When the decomposing body of a Royal Marine carrying a black attaché chained to his wrist was
found off the coast of Huelva, Spain, in April of 1943, German spies were quickly notified.
Although Spain was neutral, they allowed the Germans to take a look at the briefcase
before notifying the British that one of their own had been found.
What the Germans discovered among the papers of the deceased marine was quite the coup! The Allies
were about to invade Greece and Sardinia, and thus Hitler quickly reinforced these locations.
What they didn’t know was that they had just taken the bait of one of the most
successful deceptions of the war inspired by the author of the James Bond novels himself.
It was called Operation Mincemeat, and proved the perfect coverup for the Allied invasion of Sicily…
The Trout Memo
Mere weeks after Germany invaded Poland and was joined by the Soviet Union to take over
its territories in September of 1939, France and the United Kingdom were getting ready for war.
On September 29, British Rear Admiral John Godfrey, the Naval Intelligence Division head,
released a unique piece of writing. It was titled the Trout Memo, and it made quite the headlines.
The document compared the deception of an enemy during wartime with fly fishing,
and contained different options on how to lure the Axis into cunning traps.
The piece was actually written by Godfrey’s assistant, Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming,
who would later rise to fame as the author of the James Bond novels.
In its introduction, the memo read: (QUOTE) “The Trout Fisher casts patiently all day.
He frequently changes his venue and his lures. If he has frightened a fish he may 'give the
water a rest for half-an-hour,' but his main endeavor, to attract fish by something he sends
out from his boat, is incessant.” One of the suggestions in the memo
was quite controversial and was inspired by the writings of Basil Thomson.
It read: (QUOTE) “A corpse dressed as an airman, with despatches in his pockets, could be dropped
on the coast, supposedly from a parachute that has failed. I understand there is no difficulty
in obtaining corpses at the Naval Hospital, but, of course, it would have to be a fresh one.”
Planting fake documents on a deceased body that would be inspected by the enemy
could work to fool them about operations or troop movements that would never take place.
The technique wasn’t new. It had been used by both the French and the British during World War 1.
However, the renewed suggestion was picked up by British intelligence officer and MI5 agent Charles
Cholmondeley and codenamed Trojan Horse after the famous deception that ended the Trojan War.
Cholmondeley was inspired by an aircraft crash near the coast of Cadiz, Spain, in September of
1942, in which one of the deceased was carrying top-secret documents that, upon being recovered
by the Spanish, were taken by German spies. This showed the British that although Spain
was neutral, it frequently allowed German spies to study Allied information on their hands.
Cholmondeley’s plan specified that: (QUOTE) “A body is obtained from one of the London
hospitals ... The lungs are filled with water, and documents are disposed of in an inside pocket.
The body is then dropped by a Coastal Command aircraft ... On being found,
the supposition in the enemy's mind may well be that one of our aircraft
has either been shot or forced down and that this is one of their passengers.”
This strategy would be the basis for the future Operation Mincemeat.
Planning Mincemeat With the war in Africa slowly
turning against the Axis, the Allied High Command began planning the future invasion of Sicily
during the last months of 1942. The problem was that the Germans knew they were coming,
but fortunately for the Allies, the British Intelligence had a plan.
Following Churchill's advice of attacking Europe's soft underbelly, the High Command had two options:
either attack Sicily to free the Mediterranean or Greece to open up the Balkans.
At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, it was agreed that the next move would be Sicily.
Still, there was no way of hiding where Operation Husky was headed.
Churchill himself said: (QUOTE) “Everyone but a bloody fool would know that it's Sicily."
Cholmondeley’s Trojan Horse plan was then brought up,
and Naval Intelligence Officer Ewen Montagu was assigned to work with him on the plan.
Operation Mincemeat and Operation Barclay were then born. Both aimed to mislead the Germans
and Italians into thinking that the Allied forces would land in Greece and not in Sicily.
After getting clearance from the secret Twenty Committee, the two special agents got to work
to find the ideal body of a deceased Briton to begin their master deception.
The plan behind Operation Mincemeat was to drop the body of a British officer carrying
secret documents near the coasts of Spain so that it could be picked up by the Spanish and
given to the Germans for inspection. The documents would contain fake
information about the Allied invasion of Greece to deceive the Germans into reinforcing Sicily.
Finding a Body
With the help of several MI6 agents, the two agents approached a veteran pathologist,
Sir Bernard Spilsbury, to get information about the type of body they required. Spilsbury then
told them that men who passed away from an air crash often succumbed to shock, not drowning.
The doctor also told them that it would be easy to fool the Spanish Roman Catholic pathologists,
as they were averse to post-mortems. He then emphasized that time was what
really mattered, as a corpse would quickly enter a state of decay if proper care was not given.
After weeks of searching for a corpse, the body of Glyndwr Michael, a poor tramp that perished
from eating rat poison and was not reclaimed by family members, was chosen for the operation.
The corpse was stored in a mortuary refrigerator to preserve it,
while Montagu and Cholmondeley began to work on its fake military identity.
The deceased man soon became Captain William Martin of the Royal Marines, who worked for
the Combined Operations Headquarters. Making him a Royal Marine had a purpose, for every
inquiry about his identity would be directly routed to the Naval Intelligence Division.
Montagu and Cholmondeley readied the fake paperwork and even included photographs of
a fake fiancé, some love letters, a receipt of an engagement ring,
and a phony letter from the Captain’s father. A special ink that remained
legible after immersion in the water was used in all of the documents.
The last detail was a photograph for Captain Martin’s naval identity,
and it was provided by another MI5 agent who greatly resembled the deceased man.
After the identity and outfit for the Royal Marine became as accurate as possible, the agents began
writing the deception documents. The objective was to have a document that contained the overall
details of the false plans of landing in the Balkans in casual but clear writing.
The document was allegedly written by Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye from the Imperial
General Staff to Sir Harold Alexander, general of the 18th Army Group in Algeria.
After several attempts, Montagu and Cholmondeley found a natural writing tone that felt real.
The essence of the letter was resumed in the last paragraphs, which read: (QUOTE)
“We have recent information that the Germans have
been reinforcing and strengthening their defenses in Greece and Crete,
and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff felt that our forces for the assault were insufficient.
It was agreed by the Chiefs of Staff that the 5th Division should be reinforced by one Brigade
Group for the assault on the beach south of Cape Araxos and that a similar reinforcement should be
made for the 56th division at Kalamata.” The team then stored the documents in an
official briefcase instead of the corpse’s jacket pockets, and it was attached to the
jacket by a leather-covered chain to prevent it from drifting away.
Once everything was ready, the submarine HMS Seraph was chosen to deliver the body
near the coasts of Huelva, Spain. The fate of Operation Husky and the
invasion of Sicily now depended on the recovery of a deceased Royal Marine.
A Body Found
After taking advice from the Navy’s Hydrographer, Montagu and Cholmondeley
launched Operation Mincemeat on April 17, 1943. Huelva was chosen because Adolf Clauss,
a member of the Abwehr, was a highly active agent in that particular zone,
which ensured that the Germans would pick up the message.
During the morning of April 17, the body of Captain Martin was fully dressed and
ready for transport in a canister filled with dry ice to preserve it.
It was then taken to Greenock, Scotland, where it was transferred to HMS Seraph on April 19.
Her Captain told the crew that the canister contained a remote meteorological device that
would be deployed in Spain. Ten days later, on April 29,
Seraph approached the coast of Huelva and surfaced at 4:00 the following day.
After the canister was brought up to the deck,
only a few officers remained to lower the body of Captain Martin into the water.
Minutes later, the Captain sent a message to the Admiralty, simply noting: (QUOTE)
“Operation Mincemeat completed.” As expected, the body was found
at 9:00am on April 30, when Spanish soldiers delivered it to a naval judge.
The British consul was informed by the Spaniards of the recovery and sent a series of diplomatic
cables. The consul was aware that they were being intercepted by the Germans and emphasized that the
briefcase had to be recovered at all costs. Meanwhile, nothing strange was found in
Captain Martin's autopsy, and he was buried with honors at a local cemetery on May 2.
The briefcase was then sent to Madrid, where Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr,
personally intervened to persuade the Spanish of surrendering the documents.
Consequently, the German agents were allowed to read the top-secret letters and inform the Reich
of the imminent Allied offensive on Greece. Days later, the briefcase and its contents
were returned to the British, but the message had already made its way to Hitler.
On May 14, 1943, Admiral Doniz met the Fuhrer to discuss his visit to Mussolini.
During the meeting, he talked with Hitler about the Mincemeat document.
The Fuhrer told Mussolini that Greece, Corsica, and Sardinia had to be reinforced with additional
divisions because an Allied offensive was imminent. He then sent General Rommel to Salonika.
The German Intelligence soon realized that they had been deceived, but it was too late.
On July 9, Sicily was invaded, and the German garrison of 65,000 men
succumbed to the more than 400,000 American and British forces ready to fight.
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