"Operation Mincemeat"

[George K]

I've posted about this book in the past. One of the great stories of WWII - great execution of a plan that was meant to deceive the Germans.

Here's a nice summary of the operation, with neat pictures!

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/04/operation-mincemeat/

A body would be set adrift off the coast of Spain when tides would likely carry it ashore. The corpse would be dressed in a British uniform and false plans about an upcoming invasion of Greece would be planted on it.

Knowing that the fascist government in Spain had previously forwarded intelligence to the Germans, it was hoped that in a short time, the Germans would be reading the false plans for a Greek invasion and react accordingly.

[taiwan_girl]

Neat story.

Wonder who they got to volunteer to be the body? . 555

[George K]

@taiwan_girl the search for an appropriate body was a major point in the scheme.

They had to find someone of military age, with no "battle damage." They found a man who had committed suicide by injecting rat poison. This was a concern because, if there were an autopsy to be performed, the poison would have to be undetectable. As this story says, they had to invent a "backstory" for the "soldier," including photographs, letters from his girlfriend, and even photos of said girlfriend (who, iirc, was a secretary in the office where the plan was hatched).

Getting the body out to sea, in a torpedo tube was another big deal, and almost no one on the submarine knew the actual nature of the mission.

It's a fascinating read: https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Mincemeat-Bizarre-Fooled-Assured/dp/0307453286/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35H3GK5EMFOLU&dchild=1&keywords=operation+mincemeat&qid=1615380392&sprefix=operation+mince%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-1

I've read several of Macintyre's books, and they're all really interesting - but none as good as "Mincemeat."

"Agent Zig Zag" is a close second.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

By the way, it's surmised that the inspiration for "M" in the Bond books was agent Godrey (though some people think it was agent Montagu).

[Renauda]

@george-k said in "Operation Mincemeat":

I've read several of Macintyre's books, and they're all really interesting - but none as good as "Mincemeat."

I liked what I have read by Macintyre as well. The Spy and the Traitor was really good. Virtually every place and area in Moscow other than the Lyubanka, that was named in the book, I knew quite well.

[George K]

@renauda I'd forgotten that I'd read that one.

What a great tale.

[George K]

I knew it was going to be a great tale from the very beginning, when Macintyre describes how Gordievsky went back to his (temporary) apartment, and found that all the locks had been engaged. He never did that, only locking two of them.

He knew, right then, that someone had been in his apartment.

“The first lock on the front door opened easily, and then the second. But the door would not budge. The third lock on the door, an old-fashioned dead bolt dating back to the construction of the apartment block, had been locked.

But Gordievsky never used the third lock. Indeed, he had never had the key. That must mean that someone with a skeleton key had been inside, and on leaving had mistakenly triple-locked the door. That someone must have been the KGB.

"The fears of the previous week crystallized in a freezing rush, with the chilling, paralyzing recognition that his apartment had been entered, searched, and probably bugged. He was under suspicion. Someone had betrayed him. The KGB was watching him. The spy was being spied upon by his fellow spies.”