Operation Mincemeat, by Ben Macintyre

Spy novels are exciting, fun reads.  Even more exciting are tales of real-life espionage.  Most of the great spy novelists have spent at least some time as spies.  I suspect the stories they tell may not be as intriguing as the stories they can't tell.  The work of spies is similar to the work of a novelist, spinning tales, creating characters, making up believable scenarios, so the crossover between the two is not surprising.

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory tells a remarkable story of deception, wits, and luck.  The basics of the plot may be familiar to you: the British devised a plan in which they deposited a dead body, dressed as an officer, on the coast of Spain, knowing that the Spanish were in cahoots with the Nazis.  They planted documents on the body which would misdirect the Germans concerning the upcoming invasion of Europe. 

"Bill Martin" serving his country.

Ultimately, the scheme worked.  The Nazis swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.  The Allied invasion focused on Sicily, but because of the misdirection in the fake documents, Germany focused its troop strength to the eastern and western Mediterranean.  Their ploy literally saved countless thousands of Allied troops' lives.  The invasion did meet with resistance, but much, much less than they otherwise would have.  With Germany's key forces to the east and west, uninspired Italian troops and a nominal German presence were left to defend Sicily.  The success of this invasion became a turning point in the war.

As the British agents put together the plan, they approached it like writing a novel.  Not surprisingly, a number of novelists and future novelists had their hands in the plan.  Basil Thompson, a former spy, had written several novels, one of which involved a dead body with false papers.  A certain young assistant in the Naval Intelligence Department, Ian Fleming, happened to own all of Thompson's novels, and recalled this plot device.  British expatriate and mystery novelist, Alan Hillgarth, played a key role as the naval attache in Spain.  Like writing a novel, the Operation Mincemeat team had to create a character, give him a back story, recreate his life and the events of his final days leading up to his (fictional) unfortunate drowning after his plane went down off the coast of Spain.  All of his personal effects, letters from his dad and fiancee, incidental pocket litter, all had to match up with the information in the "top secret" documents he carried.  As careful editors, they had to make sure that all parts of the story were consistent.  Then they had to figure out how to get the Germans to take the bait, without the Germans knowing the British knowing the Germans took the bait!  As MacIntyre says, the British had to fool the Germans into thinking the British were fooled.

As Macintyre, a journalist with the London Times, began his research for this book, he contacted the family of Ewen Montagu, one of the key players in Operation Mincemeat.  To Macintyre's delight, Montagu had kept a trunk full of documents related to the operation, most of which had never been seen before, and much of which was top secret.  Montagu himself had written a book about Operation Mincemeat, The Man Who Never Was, which was made into a movie and remains in print to this day, but it was limited by the British intelligence; even Montagu couldn't tell the full story.  So Macintyre's book provides details that fill out and complete the story.

Woven through Operation Mincemeat are reminders of the heroism of the Allies in WW2, as well as the luck that it took to defeat Hitler.  The more I learn about WW2, the more convinced I am that God's hand favored the Allies as they fought an enemy who personified evil.  I don't believe any conflict since has been as morally unambiguous as this one.  So give a cheer to Montagu, his colleague Charles Cholmondeley, and the countless others who worked to weave this web of deception and turn the course of the war in the Allies' favor.