A riveting account of a "brilliant band of dedicated war winners"
His name was Glyndwr Michael. Although he probably never entertained even the remote possibility while alive, he made a major contribution to the Allies' eventual victory during World War Two after his death. More accurately, it was his corpse that was recruited for one of the most interesting "special ops" in modern military history. Much of the information about "Operation Mincemeat" remained classified for decades. As Ben Macintyre explains, "After the war, Ewen Montagu [who headed the operation] retained most of the official papers relating to Operation Mincemeat. After he died, they would put in wooden trunk, and almost forgotten. In 2007, the family gave me full access to the papers, including the official records, but also memos, letters, photographs, and a 200-page memoir written by Montagu himself."
Briefly, this was the situation in 1943. In order to disguise the impending Allied invasion of Sicily, Montagu and his colleagues at the British Admiralty (MI5), notably Charles Cholmondeley, devised a bold plan: Obtain a corpse, conceal his true identity, have him dressed as an officer, and include among his possession information that suggests that Sicily was a decoy rather than the real target. The corpse would be delivered near the coast of Spain and, tides cooperating would be washed ashore and eventually delivered to German intelligence for verification. If the Germans could be convinced, countless Allied lives would be saved and success of the invasion would be almost assured. But there were (obviously) several problems to solve to avoid raising suspicion of German forensics experts if and when they examine the uniformed corpse. Fir example,
How and where to obtain the right corpse?
How to prevent any decomposition?
How to establish a verifiable identity for the corpse?
Which documents to include among his possessions?
How to transport the corpse to the drop-point off the coast near?
How to track what happens after that?
According to Macintyre, "The most extraordinary aspect of Operation Mincemeat, to my mind, is the way that the organizers approached this elaborate, many-layered deception operation as if they were writing a novel, imagining a version of reality and then luring the truth towards it. Indeed, the talents required for espionage and fiction-writing are not so very different."
Macintyre's account really does have everything essential to a compelling drama: memorable characters, high stakes, complicated plot, unexpected developments, increasing tension, and climax. The details of this riveting narrative are best revealed in context, within the frame-of-reference that Macintyre creates for them.
"I was particularly fascinated by Charles Cholmondeley," Macintyre confides, "the RAF officer seconded to MI5 who first dreamed up the plan to use a dead body to plant false information on the Germans. Cholmondeley had a long, waxed, air force mustache, a shy personality, and a very strange mind, but he was a genius at deception work, and the unsung hero of Operation Mincemeat."
Although truth is not always stranger than fiction, there are situations such as those portrayed in Operation Mincemeat when the story told has greater appeal and more enduring impact precisely because it is essentially true, at least to the extent that facts can be verified. I was fascinated by the process that began with the top-secret "Trout Fisher" memo signed by Admiral John Godfrey and ended with the eventual reassignment of Montagu and his associates. They were indeed, in Godfrey's words, a "brilliant band of dedicated war winners."
