And so the Allies dreamed up Operation Mincemeat.
April 30, 1943 say the submarine H.M.S. Seraph surface off the Spanish coast. A body was rowed towards shore and lowered into the water where the tide would cast it up on the beach. The body contained a briefcase chained to the wrist, a briefcase filled with classified documents intended to convince Hitler that the planned invasion of Sicily was a diversion from the "real" invasions "planned" for Greece. British Intelligence knew that Spanish officials were sympathetic to the Germans, and would pass the documents on to them.
But would they be believed? This was a big gamble, because if the Germans smelled a rat, it would reinforce a sense of urgency to reinforce their forces in Sicily after the invasion. And so British Intelligence worked overtime to make The Man Who Never Was believable.
It started with a body, one that would be presented as a Royal Marine intelligence officer who drowned after his plane went down on a flight to Gibraltar. But "Maj. Martin" had to have the bits and pieces of a life that we all carry with us: old bills, a used bus ticket, tickets to a London play, a rather strongly worded letter from his bank about an overdraft, and a photo of his "fiancee", MI5 secretary Nancy Jean Leslie who died at the beginning of this month. This is the photograph that saved thousands of Allied lives:
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Athletes know that a head fake has to be convincing, but if done right will immobilize the opponent. Rest in peace, Nancy Jean Leslie.
They made a film of the story in 1956, too. Quite good.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the film, but the book struck me as quite good, even as a junior high school age reader.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad military head fake, but I am going with Col. Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top. A couple hundred of what was left of the 20th Maine, who were out of ammunition, facing the 4th, 15th, and 47th Alabama and the 4th and 5th Texas Regiments acting under Gen. Hood's orders to take the only high ground above Gettysburg at all costs. Knowing that his men could in no way hold back the final Confederate charge, Col. Chamberlain famously ordered "Fix bayonets and charge." And it worked. He captured the entire 15th Alabama and caused the rest to retreat in disarray. Thankfully none of the captured Alabama men realized they were being held by men with no loads in their guns.
ReplyDeletePlus if Joshua Chamberlain never ordered the charge, we would not have Chamberlain Pale Ale by Shipyard today.
ReplyDelete2cents, that would be a real shame.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I read that book as a kid, and it always stayed with me.
ReplyDeleteAnd so the Allies dreamed up Operation Mincemeat.
ReplyDeleteSmall correction: "The Allies" didn't dream up Operation Mincemeat. Two individual Allied counter-intelligence men did: Lt Cmdr Ewen Montagu, RN, and Lt Charles Cholmondeley, RAF.
A little known but VERY funny aftermath: after Germany fell, a horde of British and American intel officers were tasked with sorting through all the captured Nazi and Wehrmacht files. A low-level British naval officer found two documents in German Naval Intelligence archives in Tambach which he immediately brought to the attention of Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, because they represented a frightening breach of security and of numerous regulations -- court-martial offenses, committed by one of the highest-ranking men in the Royal Navy.
The documents? They were the German translations of the Mincemeat letters!
The poor lad who had found them, being low-level and not cleared for that operation, thought they were genuine and had reported them as such! Fortunately, DDNI did knew about them, and set the fellow's mind at ease.
Meanwhile, armed with this knowledge, Montagu and his fellows combed through the German archives in detail, and discovered just how thoroughly they had fooled the Germans, and how extensive the ramifications of the German intel failure had been.
Wolfwalker, that's a cool story.
ReplyDeletegreat movie. should be required viewing in schools.
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