Deathly Deception

The Real Story of Operation Mincemeat

Denis Smyth (Department of History, University of Toronto)

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English

Oxford University Press
04 August 2011

True war & combat stories; History; European history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Second World War

Operation Mincemeat retells the 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 fiancé 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.

By: Denis Smyth (Department of History University of Toronto)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 214mm, Width: 137mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 490g
ISBN: 9780199605989
ISBN 10: 019960598X
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 04 August 2011
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Prologue 1: Accidental Conception 2: Medical Consultation 3: Grand Stratagem 4: A Sea of Troubles 5: Loud and Clear 6: Tailor Made 7: Brief Encounter 8: Travel Arrangements 9: Mincemeat Digested 10: Mincemeat Dissected Epilogue Further Reading Index

Reviews for Deathly Deception: The Real Story of Operation Mincemeat

Chronicles in gripping detail the genesis, evolution, execution, and results of this imaginative ruse. Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Winter 2011 Now for the first time we have all the facts which dispel the mysteries surrounding the operation and show the complexities, pitfalls and dangers faced by British intelligence. Using official sources and an historian's acumen, Prof. Smyth has at last revealed the whole story of this fascinating ploy which did so much to save Allied soldier's lives. Contemporary Review