  Katz’s playful exchanges with his fiance, haunting descriptions of war-torn Europe, and remarkable sketches of his surroundings and fellow GIs help bring to life the daily experiences of one soldier in the Ghost Army. 

• Tompkins Diary 

Bob Tompkins served in the 603rd Camouflage engineers. He later worked as an advertising creative director.  One of many artists in the unit, he kept a small diary  "t was a little leather book, two inches by three inches.  I wrote just as small as I could.  In order to save space…I ran out at the end and the war wasn’t over!"  After the war, Bill Blass's mother made a transcript of the diary." It was against Army Regulations for him to keep the diary about the secret unit:  "I probably could have been shot" he says.