Posted on 12/03/2010 2:33:36 PM PST by decimon
During World War II, the Nazis fell for an audacious British plot to pass off a dead tramp as an officer carrying secret documents. How - and are such tactics still in use today?
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Into his pockets went an identity card, ticket stubs and mementos from a fiancee. Chained to his wrist was a briefcase containing a letter marked "PERSONAL AND MOST SECRET", identifying Greece for invasion by Allied forces. Greece was a dummy target - the real plan was to invade Sicily.
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Michael/Martin was but a prop in Operation Mincemeat, brainchild of Ian Fleming, and put into action by Cholmondeley and Montagu, Churchill's "corkscrew thinkers" in the War Office.
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Prior to Mincemeat, they had created a network of fictitious double agents to feed misinformation to the Nazis. These imaginary spies were, like Michael/Martin, given jobs, hobbies, family, lovers and bank managers. The Germans thought they had an established spy network in the UK - in reality, they had none.
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After a tense week or so - it took the Germans several attempts to get sight of the briefcase's contents - photographs of the falsified documents made it to Hitler's desk. He was fooled, and moved an entire panzer division - 90,000 soldiers - to Greece.
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(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
This was the basis of the movie “The man Who Never was.”
You beat me to it!
Bump for later..
I didn't know there were 90,000 men in a Panzer Division. When I was a boy, Nazi Panzer Division had more like 14,000 men. (U.S. divisions had about 16,000 but slightly less firepower on paper because of fewer automatic weapons. Of course U.S. Divisions were a lot more likely to have their full complement of men and equipment.)
Interesting. I will see this movie now. Sounds intriguing!
“moved an entire panzer division - 90,000 soldiers - to Greece”
90k soldiers is not a division - it is an Army.
10,000 guys in tanks and 80,000 Remington Raiders.
My reading and understanding of the book showed he wasn’t a tramp ... the guy died of pneumonia which made it even more convincing since he washed up on a beach when set afloat from a sub. They went to the guys mother to get permission to use the body but didn’t say what for, just that it was an important war effort....
One account that I read said that the body was of an
alcoholic and that some of those involved were actually
surprised that the Germans did a sloppy enough autopsy to
have missed the signs of alcohol abuse and malnutrition.
Like a lot of history, probably several versions of the
story out there.
Yes. He did know something of what he wrote.
According to Wikipedia, the Nazis moved two Panzer Divisions from the Eastern Front, which not available at the Battle of Kursk and one from France. If they added three Panzer divisions to Greece, no telling how many infantry they would have sent. Apparently “Mincemeat swallowed whole” is true.
Also, when the German subsequentially found genuine maps and documents, they regarded them as ruses as a result of Mincemeat.
The Wehrmacht Heer panzer division consisted of a single panzer regiment, two panzergrenadier regiments, one motorised artillery regiment (later a panzer artillery regiment). Several other combat and combat support battalions were often included, like motorcycle-infantry battalion, reconnaissance battalion (Aufklärungsabteilung), pioneer battalion (combat engineers), signals battalion, anti-aircraft battalion, and field replacement battalion. At full strength, the division included around 16,000 personnel and was equipped with between 135 and 209 tanks, with the amount of tanks decreasing over the course of the war.
209 tanks x 4 crewman = 1036 tankers per division, max.
Interesting, thanks!
The book was written in 1953. More facts have come to light since. Apparently he was Glyndwr Michael, 34, a Welsh alcoholic vagrant, allegedly from Aberbargoed, who died of ingesting rat poison in January. His body was frozen and kept in dry ice until needed. He had no parents and no permission was obtained. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission in January 1998 added an inscription to the gravestone of “Major Martin” in the Catholic cemetery of Huelva, which reads, “Glyndwr Michael served as Major William Martin.” See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat
Es tut mir lied - Wiki. Should have cited my source.
Most likely true ...I forgot which version I read but it dealt with the guy having pneumonia which was good since water in the lungs added to the realism of him being washed overboard from a ship or from a plane crash, can’t remember what the story was ...I don’t think malnutrition was possible since he had theater tickets and slips from some restaurants in his pocket (among other things) and since he was a supposed British officer he had to have been pretty healthy ...
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