Hello and welcome to another episode of Casting Views The.
Podcast that takes a topic. Each week and that's the name
suggests. Cast Views.
This week I'm diving into a historical subject and it's
something that has been of interest to me for a while since
I initially learned about it and last year I was then able to
visit a couple of shows and events in London that.
Featured this subject. And I mean as the name of the.
Episode suggests this is about. Operation Mincemeat so last.
Year I visited. The State show in London watched
that. And then I think just out of
pure chance and and timing, there was an exhibition in the
Imperial War Museum London called Spies Lies in Deception.
Now that was an absolutely fascinating exhibition, as the
name would. Suggest all about.
Spies, Lies and the Art deception.
Now there's going to be some episodes that come out this.
Year related to that. And I can't wait to to work on
those. But part of that also.
Had a section devoted to Operation Mincemeat.
You may have heard of Operation Mincemeat and as I mentioned,
you may have heard or seen the stage show or even seen the film
that's been made. But do you know what it's?
Really about if you do. Hopefully you'll still find this
interesting. If you don't, yeah the the next.
Half hour or so is going to. Yeah, give an overview of what
that event was. Operation Minsmate was a British
deception operation in the Second World War.
Which was used to. Disguise the 1943 Allied
invasion of Sicily on the 29th September 1939 shortly.
After the start of the. Second World War Rear Admiral
John Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence.
Circulated what was called the. Trout memo, this was.
A paper that compared the. Deception of an enemy to fly
fishing. The journalist and author Ben
McIntyre. Observes that although the
paper. Was published under Godfrey's
name. It bore all the hallmarks of
Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, who was Godfrey's
personal assistant. Now, if that last name rings a
bell, well, it's because Ian Fleming was the author of the
James Bond novels. The memo contained a number of
plans to be considered for use against the Axis powers.
To lure U. Boats and German surface ships
towards minefields #28 On the list was an entry titled A
Suggestion Brackets. Not a very nice one.
It was an idea to plant misleading papers on a corpse
that would be found by the enemy.
Now the deliberate planting of fake documents to be found by
enemy was not new. Known as the Haversack.
Ruse it'd been. Practised by the British and
others in the 1st and 2nd. World Wars in September. 1942 an
aircraft flying from Britain to. Gibraltar crashed off Cadiz.
All aboard were. Killed, including the paymaster,
Lieutenant James Haddon Turner, a Courier carrying top secret
documents and a French agent. Turner's documents included a
letter from General Mark Clark, the American deputy commander of
the Allied Expeditionary Force, to General Noel Mason
MacFarlane. He was the British.
Governor and commander in chief. Of Gibraltar.
The papers were to inform him that General Dwight D Eisenhower
would be arriving in Gibraltar on the eve of Operation Torch's.
Target date of the 4th. Of November now just as a
sideline Operation Torch that I just mentioned was an Allied
invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War.
It was a compromise operation that met.
The British objective of. Securing victory in North Africa
while allowing American armed forces.
The. Opportunity to begin their fight
against Germany and Italy on a limited scale.
Turner's body washed up on the beach near Tarifa and was
recovered by the Spanish authorities when the body was
returned to the. British The letter was still.
On it and technicians determined that the letter had not been
opened. Other Allied intelligence
sources established at the notebook carried by the French
agent had been copied by the Germans, but they dismissed it
as being disinformation to British planners.
This showed that some material. That was.
Obtained by the Spanish, was being passed to the Germans a
month after the Turner. Crash British intelligence
officer. Charles Chumley puts forward his
version of the Trout Memo plan codenamed Trojan Horse.
His plan was as follows. A body is.
Obtained from one of the London hospitals, the lungs are filled
with water and documents are disposed 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. Chumley was a Flight Lieutenant
in the Royal Air Force who had been seconded to MI 5, which is
Britain's domestic counterintelligence.
And Security Service. He had been appointed as
secretary of the 20 Committee, a small interservice
interdepartmental team in charge of double agents, in November of
1940. 2. The 20 committee turned down
Chumley's plan as being unworkable, but thought there
may have been some potential in the idea as there was a naval
connection to the plan. John Masterman, who was the
chairman of the committee, assigned Ewan Montague, the
naval representative, to work with Chumley to develop the plan
further. Montague, a peacetime lawyer and
King's counsel who had volunteered at the.
Outbreak of the war worked. Under Godfrey at the Naval
Intelligence Division, where he ran the sub branch which handled
counter espionage work. Godfrey had also appointed
Montague to oversee all naval deception involving double
agents, and as part of his duties, Montague had been
briefed on the need for deception operations to.
Aid the Allied. War aims in a forthcoming
invasion operation in the Mediterranean in late 1942.
With the Allied success in. North Africa military planners
turned their attention to the next.
Target British. Considered that an invasion of
France from Britain could not take place until 19. 44.
And Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted.
To use the Allied. Forces from North Africa to
attack Europe's soft underbelly. There were two possible targets
for the allies to. Attack The first option was
Sicily. Gaining control of the island
would open up the Mediterranean Sea to Allied shipping and allow
the invasion of Continental. Europe through Italy.
The second option was to go into Greece and the Balkans to trap
the German forces between the British, American and the
Soviets. At the Casablanca conference in
January 1943, Allied planners agreed on the selection of
Sicily, codenamed Operation. Husky and decided.
To undertake the invasion no later than July, there was
concern, however, among the Allied planners that Sicily was
too. Obvious a choice, Churchill was
reputed to have said. Everyone but a bloody fool.
Would know that it's Sicily and that the.
Build up of resources. For the invasion would be.
Detected. Adolf Hitler, meanwhile, was
concerned about a Balkan invasion as the area had been
the source of raw materials for the German war industry,
including copper, Chrome and oil the Allies knew of.
Hitler's fear. And they launched Operation
Barclay, a deception operation to play upon his concerns and to
mislead the Germans into thinking the Balkans were the
objective, diverting resources from Sicily.
The deception reinforced German strategic thinking.
About the likely British target to suggest the.
Eastern Mediterranean was the target.
The Allies set up headquarters in.
Cairo, Egypt for a fictional formation, the 12th Army
Military manoeuvres were then conducted in Syria, with numbers
inflated by dummy tanks and armoured.
Vehicles to deceive observers. Greek interpreters were
recruited and the allies stockpiled Greek maps and
currency. False communications about troop
movements were generated from the 12th Army headquarters while
the Allied command post in Tunis.
Which was to be the. Headquarters of the Sicily
invasion. Reduced radio traffic by using.
Landlines wherever possible. Now we start getting into the
main part of what Operation Ministry was.
So practicalities had to be to locate a corpse.
For the plan now, Montague approached pathologist Sir
Bernard Spilsbury to determine what kind of body they needed
and what factors they would need to take into account to deceive
a Spanish pathologist. Spilsbury informed him that
those who died in an air crash often did so from shock and not
drowning. The lungs would not necessarily
be filled. With water, he.
Also added that Spaniards as Roman.
Catholics were averse to post. Mortems and did not hold them.
Unless the cause of death. Was of great importance.
Spillsbury advised that. Person could have suffered one
of many different. Causes of death which could.
Be misconstrued in an autopsy, Montague later wrote.
If a post mortem examination was made by someone who had formed a
preconceived. Idea that the death was.
Probably due to drowning. There was little.
Likelihood that the difference between this liquid in his lungs
that had. Started to decompose and sea
water. Would be noticed.
This meant that not only would they have a better degree of
success than they. Previously thought but that
there would also be a. Large number of corpses
potentially available for selection when the time came
when Montague. Discussed the possibility of.
Obtaining A corpse with Bentley. Purchase Who was the?
Coroner for the Northern District of London he was.
Told that there would. Be practical and legal
difficulties. Now, to quote, he says.
I should think bodies are the only commodities not in short
supply at the moment, but even with.
Bodies all over the place. Each one has to be accounted
for. Purchase promised to look out.
For a body that was suitable. With no relatives who had
claimed the corpse for burial on the 28th of January 1943,
Purchase contacted Montague with the news he had.
Located a suitable body, probably that of.
And I'll apologise now if I don't pronounce.
This totally correctly but. Of Glyndour, Michael, He was a
homeless person who had died from eating rat poison.
Purchase informed Montague and Chumley that the small amount of
poison in the system would not be identified in a body.
That was supposed to have been. Floating in the sea.
For several days. When Montague commented that the
undernourished corpse did not look like a fit field.
Officer Purchase. Informed him that he does not
have to look like an. Officer.
Only a staff officer. Who was more used?
To office work. Montague refused to identify the
individual and when describing him, bluntly put it.
As he was a. Bit of a near do well and the
only worthwhile thing that he. Ever did he did after his death.
Now, Michael's identity, I understand, remained a mystery
or remained a secret up until 1996.
Now, in 1996, Roger Morgan, an amateur historian from London,
uncovered evidence in the. Public Record Office that the.
Identity of the corpse was Glyn dear Michael right at the end.
We'll we'll come on to that the next.
Part was to develop. The plan and the the corpses.
New identity Montague. Selected the code.
Name Mincemeat for the plan. On the 4th of February 1943,
Montague and Chumley filed their plan for the operation with the
20 Committee. It was a reworking of the Trojan
Horse plan. The mincemeat operation was to
place documents on the corpse and then float.
It off the coast of. Spain, whose nominally neutral
government was known to cooperate with German military
intelligence. The plan was passed by the
committee, who then passed it up the chain of command to the
senior ally strategist. Montague and Chumley were
ordered to continue with their preparations for the operation.
They began to create a legend which is a fictitious background
and. Character for the body.
The name and rank chosen was Captain William Martin of the
Royal Marines. As a Royal Marine Major, Martin
came under Admiralty authority and it would be easy to.
Ensure that all official enquiries and messages about his
death would be. Rooted to the Naval Intelligence
Division. Additionally, Royal Marines.
Would wear battle dress which was easily.
Obtainable and came in standard. Sizes the.
Rank of acting major made him senior enough to be.
Entrusted with sensitive. Documents, but not so prominent
that anyone would be expected to know him.
To reinforce the impression of Martin being a real person,
Montague and Chumley provided corroborative.
Details to be carried on. The person.
Now this is what was really interesting in the Spies, Lies
and Deception exhibition I mentioned in espionage circles.
These details were called Pocket.
Litter and a lot of these were on display.
There to see. So these included a photograph
of an invented fiance named Pam. The image was actually of an MI.
5 Clerk Jean Leslie. There were two love letters, as
was a. Receipt for diamond engagement
ring from a Bond Street jewelry shop.
Additional personal correspondence was included,
consisting of a letter from the fictitious Martin's.
Father described by. McIntyre as pompous and pedantic
as only an Edwardian's. Father could be.
This also included a note from the family solicitor and a
message from Lloyds Bank demanding a payment of an
overdraft. So all this was to.
To kind of give him a background to make.
It look like he had. He was in the middle of a lot of
life situations. To ensure the letters would.
Remain legible after emotion in seawater Montague asked MI 5
scientists to conduct tests on different inks to see which
would last longest in the water. Other items of pocket litter.
Placed on Martin included a book of stamps.
A silver. Cross and a Saint Christopher's
Medallion, cigarettes matches, a pencil stub, keys and a receipt
for a new shirt to provide the date that Martin had been in
London, ticket stubs from a London theatre and a bill for
four nights lodging at the naval military.
Club were added. Long with the other items placed
on him, an itinerary of his activity in London could be
traced from the 18th to the 20. 4th of April.
Attempts were made to. Photograph the corpse.
For the naval identity card, Martin would have to carry.
But the results? Were unsatisfactory and it was
obvious that the images were of a cadaver Montague and Chumley
conducted. A search for people who
resembled. The corpse ultimately finding
Captain Ronnie Reed of MI 5. Reed agreed to be photographed
of the card. Wearing a Royal Marine uniform.
As the three. Cards and passes needed to look
not too new as Martin was a long serving officer.
They were issued as recent. Replacements for the Lost
Originals Montague then spent the next few weeks rubbing all
three cards on his trousers to. Provide.
A used Sheen to them. To provide the used look.
To the uniform it was worn by Chumley, who?
Was about the same build. The only non issue part to the
uniform was the underwear. Which was in short supply.
In war rash in Britain. So a pair of good.
Quality woollen underwear was used, Montague then outlined. 3
criteria. For the document that contained.
The details of the falsified. Plans to land in the.
Balkans. He said that the target should
be casually but clearly. Identified that it should name
Sicily and another location as cover and that it should be in
an unofficial correspondence that would not normally be sent
by diplomatic Courier or encoded signal.
The main document being proposed was a personal letter from
Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye, who was the Vice Chief of
the Imperial General Staff, who had a deep knowledge of ongoing
military operations, to General Sir Harold Alexander, commander
of the Anglo American 18th Army Group.
After several. Attempts at drafting the
document did not generate something that was considered
natural. It was suggested that Nye should
draw up the. Letter himself to cover the.
Required points. The letter covers several
reportedly. Sensitive subjects such as the
unwanted award of Purple Heart medals by U.S. forces.
To British. Servicemen serving with them and
the appointment of a new commander of the Brigade of
Gods, Montague. Thought the result was quite.
Brilliant. The key.
Part of the letter stated that. We have recent information that
the Germans have been reinforcing and strengthening
their defences in Greece and Crete, 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 1 Brigade.
Group for the assault. On the beach.
South of Cape Araxos. And that similar reinforcements
should be made. For the 56th Division.
At Kalamata, the letter went on to identify Sicily and the Do de
Canese as. Cover targets for the assaults.
Along with justifications for their selection, there was also
a letter of introduction from Martin from his commanding
officer, Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, to Admiral The.
Fleet, Sir Andrew. Cunningham Martin was referred
to in the letter as an amphibious warfare expert, on
loan until the assault is over. The document included a clumsy
joke about sardines, which Montague inserted in the hope
that the Germans would see it as a reference to a planned
invasion of Sardinia. A single black eyelash was
placed within the letter to check if the Germans or Spanish
had opened it. Montague.
Considered that their. Might be a possible Roman
Catholic prejudice against tampering with.
Corpses this. Could therefore mean that
officers might miss the documents stored in Michael's.
Pockets, so they also added. Them to an official.
Briefcase that. Would not be overlooked.
To justify. Carrying documents in a
briefcase, Major Martin was given 2.
Proof copies of the official. Pamphlet on combined operations,
written by the author Hilary Saunders, who at this time was
on Mountbatten's staff, and a letter from Mountbatten to
Eisenhower asking him to write a brief foreword for the
pamphlets. US edition.
The planning team first thought of having the handle clutched in
Michael's hand, held in place by rigor mortis.
But the rigor would probably. Wear off in the briefcase.
Would have drifted away. They therefore equipped.
Martin with a leather covered chain such as was used by bank
and jewellery. Couriers to secure their cases.
Against snatching, the chain unobtrusively runs down a.
Sleeve to the case. And to Montague, it seemed
unlikely that the major. Would keep the bag secured to
his wrist. During the long flight from
Britain, so the chain was looped around the belt of the trench
coat, Montague and Chumley had to carefully plan the location
of Martin's delivery. It long been assumed by the pair
that the western coast of Spain would be the ideal location
earlier in the planning they. Investigated the possibility of
Portuguese. And French coast but rejected.
Those in favour of Huelva. On the coast of southern Spain
after. Advice was.
Taken regarding the tides and currents best suited to ensure
the body landed where it was intended, Montague later
outlined that the. Choice of Huelva was also.
Made because, and to quote him, there was a very active German
agent who had excellent contacts with certain Spaniards, both
officials and others. Now the agent Adolf Klaus, a
member of the German military intelligence service, was the
son of the German consul and operated under the cover of an
agriculture technician, whoever was also chosen.
Because the British vice. Consul in the city Francis
Hassleden was, and I quote, a reliable and helpful man.
Who could be relied? Upon, according to Montague.
Martin's body was supposed. To be the victim of an aeroplane
crash and it was decided that trying to simulate the accident
at sea using flares and other devices would be too risky and
open to discovery. After sea planes and surface
ships were dismissed as being problematic, a submarine was
chosen as a method of delivering the corpse to the region.
To transport the body by. Submarine.
It needed to be contained within the body of the boat as any
externally mounted container would have.
To be built with a skin so thick it would alter the level of the.
Waterline the canister needed to remain airtight and keep the.
Body as fresh as possible. Through its journey, Spilsbury
provided the medical requirements and Chumley
contacted Charles Fraser Smith of the ministry.
Of supply to. Produce a container which was
labeled handled with care optical instruments.
On the 13th of April 1943, the Committee of the Chiefs of Staff
met and. Agreed that they thought the.
Plan should go ahead. The committee informed Colonel
John Bevan, the head of London Controlling Section, which
controlled the planning and coordination of deception
operations, that he needed to obtain final approval from
Churchill. Two days later, Bevan met the
Prime Minister. Who was said to be in bed
wearing a? Dressing gown and smoking a.
Cigar in his. Rooms at the Cabinet War offices
and explained the plan, he warned.
Churchill that there were several aspects that could.
Go wrong, including that the Spaniards might pass.
The corpse back to the British. With the papers unread,
Churchill replied. In that case, we shall have.
To get the body back. And give it another swim.
Churchill gave his. Approval to the operation but.
Delegated. The final confirmation to
Eisenhower, the overall military commander in the Mediterranean,
whose plan to. Invade Sicily would be affected.
Bevan sent an encrypted telegram to Eisenhower's headquarters in
Algeria requesting final confirmation, which was received
on the 17th of April. So now we move on to the
execution of Operation Mincemeat.
In the early hours of 17th of April 1943.
The corpse of Michael was dressed as Martin.
Although there was one last minute hitch, the feet had
frozen purchase. Montague and Chumley could not
put the boots on, so an electric.
Heater was located. And the feet defrosted enough to
put the boots on properly. The pocket litter was.
Placed on the body and briefcase attached the body.
Placed in a canister which was filled with 21 lbs.
Of dry ice and sealed. Up When the dry ice turned into
its gaseous form, it filled the canister with carbon.
Dioxide and drove out any. Oxygen, thus preserving the body
without the need for refrigeration.
The canister was placed in a 1937 Fordsome van of an MI. 5
driver. Sinjun, Jock, Horsfall, who had
been a racing champion before the war, Chumley and Montague
travelled in the back of the van which drove through the night to
Greenock in West Scotland, where the canister was taken on board
to submarine HMS Serif, which was preparing for deployment to
the Mediterranean. Serif's commander, Lieutenant
Bill Jewell and crew had previous special operations
experience. Jewel told his men that the
canister contained a top secret meteorological device to be
deployed near Spain. On the 19th of April, Serif set
sail and arrived. Just off the coast of.
Huelva on the 29th of April after being bombed twice on
route after spending the day observing the coastline at 4:15
AM on the. 30th of April, Serif surfaced.
Jewel had the canister brought up on deck, then sent all his.
Crew below, except the officers. They opened the container and
lowered the body into the water. Jewel.
Read Psalm 39 and ordered the engines to full astern the wash
from the propellers. Pushed the body towards the.
Shore The canister was reloaded and the submarine travelled 12
miles. Out of where it's surfaced.
And the empty container was pushed into the.
Water as it floated. It was riddled with machine
gunfire so it would sink. Because of the air trapped.
In the insulation, this effort failed and a canister was
destroyed with plastic. Explosives Jewel.
Afterwards sent a message to the Admiralty to say mincemeat
completed and continued on to Gibraltar.
The body of Major Martin was found at around 9:30 AM on the.
30th of April by local. Fishermen.
It was taken to whoever by Spanish soldiers, where it was
handed over to a naval judge. Hassleden, as vice consul, was
officially informed by the Spaniards.
He reported back to the Admiralty that the body and
briefcase had been found. A series of pre scripted.
Diplomatic cables were sent between Hassleden and his
superiors, which continued for several days.
The British knew that these were being incepted and although they
were encrypted, the Germans had broken the code the messages.
Played out the story that it was imperative that.
Hassleden retrieved the briefcase.
Because it was. Important at midday on the 1st
of May, an autopsy was undertaken on Michael's body.
Hassleden was present and in order to minimize the.
Possibilities that the 2 Spanish doctors would discover the body.
Was a three month old corpse asked if in the heat of the day
and the smell of the. Corpse the Doctor.
Should bring the post mortem to a close and have lunch.
They agreed and signed a death certificate for Major William
Martin for asphyxiation through immersion in the sea.
The body was released. By the Spanish and as Major
Martin was buried in the San Marco section of Nuestra Senora
Cemetery in Huelva with full military honors on the 2nd of
May. So what about the briefcase?
The Spanish Navy retained the briefcase and despite pressure
from Adolf Klaus and some of his intelligence agents, neither it
nor it's contents were handed over to the Germans on the 5th
of May. The briefcase was passed.
To the Naval headquarters at San Fernando near Cadiz for
forwarding to Madrid. While at San Fernando, the
contents were. Photographed by German
sympathizers. But the letters were not opened
once. A briefcase arrived in Madrid.
It's contents became the focus of attention of Carl Erik
Kuhlenthal, one of the most senior intelligence agents in
Spain. He asked Admiral Wilhelm
Canaris. The.
Head of the German military. Intelligence service to.
Personally intervene and persuade the Spanish to
surrender the documents. Acceding to the.
Request The Spanish removed the still damp paper by tightly
winding it around the probe into a cylindrical shape and then
pulling it out between the envelope flap, which.
Was still closed by wax. Seal and the envelope.
Body The letters were dried and photographed.
Then soaked in salt water for 20. 4 hours before.
Being reinserted into their envelopes.
Without the eyelash that had been.
Planted there, the information was passed to the Germans on the
8th of May. This was deemed so.
Important by agents in Spain that Coulintal personally took
the documents himself to Germany on the 11th of May.
The briefcase, complete with documents, was returned to
Hassleden by the Spanish authorities, which he forwarded
on to London. On receipt.
The documents were forensically examined and the.
Absence of the eyelash. Was noted.
Further tests showed that the. Fibres in the paper had been
damaged by folding more than once, which confirmed the
letters had been extracted and read.
An additional test was made. As the papers which were.
Still wet, by the time they returned to London were dried
out. The folded paper dried into.
The rolled form it had when the Spaniards had extracted it from
the envelope to allay any potential German fears that
their activities have been discovered.
Another pre arranged encrypted but breakable cable was sent to
Hassleden stating that the envelopes had been examined but
they had not been opened. Hassleden leaked the news to the
Spaniards known to be sympathetic to the Germans.
Final proof that the Germans had been passed.
The information from the letters came on the 14th of May, when a
German communication was decrypted by the government.
Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park.
Now Bletchley Park actually was another place I visited last
year and again just tells a fascinating.
History of the code breaking. And the efforts made during
wars. But again, I'll come to that in
another episode. The message which had been sent.
Two days previously. Warned that the invasion was to
be in the Balkans, with a nod to the Do de Canis, a message was
sent. By Brigadier Leslie Hollis, a
secretary to the chief Staff. Committee to Churchill, who was
then in the United States, it read Mincemeat, swallowed rod,
line and sinker. By the right people.
And from the best information, they look like acting on it.
Montague continued the deception to reinforce the existence of
Major Martin and included his. Details in the published list of
British casualties Which? Appeared in The Times on the 4th
of June. By coincidence, also published
that day were the names of two other.
Officers who had died. When their plane was lost at sea
and opposite the casualty listings was a report that the
film * Leslie Howard had been shot down and died in the Bay of
Biscay. Both stories gave.
Credence to the Major Martin. Story So what was the.
German reaction. To the letters well.
On the 14th of May 1943, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz met Hitler
to discuss. His recent visit to Italy.
His meeting with the Italian leader Benito Mussolini and the.
Progress of the War the. Admiral, referring to the
mincemeat documents as the Anglo-Saxon order recorded, the
Fuhrer does not agree with Mussolini that the most likely
invasion point is Sicily. Furthermore.
He believes that the discovered. Anglo-Saxon order confirms the
assumption that the planned attacks will be directed mainly
against Sardinia and the Peloponnesus.
Hitler informed Mussolini that Greece, Sardinia and Corsica
must be. Defended at all costs.
And that German troops would be best.
Placed to do the job he ordered. That the experienced First
Panzer Division be transferred from France to Salonica, Greece.
The order was intercepted. By Bletchley Park.
On the 21st of May, By the end of June, German troop strengths
on Sardinia had been doubled to 10,000 with.
Fighter aircraft also based air support.
German torpedo boats were moved from.
Sicily to the Greek. Islands in preparation, 7 German
divisions transferred. To Greece.
Raising the number present to 8 and 10 were posted to the
Balkans. Raising the number present to
18. On the 9th of July, the Allies
invaded Sicily in Operation Husky.
German signals intercepted. By Bletchley Park showed that
even 4 hours after the invasion. Of Sicily had begun 20.
One aircraft left Sicily to. Reinforce Sardinia for a
considerable time after the initial invasion.
Hitler was still. Convinced that an attack on the
Balkans was imminent and in late July he sent General Erwin
Rommel to Salonika to prepare the defence of the region.
By the time the German high command realised a mistake, it
was too late to make a difference.
So what was the? Result of this plan on the 25th
of July 1940. Three as the battle for.
Sicily went against the Axis. Forces the.
Italian Grand Council of Fascism voted to.
Limit the power of. Mussolini and handed control of
the Italian armed. Forces over the King Victor.
Emmanuelle the Third The following day, Mussolini met the
king, who dismissed him as Prime Minister.
The former dictator was then imprisoned.
A new Italian government took power and began secret
negotiations with the Allies. Sicily fell on the 17th of.
August after a force of 65. 1000 Germans held off 400,000
American and British troops long enough to allow many of the
Germans to evacuate to the Italian mainland military
historian John Latimer observes that the relative.
Ease with which the Allies captured Sicily.
Was not entirely because of minceme or the.
Wider deception of Operation Berkeley.
Latimer identifies other factors, including Hitler's
distrust of the Italians and his unwillingness to risk German
troops alongside Italians who may have been on the point of a
general surrender. Another military historian,
Michael Howard, while describing mincemeat as perhaps the most
successful single deception operation of the entire war,
considered mincemeat. And Barclay to have had.
Less impact on the. Course of the Sicily.
Campaign than Hitler's obsession with the Balkans, McIntyre
writes that the exact impact of mincemeat is.
Impossible to calculate, although the British had
expected. 10,000 killed or wounded in the first week of
fighting. Only a 7th of that number became
casualties. The Navy expected 300 ships
would be sunk in the action, but they lost 12 and the predicted
90 day campaign was over in 38. It was also stated that as a
result. Of Operation Husky, Hitler
suspended the Kursk offensive on the. 13th of July This was
partly because of the. Performance of the Soviet Army
but. Also because he still assumed.
That the allied landing on. Sicily was.
A feint that preceded the invasion in the Balkans and he
wanted to have troops. Available for fast deployment.
To meet them, it was observed that once Hitler gave up the
initiative to the Soviets, he never regained it.
So what's the legacy of all this?
Montague was appointed an Officer of the Order of the
British Empire in 1944 for his part in Operation Mitzmeat.
Chumley was appointed a Member of the Order in 1948.
Duff Cooper, a former cabinet minister who had been briefed on
the operation in March 1943, published the spy novel
Operation Heartbreak in 1950, which contained a.
Plot device of a corpse. With papers naming him as
William Merrington being. Floated off the coast of.
Spain with false documents to deceive the Germans.
British security services decided that the best response
was to publish a. Story of mincemeat over.
The course of the. Weekend Montague wrote The Man
Who Never Was in 1953. This sold 2 million copies and
formed the basis for a film in 1956.
Security services. Did not give Montague complete
freedom to reveal operational details.
He was careful not to mention the role.
Played by the. Signals intelligence to confirm
that the operation had been successful.
He was also careful to obscure. The idea of an organised
programme of strategic deception with mincemeat being presented
as a wild one off caper. In 1977 Montague published
Beyond Top Secret U, his wartime autobiography which gave further
details of Minsme among other operations.
In 2010, journalist Ben McIntyre published Operation Minsmeat, a
history of the events and the play Operation Minsmeat, written
by Adrian Jackson and Farhana Sheikh.
Was first staged by the cardboard.
Citizens Theatre Company in 2001 and the work focused on
Michael's homelessness. In 2014.
A musical called Dead in the Water performed at Camden,
Brighton and Guildford Fringe Festivals.
In 2015. The Welsh.
Theatre staged. The Man Who Never Was a musical
based on the operation and Glinda Michael's upbringing in
Aber bargoed the musical was performed by primary school
children from carefully county borough and the final three
things just to mention around this.
So in 2014 there was ABBC television series called Fleming
the Man who would be Bond, which dramatized some aspects of
Operation Minsmeet and Fleming's connection to the operation.
In 2019, Operation Minsmeet the Musical began, which is the one
I mentioned? At the start so.
This is now, I believe, still at the Fortunes Theatre in London
and in 2020. 2. Operation Minsmeet Film was
released. With Colin Firth.
As Montague and Matthew McFadden as Chumley.
So I think the final comments on this has to be with Glinda,
Michael now, now I've mentioned. The musical a couple of.
Times and I, you know, I just want to say that they do in
especially at the end, it's actually quite, quite moving.
Tribute they pay to. Glinda, Michael at the end.
You've probably. Heard in the description above
or, or the recollection of this story, you know, some quite
blunt descriptions by the people at the time of the body and the
actions they, you know, they were performing.
It's important to say that the part that he had and the fact he
was, I think I mentioned he was buried with full military honour
when Michael was first buried. I think it, I think the plaque
did have the man who never was or it was unnamed.
But then when the name came to light in 1996, the name was
added to the plaque. He's still buried.
In Jueva, Spain, the body. Still stays there.
I hope you found this as interesting as I did when
learning about it. It it.
It's just something that had an impact on me when I saw both the
show and the exhibition. I'll leave it there.
As I mentioned, I think you'll hear over.
The course of the year. Some more episodes kind of
related to similar things, but yeah, drop me a line on social
media if you have any comments on this.
Otherwise, I'll see you next week for another episode of
Casting Views 4. If I want your opinion, I will
give it to you. Come on, take what we've got
because you need it. Don't make us get a spark and
force need it. Come on, we've got what you
need. We're casting you, Yeah.