Operation Mincemeat was a part of a plan to convince Hitler that the Allies, following the success of their North Africa campaign, intended to mount a double-pronged invasion of Europe at Sardinia and Greece, and not Sicily, the most logical target.
Mincemeat was implemented by British Naval Intelligence. The cadaver of a derelict was fitted out with a uniform, identity papers, and a sealed envelope containing information about the bogus invasion. The body was placed in a sealed cannister filled with dry ice, and carried by submarine to Spain and deposited close enough to shore where it could be found, with the hope that the envelope would make its way into Nazi hands.
A Novel Approach
The plan took an immense amount of planning and had many possible points of failure. For example, it was not enough to plant fake ID papers on the cadaver. An entire personality had to be created. It was as if they were "constructing a character in a novel."
The author points out that "the greatest writers of spy fiction have, almost in every case, worked in intelligence before turning to writing." He mentions Somerset Maugham, John Buchan, Graham Greene, John le Carre, and of course Ian Fleming, who happened to be the personal assistant of Admiral John Godfrey, head of Naval Intelligence and a man with a "sandpaper personality." He served as the model for M in his James Bond novels.
Twin Frailties
Admiral Godrey described wishfulness and yesmanship as the "twin frailties of German intelligence"
"The Nazi high command ... when presented with contradictory intelligence reports, was 'inclined to believe the one that fits in best with their own previously formed conceptions.'" Hitler's "favourite intelligence analyst," Alexis von Roenne, told Hitler what he wanted to hear, that the information was genuine.
Yet the whole story does not end there. Unknown to anyone, von Roenne had turned against the Nazi regime. In 1944 he deliberately misled Hitler about Allied plans for the invasion of Normandy. He was executed after the failed plot to assassination Hitler. Although he played no part in it he was a close friend of several conspirators
Illustrations
There are 14 pages of b&w photos. The person on the cover is Ewen Montagu, one of the masterminds of Mincemeat. His brother, Ivor, was a communist spy.
The following map shows the route taken by the bogus information:
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