Operation Mincemeat

"Last night, I dreamed a deadly dream. Beyond the isle of Skye, I saw a dead man win a fight. And I believe, that man was I"

Operation Mincemeat was one of the most well-planned and effective deception operations ever carried out. The idea came out in early 1943, as the Allied armies, after liberating North Africa, were gearing up to invade Sicily. Churchill had commented after North Africa, "You've gotta be a bloody fool to not know it was going to be  Sicily [next]." But what if Jerry was made to believe, or even doubt, that the invasion would come somewhere else, say, Greece? There was already a fake "Twelfth Army" In existence through Operation Barclay (Which Mincemeat was a part of). Hitler always suspected that the invasion would come through the Balkans, and Barclay had reinforced his belief.

Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu took this task upon himself to create a successful deception operation, and in a few days, the idea of Mincemeat was born. It was decided that a dead body was to be found washed ashore, containing secret documents and letters, on the Spanish coast. Spain, though neutral in the War, was very much pro-Nazi.  Montagu put the plan forward to Vice Admiral Archibald Nye, who forwarded it to Churchill. Churchill swiftly gave the go-ahead. Montagu, and another officer, Charles Cholmondeley, set to work, looking for a body. After quite a lot of work, they found a body which had no claimants, but the problem was that the person, Glyndwyr Michael, had died of ingesting rat-poison. The Mincemeat team made discreet inquiries of an eminent pathologist, and discovered that if the body was pulled from the sea, a workaday pathologist wouldn't suspect that it had died of a cause other than drowning. This was another reason for the selection of the Spanish coast, because if the body was found at a place directly under Nazi occupation, the body would be assumed a fake, looking at the documents it carried, examined too closely unless the authenticity was determined. This would reveal the cause of death has poison, and not drowning.
After procuring the body, Cholmondeley arranged for a dry-ice canister to store the body.

Then began the job of turning the dead body into a military officer. It was decided to have him in the navy, because if word of a dead air-crewman o army officer spread, several of the High-Command (Who were not in on the plan) would be asking tough questions. They decided to make him a Royal Marine, who didn't need a tailored uniform but could wear an off-the-hook battledress like a soldier. They decided to procure for him an Identity card. This was where another obstacle popped up. Every ID Card needs a photograph, and it was impossible to photograph the dead body. They scoured the streets of London, hoping to meet a man with the same facial features. They bumped into one, and soon, Major Martin's ID Card was on the way.

Engrossed in this work, Montagu realized that every one has a private life. He thought that there must be some items on him that will portray his personal life. For this purpose, they obtained a photograph of Montagu's secretary. An older woman working at M.I.-5 wrote down a love-letter, purporting to be from Martin's girlfriend Pam.

Now that the soldier was ready, it was time to create the fake documents. Montagu got a letter written personally by Vice Admiral Nye, to general Harold Alexander, regarding the decision of war in the western Mediterranean. Montagu made it a point for the letter to be a bit rude about someone, as the first question would be as why wasn't the letter sent through the normal channels. It spoke at length about possible landings at Greece, and about ignoring Sicily as it was thought to be the most obvious landing point. Montagu also procured a few more letters from other officers.

 Preparations were through ant thorough. Finally, it was time for execution of the operation. The body was put into another canister marked "Top Secret Meteorological Device. Handle with care"
It filled with Dry Ice and loaded into a van. Cholmondeley

Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu

and Montagu drove this van overnight to Loch Holy, Scotland, where it was loaded onto the HMS Seraph submarine, which set sail on 19th April.
Montagu was aware that there was a German Intel agent in the part of Spain where the body would be found. Hence the British Consul there was also in on the plan.

The body was found on 31st April by a local fisherman, and taken to the government hospital. As the Spanish were against postmortems due to Catholicism, the German agent, who was friendly with the authorities convinced them to do one. All this while, the British consul made a big show of demanding that the documents be handed back to him unopened.
When the body and the belongings were returned, the high command was convinced that it hadn't been opened. Montagu sought out forensic reports which assured him that the letters had been viewed and probably photographed as well.

Meanwhile, in the German high-command, Hitler was convinced that the documents were original, and began to pore over his maps, drawing out forces from Sicily, and re-assigning them to Sardinia, Greece and other nearby regions.
At the time of the Invasion, the Allies did suffer significant casualties, because the troops withdrawn from Africa hadn't been re-assigned yet. But it was barely a half of what they would have suffered, if Mincemeat was a failure. The unsung and unknown Glyndwyr Michael, had done his duty to his motherland even after death.