In November 1942 , Winston Churchill delivered a speech to the British House of Commons that laid bare the Allied scheme for vote out Nazi Germany and its Axis sidekick in Europe , Italy . The Allies would first take Northern Africa , then invade Europe through " the underbelly of the Axis , especially Italy , " say Churchill . ( He did n’t call it the " sonant underbelly , " by the way — that ’s amisquotation . )
IfAdolf Hitlerwanted to know incisively where the Allies were choke to attack , all he had to do was attend at a map of the Mediterranean . The Allies would almost certainly launch their invasion from Northern Africa , and the secretive Axis target by far was Sicily , the southern Italian island .
And that ’s exactly what happened . In July 1943 , British and American scout group carried out a wildly successful amphibious encroachment of Sicily , encountering limited resistance from the Italian forces . Within months , Italy surrendered .
But if Hitler knew back in 1942 that the Allies were go to overrun Sicily , why was it provide closely defenseless ? Because of a brilliant and risky top - confidential game known as " Operation Mincemeat . " bear from the thinker of Ian Fleming — theJames Bondcreator whoworked in British naval intelligenceduring World War II — Operation Mincemeat dared to fool the Fuhrer into believing that the Allies were going to invade Greece instead of Sicily .
All it took was a dead eubstance , some falsified documents and a lot of luck .
54 Ways to Fool a Nazi
In 1939 , Ian Fleming was n’t a famous writer yet , but he helped spell something call off the " Trout Memo , " a leaning of 54 ingenious whoremonger that British intelligence could use to cod the Brobdingnagian web of Axis spies operating in Europe ( it was called the " trout " memo because it compared spycraft to fly sportfishing ) . Trick No . 28 was so eccentric that even Flemingcalled it"a suggestion [ not a very nice one ] . "
The artifice involved finding a corpse , prune it like a British soldier , stuffing its pockets with false papers , and coldcock it somewhere that German operatives would be sure to rule it . Fleming freely admitted that he stole the idea from a 1930s novel by Basil Thompson .
As savage as the plan was , it did havea real - life history corollary — in September 1942 , a British naval ship crashed off the sea-coast of Spain and Spanish authority recover the body of a British courier holding top - mysterious military architectural plan . Spain was officially neutral in WWII , but the fascist government contained many Nazi sympathizers .
British naval intelligence information , led by a group call the " 20 Committee " ( as in " XX " for " double cross " ) , decide to take a gamble on Fleming ’s daring plan . alternatively of a shipwreck , they invented a plane crash and a dead British police officer who would wash away up on a Spanish beach carrying an important - looking briefcase .
If the right Spanish official got his hand on the data in that briefcase — what looked like top - secret confederative plans for the encroachment of Greece — he would almost sure elapse it along to Germany . But would Hitler swallow the hook ?
Making William Martin
The two people put in charge of this mellow - stakes ruse were a nearsighted Air Force officeholder - turned - spy distinguish Charles Cholmondeley and a British barrister ( fancy lawyer ) named Ewen Montagu who was secretly working for the Naval Intelligence Department ( NID ) . ( Montagu gave the corpse - deteriorate operation its codename , " Mincemeat , " which hecreditedto his " pretty sick " good sense of humor . )
Both Cholmondeley and Montagu knew that the samara to the whole surgical procedure was creating a convincing utter human race . If the Germans did n’t believe that the recovered body was a existent soldier , then the gigue was up . First , though , they needed to find a body .
" I sympathize there is no difficulty in obtaining corpses at the Naval Hospital,“wrote Flemingin the Trout Memo , " but , of course of study , it would have to be a fresh one . "
It was n’t prosperous at all , in fact . Because of the top - surreptitious nature of their work , Cholmondeley and Montagu needed a very specific eccentric of remains : new , male , recently conk with no next of kin to claim him . After a lengthy search , they found Glyndwr Michael , a mentally troubled young Welshman who had bring his own sprightliness by ingesting rat toxicant .
Now their job was to translate Glyndwr Michael into " William Martin , " a fictitious John Roy Major in the Royal Marines . They crafted ID newspaper publisher for him , dress him in a well - wear uniform ( down to his officer - issued underclothing ) and fill his jacket crown bag with something call in " billfold bedding " — the rubble of a real life .
There was a note from his camber manager that William had overdrawn his report , coffin nail , match , ticket stubs and receipts from movie theater and nightclubs . And for a personal touch modality , there was a letter of the alphabet from his girlfriend " Pam " with her exposure ( in realism , the photo of an MI5 clerk name Jean Leslie ) and even an engagement pack tucked into his breast air pocket .
Setting the Bait
On April 30 , 1943 , Major Martin ’s body was jettisoned into the Mediterranean by the British submarine HMS Seraph . The currents conduct Martin ’s corpse to the provincial sportfishing village of Huelva , Spain , where Cholmondeley and Montagu pray that a Nazi - leaning Spanish functionary would remark the briefcase handcuffed to Martin ’s radiocarpal joint .
The briefcase contained two letters in seal gasbag : One was from the British high command to the higher-ranking general in North Africa , indicating that the Allies would engage a put on attack on Greece to draw attention from the tangible attack on Sicily . ( In verity , of course , it was the other direction around . ) The 2nd letter introduced Major Martin as an expert in amphibian landings , and include a lame joke about sardine . Cholmondeley and Montagu hoped the trick to be interpreted as a thinly veiled reference to the island of Sardinia , another false hint for the Germans .
The Spanish took the bait . They return the soldier ’s body to the British consulate , where he was given a funeral with military honors , but the Spanish United States Navy held on to the briefcase for nine daylight . During that meter , British military official sent frenetic society to the British consulate in Spain to recover the briefcase before the top - secret subject matter fell into foeman hands . The messages were sent using an encoding method acting they knew the Germans could break .
The briefcase was ultimately returned , but NID officials speedily ascertained that the certain envelopes had indeed been opened and register . The only question was : Did Hitler get the subject matter , and did he believe it ?
The “Most Successful Single Deception Operation” of WWII
Boy , did he ! On May 14 , 1943 , Hitler foregather with a top full admiral and declared that Greece and mayhap Sardinia were the prime targets of the Allied amphibious landing place . When British intelligence caught wind of Hitler ’s new architectural plan , theysent a celebratory telegramto Churchill : " Mincemeat swallowed perch , melody and sinker by the right people and from the best information they look like acting on it . "
Based on the imitation intel , the Nazis pelt all of their resources into the defense of Greece and Sardinia . Hitler ordered the intact 1st Panzer Division ( 90,000 soldiers ) to leave France for Greece , and also sent more than a 12 divisions from Italy into Greece , the Balkans and Sardinia .
On July 10 , 1943 , more than 150,000 Allied troops under British and American command ( include General George S. Patton)stormed the underprotected beaches of Sicilywith minimum casualty . A top historian of British intelligence during WWIIcalledOperation Mincemeat " the best know , and perhaps the most successful single magic trick military operation of the entire war . "
