Argyllshire and Dunoon News

Book review: "Operation Mincemeat" by Ben Macintyre (Bloomsbury)

A NEW book by author and Times columnist Ben Macintyre attempts to shed new light on an audacious WWII plan to fool Nazi intelligence by using a fictional spy – who happened to be dead.
The book also reveals Cowal’s role in the plan which was made into a film in 1956: “The Man who Never Was,” starring Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame and Robert Flemyng. Although a fascinating and well-written book, 'Operation Mincemeat' ignores some crucial new facts in this riveting story.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with President Roosevelt, was planning to attack Sicily before invading Italy, and then the rest of Europe.
There was a problem though. As Churchill famously said: “Everyone but a bloody fool would know it was Sicily”.
If the Germans could be persuaded to believe that the invasion was about to happen somewhere else, they might divert some of their forces there.
Montagu and Cholmondeley went looking for a corpse.
The coroner of St Pancras, the delightfully named Bentley Purchase, was approached and, after a short while, obliged. For a man who spent his life with the dead, Purchase found death not only fascinating, but extremely funny. When Montagu dropped him a note asking if they might meet to discuss a confidential matter, Purchase replied with directions, and a typically jovial postscript: “An alternative means of getting here is, of course, to get run over.”
A Welsh tramp, Glyndwr Michael, had been found dead from eating rat poison. He may have eaten food laced with poison left out for rats in a warehouse. Michael was pronounced dead on January 28, 1943. At the age of 34, he was a single man, illegitimate and probably illiterate, without money, friends or family. He died unloved and unlamented, but not unnoticed.

NEW IDENTITY
The coroner agreed to keep Michael's body in a cold store while Cholmondeley and Montagu set about the task of creating a new identity for their corpse.
Glyndwr Michael was turned into Captain William 'Bill' HN Martin of the Royal Marines.
Montagu asked the joint general manager of Lloyd's Bank if he would be prepared to write an angry letter to “Bill” Martin about his “overdraft” of nearly £80.
Montagu created a letter from Martin's “father”, as well as a bill for some shirts from his tailor, which would be found with his body. He provided a used tupenny bus ticket, a book of stamps, a set of cufflinks, a silver cross and St Christopher's medallion, a pencil stub and a set of keys.
Montagu even gave The Man Who Never Was a love interest, with a bill for an engagement ring, and two carefully prepared love letters, plus a photograph of his “fiancee”.
Misleading letters also had to be produced and planted on the corpse. The main one was a personal letter from “Archie” Nye (Lt General Sir Archibald Nye), the Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to 'My dear Alex' (General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the 18th Army Group in North Africa). It covered several “sensitive” subjects, which explained why it was being hand-carried rather than sent through regular channels. On the specific topic of Allied plans in the Mediterranean, the letter crucially made reference to the invasion of Greece by troops from Egypt and Libya under General “Jumbo” Wilson.
Two assault beaches and some of the assigned troops were named, but the letter also mentioned a second planned attack, which indicated that Alexander's forces in Tunisia would invade Sardinia.
'Archie' added that “we stand a very good chance of making them (the Germans) think we are going for Sicily”. It was written by Sir Archibald himself.
The only remaining question was how to deliver the body to the Nazis in such a way that would convince the enemy that Bill Martin was the victim of an air crash at sea. Cholmondeley's answer was a submarine.

SANDBANK
Wartime Sandbank was a busy place, with a huge number of allied submarines based on the Holy Loch. Local people were used to “hush-hush” goings on and few eyebrows were raised when, on April 15, a steel canister was delivered onto HMS Seraph on the Loch. Inside, preserved in dry ice, was the body of “Captain Bill Martin”.
HMS Seraph's commander, Lt Bill Jewell, told his 44-man crew that the canister contained a top secret weather device. On April 30, 1943, Jewell's submarine arrived about a mile off the coast of Spain, near the town of Huelva, where the British knew there was a German agent who was friendly with Spanish officials.
At 4.30am, HMS Seraph surfaced, and Jewell had the canister brought on deck then sent all his crew below –except the officers, who he briefed on the secret operation.
The officers opened the canister, fitted Major Martin with a “Mae West” life jacket, and attached his briefcase, complete with the papers, to his body by a steel cord.
Jewell read the 39th Psalm and the corpse was gently pushed into the sea.
The body was found at around 9.30 that same morning by a local fisherman. Within a few days German intelligence had seen the papers, which had been photographed by the Spanish.
The plan worked magnificently.
When Major Martin's belongings were returned to the British before his burial in Huelva, intelligence immediately realised that they had been tampered with – prompting a famous telegram to Churchill which said: “Mincemeat swallowed whole”.
German reinforcements were sent to Greece, Sardinia and Corsica, and General Rommel was sent to take command.
Three Panzer divisions were moved to Greece – one from France, and two from the Eastern Front in Russia. Hitler even countermanded Mussolini, who wanted to defend Sicily, so convinced was he by The Man Who Never Was.
On July 9, 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily. The rest, as the say, is history.

HMS DASHER

“Operation Mincemeat” is a fascinating book and extremely well-written. It is surprising, however, that there was no mention of the HMS Dasher connection.
It is now accepted that the Welsh tramp’s body was in such a state of decay through alchohol abuse that it was not entirely appropriate for the mission. The British authorities did not know if the Spanish would order an autopsy. If they had the deception would not have succeeded.
The Royal Navy has now recognized that the body actually used was that of John Melville, a Scottish seaman from HMS Dasher. Dasher sank following an explosion in March 1943 in the Clyde with the loss of 379 lives.
It is thought that Intelligence officers took advantage of the HMS Dasher tragedy to obtain a fresh corpse showing signs of drowning.
In October, 2004, John Melville's daughter, Isobel Mackay travelled from her home in Galashiels to attend a memorial service dedicated to her father. The memorial service took place on board the current HMS Dasher in waters around a British sovereign RAF base in Cyprus.
Lieutenant Commander Mark Hill, commanding officer Cyprus naval squadron said at the service: “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.”
A spokesman for the British Forces in Cyprus, said: “This was undoubtedly the first tribute by the Royal Navy to John Melville, the man who never was.”