The Man Who Never Was

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The Man Who Never Was is a 1953 book by Ewen Montagu about the World War II Operation Mincemeat. Montagu played a leading role in the 1943 scheme to deceive the Germans about the planned Allied invasion of Sicily. The scheme entailed releasing a dead body just off the coast of Spain, where strong currents caused it to drift ashore in an area where a skilled German secret agent was known to operate. The corpse was to appear to be the victim of an airplane crash, the non-existent Royal Marine Captain ( Acting Major) William Martin, who had letters in a briefcase that hinted at a forthcoming Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia, rather than the obvious target of Sicily. The plan worked, German secret agents passed copies of fake documents onto German high Command who believed the deception and began redeploying troops. By the end of June, the German forces on Sardinia had been doubled to 10,000. German torpedo boats were moved from Sicily to the Greek islands in preparation and German divisions transferred to Greece and the Balkans. The Invasion of Sicily Is that an effort to dissuade us from parting with our hard-earned shekels? After all, Ewen Montagu’s account is incomplete and written at the behest of the Government [to hide the truth from the plebeian]. One might consider a major omission in the film was that the overall deception plan was to have the Germans anticipate the landings in the Eastern Med and in the west against Corsica and Sardinia. Thus, positing the hopeful cutting off of Sicily to dry off the rest of the Italian vine all while allowing for further movement against either or both middle Italy/ Southern France (actually the object in Operation ANVIL in mid 1944) to be attached from potential bases on Sardinia and Corsica. Operation Barclay was set up with plans to create the impression that an entire army group existed in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was to create a lot of noise, as though planning to invade Greece. General Henry Wilson was put in charge of this imaginary army. Double agents were to feed disinformation to the Germans about landings in Greece. Meanwhile, General Patton was apparently put in charge of an operation to invade Sardinia and Corsica. As part of Barclay, two intelligence officials came together to mastermind a brilliant additional and original aspect to the deception plan.

Montagu himself expresses, seemingly in typical British unemotional remarks, how wildly happy he and his crew were that Operation Mincemeat was a spectacular success. Lots of Allied veterans who fought on Sicily, and their families, can be thankful for that. The Man Who Never Was is a 1956 British espionage thriller film produced by André Hakim and directed by Ronald Neame. It stars Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame and features Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin and Stephen Boyd. It is based on the book of the same name by Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu and chronicles Operation Mincemeat, a 1943 British intelligence plan to deceive the Axis powers into thinking the Allied invasion of Sicily would take place elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Lentz, Robert J. (10 January 2014). Gloria Grahame, Bad Girl of Film Noir: The Complete Career. McFarland. p.201. ISBN 9780786487226– via Google Books. The body of Major Martin was found at around 9:30am on 30 April 1943 by a local fisherman, who duly informed the local authorities. On 1 May a perfunctory post-mortem was performed by two Spanish doctors in the presence of the British Vice-Consul and the cause of death was listed as ‘asphyxiation through immersion in the sea’. Major Martin’s briefcase along with its contents of secret papers were taken into safe keeping by the Spanish Navy. Major Martin was buried in Huelva Roman Catholic Cemetery, with full military honours the following day. The mission, of course, was successful, and likely saved Allied lives during the first few days of the invasion of Sicily by diverting German resources elsewhere. Over the last 80 years, numerous books and even a movie ( Operation Mincemeat released in 2021) have been produced.The film gives this story a further twist by inventing a scene in which Montagu meets the man’s father (movingly played by Moultrie Kelsall) in the morgue. He agrees to his son’s body being used as long as it was treated with respect and that its identity would never be revealed. German signals intercepted by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) showed Operation Mincemeat had worked so well that even four hours after the invasion began, 21 Axis aircraft left Sicily to reinforce Sardinia. The body was dropped off the Spanish coast at dawn on 30 April by HMS Seraph, a submarine that had already taken part in Special Operations and whose captain was considered entirely trustworthy. An RAF dingy was dropped in the sea nearby to suggest that the body had come down in a plane crash. It was known the tides would carry the corpse ashore. Taking the bait? My reading of this, Ewen Montagu’s account [the man who commanded Operation Mincemeat], suggests that Ewen Montagu had NO sense of the dramatic. If anything, as is true of many of those who stood tall in the days of need [Captain Alexander Hill, Sir Paul Dukes, and others], Ewen Montagu comes over as staid and humble. Side note: apparently, the story is retold, at three times the length (so, presumably, in more detail), in a 2010 book titled: Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory ... but I haven't read that (and, frankly, there's a certain joy in reading Montagu's sparse, tight, yet, almost light and airy, autobiographical retelling of the tale with more than a fair share of modesty and self-congratulation, all of which seemed both fully justified and, surprisingly, endearing).

At last, when we had begun to feel that it would have either to be a ‘Burke and Hare’ after all or we would have to extend our enquiries so widely as to risk suspicion of our motives turning into gossip, we heard of someone who had just died from pneumonia after exposure: pathologically speaking, it looked as if he might answer our requirements. We made feverish enquiries into his past and about his relatives; we were soon satisfied that these would not talk or pass on such information as we could give them. But there was still the crucial question: could we get permission to use the body without saying what we proposed to do with it and why? All we could possibly tell anyone was that we could guarantee that the purpose would be a really worthwhile one, as anything that was done would be with approval on the highest level, and that the remains would eventually receive proper burial, though under a false name. Permission, for which our indebtedness is great, was obtained on condition that I should never let it be known whose corpse it was.” The Man Who Never Was was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, [1] and Nigel Balchin's screenplay won the BAFTA for that year. [2] Plot [ edit ] With Germany reeling from Alamein and Stalingrad, it was prone to that "wishfulness" and "yesmanship" that are the cardinal sins of counter-deception. The real weakness of Operation Mincemeat was that there was just one body and that one suspiciously stuffed with high-grade intelligence. One of the oddities of the story is that, even in the London of the blitz, corpses without relations or injuries were extremely hard to come by. Macintyre, Ben (4 May 2010). Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory. Crown. p.308. ISBN 9780307453297– via Google Books. The true identity of the fictitious “Major William Martin” is not revealed in this book, and later there was some dispute about it. Montagu himself wrote that the real man who served his country in death was Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man from Wales.I begin my day by wasting time on Wikipedia looking for obscure historical events or uncelebrated birthdays. One fine day last week I saw an entry for "Operation Mincemeat" in their "Did You Know...?" section. I read further and discovered this book, which is the history of an unusual spy operation during World War II. This one doesn't disappoint. The book follows a little known bit of espionage during the Mediterranean campaign of WWII. Essentially, the Brits float a body ashore to Spain, knowing that the Germans will get it and, more importantly, the letters he's carrying which are rife with misdirection. Seems like a simple plan, but it proves to be much more difficult than originally imagined.