Spanish tomb of The Man Who Never Was - whose corpse was used in Britain's famous Operation Mincemeat plan to fool Hitler - could be EXHUMED to settle doubts over the body's true identity

UK Daily Mail ^ | 12/28/2021 | Chris Pleasance

[DFG]

In the final row of graves in an obscure cemetery in southern Spain, is a tomb dedicated to William Martin - a British officer killed during the Second World War.

Except that Martin wasn't real. He was invented by British spies as part of a daring and successful plot to fool Hitler about the invasion of Sicily, using the corpse of an unknown man dressed up like an officer and carrying a case full of fake documents.

Now, ahead of the release of new film Operation Mincemeat which documents the mission, calls are growing to exhume the grave so the true identity of The Man Who Never Was can be confirmed and his place in history assured.

Leading the calls are Ben Macintyre, a journalist and author who penned a book on Operation Mincemeat and believes Martin's real identity is that of a homeless Welsh man, and two teams of Spanish researchers with conflicting claims.

According to Macintyre, the corpse used by British intelligence as a stand-in for Martin was Glyndwr Michael - a vagrant who had been living on the streets of London before dying in January 1943 after accidentally eating rat poison.

This is backed up by MI5 documents obtained in 1996 by an amateur historian which seem to confirm the identity, and by an inscription on 'Martin's' grave which gives his father's name as John Glyndwr Martin - perhaps a nod to the body's true identity.

But Jesus Ramírez and Enrique Nielsen, Spanish researchers, say there are inconsistencies in that account and they believe the body is actually that of a British sailor who died when HMS Dasher sunk off the coast of Scotland in March 1943.

[Tallguy]

I watched a program last weekend about the curious death of Merriwether Lewis of “Lewis & Clark” fame. His death at a roadside in on the Natchez Trace was ruled a suicide, despite the fact that he was shot twice (in the chest & back of the head) with a ball & cap pistol — neat trick when you think about it.

He has family that would like to exhume the body and have a forensic coroner look at the remains with a view toward correcting the official record. But the national park service — that erected his grave monument — will not permit it.

Now here is a situation that begs for a review. Enough is known about Operation Mincemeat, that maybe they should just let it alone.

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 12/28/2021, thanks DFG.