THE A FORCE AND THE “THE MAGIC GANG”

In January 1941, General Wavell, commander of British forces in north Africa, created a unit called A Force, which was dedicated to counter-intelligence and deception. By this stage, deception was playing a major part in the war effort, following Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s maxim that ‘in war, truth should be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies’. In some cases there would be a concerted effort to mislead the enemy with a single convincing deception; in others, the aim would be to create confusion by suggesting a range of plausible alternatives.

http://ianbachusa.wordpress.com/2007/04/21/the-a-force-and-the-the-magic-gang/