The Man Who Never Was

\ The Man Who Never Was

The Man Who Never Was

One of history's greatest hoaxes
- Setting: World War II in Europe
- Time: late 1942 to July 1943
- Target: German Intelligence (Abwehr)
- Inventor: Flight Lt. Charles Cholomondley
- Chief Hoaxer: Lt. Commander Ewen Montagu RN
Motivation for the Hoax
- Allies owned north Africa
- Invasion of Sicily was planned
- Could Germans be deceived?
How to do it?
- Germans were very thorough
- Scenario must be perfectly believable
- Plot was called "Operation Mincemeat"
The Ultimate Scenario (as seen by the Germans)
- General Sir Archibald Nye writes letter to General Alexander in Africa
- Letter to be hand-carried to Africa by Major William Martin, Royal Marines
- Another letter from Admiral Mountbatter introduced Major Martin
- The Major's aircraft would avoid land and enemy territory
- Aircraft crashes at sea off Spain
- Major Martin's body washes ashore at Huelva, Spain
- A local finds the body and hands it over to authorities
- Autopsy is performed in Huelva
- Major Martin is buried in the cemetery in Huelva
- German agents get access to the documents
- Germans learn secret details about Allied plans
- Two-pronged pincer attack on Greece and Sardinia
Pulling it off
- First - get a suitable corpse
- Create the character of Major William Martin
- Get the Major into the Royal Marines (tricky - he's dead!)
- Prepare all necessary ID documents
- Prepare Royal Marine uniform and dress the corpse
- Get General Nye to write phoney letter
- Produce fake letter from Lord Mountbatten
- Arrange for letter from Major Martin's fiancee
- Arrange for Royal Navy Submarine to deliver the Major
- Go on with your life
How Well Did It Work?
- Results could not really be known till after the war
- Captured German documents told the story
- Major Martin's documents were indeed copied by German agents
- They were carefully examined by the Abwehr
- The letters were accepted as genuine
- The High Command adjusted defenses for Greece and Sardinia
- The adjustment seriously weakened defenses on Sicily
- The Allied invasion of Sicily succeeded quickly
Net Result: The hoax was wildly successful
Major Martin lies in the cemetery in Huelva
Efforts to find out who Major Martin really was