Ewen Montagu

Now the subject of a major new film starring Colin Firth as Ewen Montagu in Operation Mincemeat.In the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines was slipped into the waters off the south-west coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece.As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the story whole. It was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for the Allies had no such plan: the purpose of Operation Mincemeat was to blind the German High Command to their true objective an attack on Southern Europe through Sicily. Though officially shrouded in secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to Churchills habit of telling the story at dinner). Ewen Montagu was the operations mastermind, and in his celebrated post-war memoir, The Man Who Never Was, he reveals the incredible true story behind Operation Mincemeat.

As plans got under way for the Allied invasion of Sicily in June 1943, British counter-intelligence agent Ewen Montagu masterminded a scheme to mislead the Germans into thinking the next landing would occur in Greece. The innovative plot was so successful that the Germans moved some of their forces away from Sicily, and two weeks into the real invasion still expected an attack in Greece. This extraordinary operation called for a dead body, dressed as a Royal Marine officer and carrying false information about a pending Allied invasion of Greece, to wash up on a Spanish shore near the town of a known Nazi agent

Now the subject of a major new film starring Colin Firth as Ewen Montagu in Operation MincemeatIn the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines was slipped into the waters off the southwest coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the story whole. It was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for the Allies had no such plan: the purpose of 'Operation Mincemeat' was to blind the German High Command to their true objective an attack on Southern Europe through Sicily. Though officially shrouded in secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to Churchill's habit of telling the story at dinner). Ewen Montagu was the operation's mastermind, and in his celebrated postwar memoir, The Man who Never Was, he reveals the incredible true story behind 'Operation Mincemeat'.

The greatest deception of the Second World War and possibly in the whole of military history took place in April 1943 when a body was found floating in the sea off the Spanish coast. The documents found on him would eventually find their way to Hitlers desk and send German troops hurtling in the wrong direction. The dead man convinced the Axis powers that the Allies were about to attack Greece and not the real target, Sicily. The course of the war was changed.In this volume is a story within the original extraordinary story. Duff Coopers only fictional work, Operation Heartbreak, was based upon the emotionally charged decision to use an anonymous corpse to weave the web of deceit. The British authorities tried to suppress the book because it would show the Spanish in a bad light, with Franco now in power. A change of heart followed and Ewen Montagu was encouraged to tell the whole story. Anyone who read Ben Macintyres best-selling Operation Mincemeat will have to read this double volume to understand the full story.

Las dos caras de una operación de inteligencia que, aunque oficialmente secreta, se hizo pronto legendaria y se convirtió en el engaño más decisivo de todos los tiempos. En la madrugada del 30 de abril de 1943, un cadaver con el uniforme de oficial de los Royal Marines fue arrojado a las aguas cercanas a la costa sudoccidental de España. Llevaba una cartera que contenia documentos con los detalles de una inminente invasion aliada de Grecia. Como habian previsto los britanicos, el gobierno supuestamente neutral de la España franquista entrego esos documentos al alto mando nazi, que se trago la historia de cabo a rabo. Quiza fue el engaño mas decisivo de todos los tiempos, porque los aliados no tenian semejante plan: el proposito de la Operacion Carne Picada era confundir al alto mando aleman sobre su verdadero objetivo: un ataque a la Europa meridional a traves de Sicilia. Aunque oficialmente secreta, la operacion se hizo pronto legendaria (en parte debido a la costumbre de Churchill durante la postguerra de contar la historia en cenas). Dio origen a dos libros muy diferentes. En 1950 aparecio la incisiva novela Operacion Desengaño, de Duff Cooper, una narracion novelada, que el gobierno intento reti