Are there any reliable stories during a war of a soldier stealing an enemy uniform and using the disguise to create havoc?

by NoOneLikesNebraskans

I am here replaying The Sabateur and wondered if anything similar has happened in real life. Specifically during World War 2 somewhere in Europe, but other examples would be interesting to me as well.

Aurevir

Absolutely! One specific example was just before the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans got together a number of English-speaking soldiers, gave them American uniforms, equipment, and vehicles, and sent them behind enemy lines in advance of the attack to spread havoc. The American response, once they realized that this had occurred, was to stop people on the roads or acting suspiciously and checked if they knew American/army slang, if they knew various pop culture or sports references (who won the World Series last year, etc.), which of course led to a deal of confusion with soldiers who were immigrants and had German accents, or simply weren't up to date on baseball. I don't recall there being any major outcomes of this gambit, but it certainly did help to spread further chaos behind the lines during the attack.

Source: (if I recall correctly) "Citizen Soldiers", by Stephen Ambrose