Operation Mincemeat

The idea: a corpse as the carrier of a forgery

In 1943 the Allies were preparing to land in Sicily. Operation Mincemeat was meant to mislead the Germans about the real target: the documents on the body suggested that the main blow would fall on Greece and Sardinia, with Sicily as a mere feint.^1,3

The plan was devised by Ewen Montagu of naval intelligence and Charles Cholmondeley of the RAF (spelt Cholmondely by the IWM). According to Imperial War Museums, a letter of 16 April 1943 confirmed that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had approved the plan.¹

Major William Martin, the man who never was

The body was that of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man who died in London on 24 January 1943 after swallowing rat poison. It was dressed in the uniform of a Royal Marines major and given the identity of ‘Major William Martin’.^1,2

A briefcase of secret papers was placed with the body, including a letter from Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye to General Sir Harold Alexander. The files also preserve a letter from the ‘major’s’ supposed girlfriend (WO 106/5921).^2,4

30 April 1943: Huelva

Early on 30 April 1943 the British submarine HMS Seraph released the body into the sea just over a mile off the southern Spanish coast. At around 9.30 that morning a local fisherman found it and informed the authorities.^1,2,5

The briefcase was taken by the Spanish Navy. The documents were secretly opened and photographed, and copies reached German intelligence officers in Spain.^1,2

Glyndwr Michael is buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Huelva; the grave also bears the name of ‘Major William Martin’.²

How the British knew the Germans had believed it

The records of Britain’s codebreaking organisation include a paper from Montagu of NID 12 to Frank Birch of GC&CS, dated 30 April 1943. It concerns the circulation of intelligence reports showing that the Germans had learnt of the planted plans for an Allied attack in the Mediterranean (file HW 20/546).⁶

Montagu also wrote a report on the whole operation; The National Archives at Kew holds it as CAB 154/112.⁷

The effect

According to Imperial War Museums, the Germans doubled the troops sent to Sardinia and moved many additional divisions to Greece and the Balkans.¹

The landing in Sicily (Operation Husky) began on 9 July 1943 and took the German defenders by surprise; the island was captured in just over a month. The IWM calls the lack of German reinforcements a deciding factor in the success.^1,2

The historian Denis Smyth described the operation in a monograph published by Oxford University Press, examining how the false information was assessed by German intelligence, the high command and Hitler.^8,9