Facts From 1943 - Operation Mincemeat
During the dark days of World War II , Operation Mincemeat was a daring and ultimately successful British intelligence deception operation to convince the Germans that the Allied Forces were planning to invade Greece and not Sicily.
The operation was based on the 1939 Trout Memo written by Admiral John Godfrey , the Director of Naval Intelligence and his personal assistant Ian Fleming , author of the James Bond spy novels. The basis of the plan was taken up by Charles Cholmondeley , a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force who was assigned a naval officer named Ewen Montagu to develop the idea further. The plan whilst high risk was eventually approved by Winston Churchill and General Dwight D Eisenhower and put into action by acquiring the body of a man of a certain age. The person chosen was a tramp who had died from eating rat poison - a Welshman named Glyndwr Martin. His corpse was dressed up to portray him as an officer of the Royal Marines and various personal and top secret papers were placed about his person to falsely identify him as Major William Martin. The papers revealed that the Allies were intending to invade Greece and not Sicily as the Germans expected. When the time was ripe the body was released off the southern coast of Spain and washed ashore.
The Spanish government came into possession of the body but before returning it to the British with all papers intact , copies of the plan had been handed to the Germans. Upon examination , the British discovered that the papers had indeed been read. Fortunately , the Germans fell for the ruse and moved troops to Greece. On 9th July 1943 the invasion of Sicily called Operation Husky proceeded to plan and Allied forces landed on the beaches with limited casualties and later took over the whole island.
Know Someone Born in 1943?
Recommended reading:
Facts From 1969 - Man On The Moon
Facts From 1939 - World War II Begins
The operation was based on the 1939 Trout Memo written by Admiral John Godfrey , the Director of Naval Intelligence and his personal assistant Ian Fleming , author of the James Bond spy novels. The basis of the plan was taken up by Charles Cholmondeley , a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force who was assigned a naval officer named Ewen Montagu to develop the idea further. The plan whilst high risk was eventually approved by Winston Churchill and General Dwight D Eisenhower and put into action by acquiring the body of a man of a certain age. The person chosen was a tramp who had died from eating rat poison - a Welshman named Glyndwr Martin. His corpse was dressed up to portray him as an officer of the Royal Marines and various personal and top secret papers were placed about his person to falsely identify him as Major William Martin. The papers revealed that the Allies were intending to invade Greece and not Sicily as the Germans expected. When the time was ripe the body was released off the southern coast of Spain and washed ashore.
The Spanish government came into possession of the body but before returning it to the British with all papers intact , copies of the plan had been handed to the Germans. Upon examination , the British discovered that the papers had indeed been read. Fortunately , the Germans fell for the ruse and moved troops to Greece. On 9th July 1943 the invasion of Sicily called Operation Husky proceeded to plan and Allied forces landed on the beaches with limited casualties and later took over the whole island.
Know Someone Born in 1943?
Recommended reading:
Facts From 1969 - Man On The Moon
Facts From 1939 - World War II Begins
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