Deathly deception : the real story of Operation Mincemeat
Smyth, Denis, 1948-2010
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This is the story of the classic World War Two stratagem which persuaded Hitler's Generals that the Allies were going to attack Greece rather than Sicily in the summer of 1943 - a brilliant intelligence coup that materially contributed to the Allied victory in Sicily and inflicted irreparable damage on the German war effort. Deathly Deception tells the true story of the classic World War Two intelligence plan to pass misleading strategic information to Hitler and his Generals that was immortalized in the 1956 Hollywood film The Man Who Never Was. Drawing on a wealth of recently available documentation, Denis Smyth shows how British deceptioneers solved a multitude of medical, technical, and logistical problems to implement their deceptive design. The aim of their covert plan was to persuade the German High Command that the Allies were going to attack Greece, rather than Sicily in the summer of 1943. To achieve this, they equipped a dead body with a new military identity as a Royal Marine Major, a new private personality as the fianc of an attractive young woman named 'Pam', and a government briefcase containing deceptive documents. They then planted the corpse in south-western Spanish coastal waters via a stealthy submarine operation, and carefully monitored (through their codebreakers and spies) how the Nazi intelligence services and their warlords proceeded to 'swallow Mincemeat whole'. The result was a stunning success. The German mis-deployment of their forces to meet the notional Anglo-American threat to Greece materially contributed to the Allied victory in Sicily - which, in its turn, drove Mussolini from power in Italy and inflicted irreparable damage on the German war effort.
Main title:
Deathly deception : the real story of Operation Mincemeat / Denis Smyth.
Author:
Imprint:
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Collation:
xx, 367 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
Notes:
Formerly CIP. UkIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Prologue; 1. Accidental Conception; 2. Medical Consultation; 3. Grand Stratagem; 4. A Sea of Troubles; 5. Loud and Clear; 6. Tailor Made; 7. Pam's Person; 8. Travel Arrangements; 9. Mincemeat Digested; 10. Mincemeat Dissected; Epilogue; Further Reading; Index
ISBN:
9780199233984 (hbk)
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
1678841
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