Operation Mincemeat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The operation Mincemeat was a very successful deception of the British in the Second World War , by which one the German High Command ( OKW convinced) that the Allied invasion in the Peloponnese and on Sardinia instead prepared from Sicily , the actual goal. In order to achieve this, the Germans had to be made to believe that they had accidentally got hold of top-secret documents containing details of Allied war plans. The success of Operation Mincemeat was due to the unusual method that was chosen for it: the documents were in a briefcase that was chained to a corpse that was drifted onto a Spanish beach in order to simulate a courier crash. The story was published as a book after the war and later filmed under the same title ( The Man Who Never Was ) .

Planning the deception

After the sinking of the 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43, Great Britain and the USA sought to establish a second front in the west. After the African campaign was halted, the Allied planners turned to mainland Europe . Due to its location, Sicily became the first destination. It lined up as a springboard for an invasion of the mainland, and control of the island would be instrumental in protecting Allied sea transports in the Mediterranean . However, the Germans were also aware of the island's strategic importance. (Churchill is quoted as saying "Only a fool will not recognize that it is Sicily.") This is where the base for the German air force attacks on the British positions on Malta was located . Since the massive preparatory measures of the Allies for the invasion (code name " Operation Husky ") would certainly not go unnoticed and would be recognized as a sign of an imminent operation, it was necessary for the Allies to deceive the Germans so that they would not receive theirs in return Concentrate forces and drive back the invasion.

A few months earlier, Flight Lt. Charles Cholmondeley from Section B1 (a) of MI5 had the idea of ​​dropping a radio over France that had been attached to the body of a dead person who was hanging from a parachute that was only partially open, in order to provide the Germans with targeted disinformation . Though rejected as impractical and impractical, the idea was revived a few months later by a small, cross-departmental team called the Twenty Committee .

As author and member of the Twenty Committee, Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu , officer in the British Naval Intelligence Department , describes in his later published book, the possible prospects of success of Cholmondeley's idea evolved into a new, better-executed plan. Soon afterwards the details of the deception were worked out together. At first, the team thought the documents would need to be recovered from the body of a man who died from a parachute not opening , as originally suggested by Cholmondeley. However, knowing that the Allies never allowed confidential documents to be transported over enemy territory, the Germans decided to instead make it appear as if the dead man was the victim of a plane crash over the sea. This procedure would also explain plausibly why the death had already occurred several days before the body floating in the sea was found. Now all that was missing was a code name, and Montagu selected “ Mincemeat ” from the list of possible code words , which would be available again after successfully completing another mission.

precursor

The idea of ​​equipping a corpse with prepared documents was not new. Two events that Montagu should have been aware of illustrate this. The first was a deception in August 1942, before the battle of Alam el Halfa . A corpse equipped with a prepared map was placed in a detonated scout vehicle in a minefield south of Quaret el Abd facing the 90th Light Africa Division . The location of Allied minefields was shown on the map, but in reality they did not exist. The Germans fell for the deception, and Rommel's tanks were thus directed into an area of ​​soft sand where they got stuck.

The second event wasn't a deception, but rather a mishap. In September of the same year, a PBY Catalina crashed off Cádiz . On board was Paymaster-Lt. James Hadden Turner of the Royal Navy . On the body, which was washed up near Tarifa and recovered by the Spanish authorities, was a letter from General Mark Clark to the Governor of Gibraltar naming French agents in North Africa and the date of Operation Torch as the 4th November (which did not take place until November 8). When the body was handed over to the Allies, the letter was still there and technicians could tell it hadn't been opened either. Even if the Germans were technically able to read the letter without opening it, they - if they actually had access to it - apparently regarded the information it contained as incorrect and did not react to it.

Major William Martin, Royal Marines

The replacement ID issued to Major William Martin that was affixed to the body

With the help of the renowned pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury , Montagu and his team were able to determine exactly what kind of corpse they would need for their purposes, since it had to give the impression of a drowned person. Through very discreet research, they came into possession of the body of a 34-year-old man who had recently died of pneumonia caused chemically by rat poison. His relatives were informed about the project and committed to secrecy. They agreed to the use of the corpse on the condition that its true identity could never be revealed. Since the man had died of pneumonia, the fluid in his lungs gave an image that corresponded to a corpse that had been drifting in the sea for a long time.

The next step was to create a " legend ", i.e. a false identity, for the man: Captain / Acting Major William Martin of the Royal Marines , born in Cardiff ( Wales ) in 1907 , part of the Combined Operations Headquarters . The rank of acting major was assigned to him because an officer of lower rank would not have been given such secret documents, but someone in their mid-thirties would have appeared too young to hold a higher rank. Making Martin an acting major solved both problems and made him appear as a particularly trustworthy officer.

To add credibility to this false identity, they also furnished him with a fiancée named Pam (actually a secretary at MI5), complete with photos, love letters, and a letter from his father expressing his dissatisfaction with the bride's choice . They also put a set of keys, torn off theater tickets for a recent performance, his club's records for housing in London, and similar items in the body's pockets. To make him even more believable, Montagu and his team decided to also indicate a certain carelessness by sending his documents overdue invoices, a replacement ID instead of a lost ID (the number of his "lost" ID was that of Montagu), an expired ID for the Combined Operations Headquarters (which Martin forgot to renew) and an angry letter from a Lloyds Bank banker warning Martin for an overdraft of £ 79 19s 2d . (Today that would be around £ 2,500.) Although this last detail made the forged identity even more realistic, it also ran the risk that the German Abwehr would find it suspicious that such a careless person had been entrusted with confidential documents. However, if Montagu knew about the incident with the Catalina flying boat, he could also assume that the Germans were aware that they had previously missed a spy coup in a similar situation. But it was also necessary to imply a certain carelessness from Martin, as they had to make sure that the body and the briefcase with the documents were found with the documents. The solution the team opted for was to chain the bag to his trench coat, creating the impression of a man who wanted to make himself comfortable on a long flight but still wanted to keep the files with him at all times.

While Montagu and his team were in the process of creating the false identity of Major William Martin, the documents necessary for the actual deception (to suggest to the Germans that the invasion took place in a place other than Sicily) were produced at the same time. This bogus scenario envisaged an attack on Sardinia, which would then serve as a base for an invasion of southern France, followed by a second advance against Greece from the Balkans. Instead of providing direct evidence of this through official documents, the war plans were confirmed by means of a personal letter from Lt. Gene. Sir Archibald Nye ( Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff ) indicated to General Sir Harold Alexander (the British Commander in North Africa). It was revealed as an unofficial note that there would be two operations: Alexander would attack Sardinia and Corsica , while General Sir Henry Wilson would focus on Greece. The latter operation was codenamed "Husky", the name of the actually planned invasion of Sicily. The letter also reveals a (also fictitious) deception plan that was supposed to convince the Germans that there would be an invasion of Sicily instead. This was to create the impression that the Germans were facing a force strong enough to carry out two independent operations far from their real aim, in order to induce them to disperse their forces.

Both to underline the confidential nature of the letter and to establish Major Martin's qualification for a trip to North Africa, Montagu also added another letter from Lord Louis Mountbatten (Head of Combined Operations) to Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham (Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet) . In the letter, Mountbatten praised Major Martin as an expert on amphibious operations and stressed that the British should not express their dislike of the American practice of awarding Purple Hearts for every wound in combat. More importantly, Mountbatten also wrote to Cunningham that Martin was carrying a letter that was too important to be mailed in the normal way, which in turn directly resulted in the need for Martin to fly to North Africa. In this letter, too, the confidential information was passed on that Sardinia would be the target of an invasion.

execution

The HMS Seraph

Major Martin, preserved in dry ice and clad in his Royal Marines uniform, was packed in a steel cylinder. Cholmondeley and Montagu then borrowed a van with which they brought this canister to Greenock , Scotland , from where they transported it by boat to Holy Loch . There he was then loaded onto the submarine HMS Seraph . Montagu had arranged this with Admiral Barry, who was in charge of the submarine fleet. Barry had suggested the seraph that was available and whose commanding officer Lt. Fortunately, Norman LA (Bill) Jewell and his crew already had special operations experience.

On April 19, 1943, the Seraph set sail and headed for a point about a mile from Huelva on the Spanish coast . This location was chosen because it was known that Spain was neutral, but that it sympathized with the Axis powers and that a large number of Abwehr agents were there, which made it easier for the Germans to discover the documents. It was also known that a German agent was stationed in Huelva who had excellent contacts with the Spanish authorities.

At around 4 a.m. on April 30, Lt. Jewell to bring the canister up on deck. He had previously told the crew that a top-secret meteorological device would be used and was now commanding them below deck. He then gathered his officers on deck, explained the details of the operation to them and sworn them to secrecy. At 4:15 a.m., the canister was opened and Major Martin's life jacket inflated. The briefcase with the papers had been chained to the body beforehand. Jewell said the 39th  Psalm , which the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England provides as part of the Dead Office, and pushing the body at 4:30 am cautiously into the sea, where he was the tide would bring ashore. After the operation was complete, Jewell sent the message "Mincemeat completed" to the committee.

The body was found that morning at around 9:30 a.m. by a fisherman named José Antonio Rey María, who took it to the port, from where the find was reported to the local police. Their boss was a man named Adolf Clauss, the son of the German consul, who had a cover identity as an agricultural technician there.

"Mincemeat swallowed whole"

Three days later the committee received a telegram from the naval attaché with the news that the body had been found. After the handover to the British Vice Consul FK Hazeldene, Major Martin's body was buried with full military honors in Huelva on May 4th.

The Vice Consul had the pathologist Eduardo Del Torno perform an autopsy beforehand . This concluded that the man was still alive when he fell into the sea and that he had no visible bruises . He cited drowning as the cause of death and that he believed the body had been in the sea for three to five days. A more comprehensive examination was not carried out because the pathologist classified the deceased as Roman Catholic , as he wore a silver crucifix around his neck and had a St. Christopher plaque in his wallet.

Meanwhile, Montagu decided to add Major Martins' name to the next list of British Fallen, published a month later in The Times , knowing the Germans would read it to verify Martin's authenticity. By coincidence, the names of two other officers were also published that day who had actually died when their plane crashed into the sea on the way to Gibraltar, which gave the legend of Major Martin further credibility. To further reinforce the deception, a series of urgent messages were also sent from the Admiralty to the Naval Attaché, in which - due to their confidential nature - the return of the documents found on the body at all costs, with the notice that all inquiries were made must be employed discreetly so as not to make the Spanish authorities aware of their importance. The papers were returned on May 13th with the assurance that "everything is there."

The Germans learned of the discovery of the body and the local Abwehr agent (despite some difficulties) was able to get hold of the documents. The envelopes were carefully opened and the letters photographed. They were then handed over to the British on May 13th by the Spanish authorities. The photographs were meanwhile brought to Berlin as quickly as possible , where they were evaluated by the German secret service.

After Major Martin's body was returned, the papers were examined; the British concluded that the letters had been read and then carefully folded and sealed again. After further confirmation by ULTRA , a telegram could be sent to Winston Churchill , who was staying in the United States at the time: "Mincemeat Swallowed Whole" (Eng. " Mincemeat completely swallowed." )

The story had indeed been "swallowed" by the Germans. The effort Montagu and his team had put into building Major Martin's identity had paid off. It was not until much later that they learned that the Germans had checked the date on the torn off theater tickets (April 22, 1943) and were able to confirm it was authentic. As a result, Hitler was so convinced of the authenticity of the bogus letters that he no longer shared Mussolini's assessment that Sicily was the most likely target of an invasion, but rather insisted that any attack on the island should be viewed as a ruse . Hitler ordered reinforcements to Sardinia and Corsica and also sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to Athens to form an army group there. Even patrol boats and minesweepers, as well as mine- layers intended for the defense of Sicily, were then diverted to other locations. Perhaps most critical, however, was the relocation of two tank divisions from the Eastern Front , where they were actually urgently needed for the Citadel operation, to Greece . This effect was not foreseen by the British, but it probably contributed to the defeat of the Germans in this battle.

The Operation Husky began on July 9, 1943, the Allied attack on Sicily. Despite this, the Germans remained convinced for two weeks that the main attack on Sardinia and Greece was still imminent. As a result, the Allied forces encountered relatively little resistance and the conquest of Sicily was completed on August 9th. In addition, the fall of Palermo during the invasion in mid-July inspired the coup against Mussolini , which was subsequently overthrown on July 27.

Effects on later operations

As a result of the successful deception, German defense efforts in Greece and the Aegean Sea, particularly on the islands of the Dodecanese that belong to Italy , were considerably increased in 1943. When the British General Wilson, on Churchill's instructions, actually planned a landing on the Dodecanese without US support and carried it out in September 1943, he encountered well-prepared German armed forces. The attempt to land turned into a debacle for the British, who lost an entire infantry brigade in this solo effort.

Due to the success of the operation, the Germans often viewed later document finds as similar forgeries, such as in these cases:

  • Two days after the Allies landed in Normandy , the Germans found an abandoned landing craft that had washed up in the mouth of the Vire . There were top secret documents on board that identified future military targets in the region. However, Hitler, still convinced that the actual invasion would take place on the Strait of Calais , thought the documents were a deception.
  • In the run-up to the Allied invasion of the Netherlands in September 1944 , a British officer inadvertently left the complete marching orders, including maps and graphics for the airborne part of the invasion, on board a glider - documents that were never actually on one of the flights or even with the invasion troops should have decided. The documents fell into the hands of the Germans, who were convinced that they were trying to deceive and then deployed their troops exactly contrary to the information contained in the documents. The plot of Cornelius Ryan's book, The Arnhem Bridge, which was later filmed , also relates to this event .

Who was Major Martin?

The grave of Major Martin in Huelva , Spain

Ewen Montagu was awarded the Military Order of the British Empire for successfully completing Operation Mincemeat . He was later named Judge Advocate of the Fleet and wrote a book about the operation that appeared in 1953 under the title The Man Who Never Existed and was made into a film in 1955.

The man who became known as Major Martin is buried in the Solitude Cemetery in Huelva. As Operation Mincemeat became more and more of a legend, the question of Major Martin's true identity came to the fore. But it wasn't until 1996 that amateur historian Roger Morgan was able to unearth evidence that showed that Major Martin was actually a vagabond and alcoholic from Wales by the name of Glyndwr Michael , who had died of ingestion of rat poison for unknown reasons .

The connection to the HMS Dasher

In their book The Secrets of HMS Dasher , however, the authors John and Noreen Steele claim that the corpse used was not that of Glyndwr, but that of one of the victims in the sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Dasher on March 27, 1943. As a justification they provide evidence states that the vagabond's body had already been procured in January 1943 and that, even when frozen, it had already begun to decompose. They also ask why the submarine HMS Seraph was ordered first up the east coast of Scotland, then around the northern tip and then south to the Firth of Clyde , where the HMS Dasher sank . In their opinion it would have made more sense for Montagu to go straight to Blyth , where the Seraph had previously been in port. The two authors therefore assume that a new corpse was needed to carry out the operation, as the original one was already too badly decayed and Montagu only brought the empty steel cylinder to Holy Loch.

Hence, they conclude that the body ultimately used for Operation Mincemeat was that of John "Jack" Melville, a 37-year-old seaman who died while the Dasher in the estuary of the Clyde exploded. His identity as the fictional Major Martin was officially recognized by the Royal Navy by holding a memorial service in his honor on October 8, 2004, aboard the patrol boat HMS Dasher in the waters of the Royal Air Force base in Cyprus. In the words of Lt. Commander Mark Hill, the commanding officer of the Naval Squadron in Cyprus :

“In his incarnation as Major Martin, John Melville's memory lives on in the film, The Man Who Never Was . But we are gathered here today to remember John Melville as a man who most certainly was. "

“In his incarnation as Major Martin, the memory of John Melville lives on in the film The Man Who Never Was. But we have come together here today to remember John Melville as the man who really was. "

This account by John and Noreen Steele did not go unchallenged. Denis Smyth dedicates an appendix to her in his book with numerous notes.

Influences

Operation Mincemeat provided the inspiration for similar deceptive maneuvers in the novels Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson , Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy and Body of Lies by David Ignatius . Similar motifs can also be found in the film version of James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice and in the science fiction series Space 2063 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Operation Mincemeat  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ "Anyone but a fool would realize it's Sicily."
  2. ↑ a b c Operation Mincemeat - The Man Who Never Was on the BBC's h2g2 website.
  3. ^ A b Roger Morgan: Operation Mincemeat. After the Battle, May 1988 issue, p. 4.
  4. ↑ Kevin D. Smith: Coming Into its Own: The Contribution of Intelligence at the Battle of Alam Halfa. Military Review, July – August 2002 issue, pp. 74–77. Although the use of a corpse is partially denied, Smith provides a detailed account of how Brigadier Francis de Guingand prepared the entire deception. Whether the manipulated map influenced Rommel's decisions is also controversial.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Ewen Montagu: The Man Who Never Was. 1953
  6. ^ Obituary for Captain Bill Jewell in The Telegraph
  7. ^ Archer Class Auxiliary Carrier, HMS Dasher Destroyed by Explosion on the 27nd. of March 1943. 379 Dead. A report on the accident involving HMS Dasher
  8. ^ Dead Men's Secrets Documentary. Episode D-Day Deception
  9. ↑ TV sleuth pins down 'the man who never was'. In: The Age
  10. ↑ Morgan found this name in the Public Record Office in Kew, West London.
  11. ↑ Tribute to the man who never was. In: The Scotsman
  12. ↑ Denis Smyth: Deathly Deception. The Real Story of Operation Mincemeat . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-923398-4 , pp. 281-285 .