The subtitle of this book is: "How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory."
Summary from the dust jacket of the book:
In 1943, from a windowless London basement office, two intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated—Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking the Allies were planning to attack Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed and the Allies ultimately chose.
Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 and the British naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu could not have been more different. Cholmondeley was a dreamer seeking adventure. Montagu was an aristocratic, detail-oriented barrister. But together they were the perfect team and created an ingenious plan: Get a corpse, equip it with secret (but false and misleading) papers concerning the invasion, then drop it off the coast of Spain where German spies would, they hoped, take the bait. The idea was approved by British intelligence officials, including Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond). Winston Churchill believed it might ring true to the Axis and help bring victory to the Allies.
This book brought to my attention an aspect of espionage that I had not previously thought much about. It describes the efforts of intelligence agents to disseminate false information to the enemy in order to mislead them. The overall plan to deceive the Germans was named Operation Barclay, and included providing false information about troop movements in the Balkan area to the enemy.
The story of the development of the plan for Operation Mincemeat and then the carrying out of it (including finding a body to use that would fit their needs, dressing it, and creating fake documents to convey the information) was extremely interesting. Most of the book was about this effort.
But just as exciting and absorbing were the chapters on the effort to get the body delivered to the right place on the coast of Spain and the follow-up chapters at the end on how the attack on Sicily was planned and carried out, and various military men who participated.
Ben Macintyre is a respected author of this type of nonfiction. It seems that he mostly specializes in espionage-related topics. His writing is very good. If there were any chapters that were difficult for me, they were towards the beginning when there are many people and situations described, plus the layers of bureaucracy to get agreement on the plan. Once I got settled in and the focus was on the main players in the carrying out of the plot, every chapter was a delight to read.
My husband read this book in 2013, and enjoyed it as much as I did. This is his review at Goodreads:
This history of a World War II hoax is so full of memorable characters (I find the absolutely fearless and charmed Lieutenant Bill Jewell of the British submarine HMS Seraph to be at the top of a very high memorable list) and fascinating detail that it reads like a first rate thriller. Operation Mincemeat was an elaborate British plan designed to convince German forces that an expected invasion of Sicily was actually going to take place elsewhere. In hindsight, it is amazing the plan succeeded, given all the details that needed to be accepted (or overlooked) by the Germans. A history that is not at all dry, this book is highly recommended.
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Publisher: Harmony Books, 2010
Length: 324 pages
Format: Hardcover
Genre: History, nonfiction
Source: Borrowed from my husband.
22 comments:
I have to read some espionage fiction because I enjoy mysteries and I would think there are similarities in both genres. Ben MacIntyre sounds good and I know that Dan Silva is very popular.
This sounds absolutely fascinating, Tracy! And it's a piece of the war history that I didn't know. I often think that those lesser-known operations and events are at least as fascinating as the major things we're taught in classrooms - perhaps even more interesting.
Kathy, I have only read one book by Silva and that was a while ago. I used to concentrate more on Cold War espionage, and I believe Silva's books are more contemporary. I should try more of them.
Margot, I wasn't very familiar with this bit of history either. A lot of the documents had been classified after the war, I suppose. There were books published about it earlier, but Macintyre wrote this after more information became available.
I've run into accounts of this operation a couple of times in the past, but I didn't know that anyone had written an entire book about it. I'll be looking for it...now I'm off to read your husband's thoughts on it. Thanks.
Sam, for anyone interested in the subject, this is a very good, very readable book. I included Glen's full review above in the post. His reviews are generally 3 - 5 sentences. I could never condense my thoughts on a book to that length. But I would like to more brief in my reviews most of the time.
Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I watched a documentary about this a few years ago. I find it fascinating the kind of shenanigans The Allies got up to to fool the Nazis.
Sounds good. I am finally into SLOW HORSES and might find a true story about right now.
Operation Mincemeat is even on stage and is worth a visit if you are in London. In addition John Madden’s "remake" of Operation Mincemeat and Ben Macintyre’s novel make for great viewing and reading. The Madden film is based on Macintyre’s novel, and they are both a fake news aficionado’s paradise when it comes to trying to differentiate layer after layer of fact and fiction. Nevertheless, as with many war or espionage thrillers like the Ipcress File it's a shame the film industry is producing yet more films about topics already filmed.
If success is to breed success the film industry must not polish old gems but mine for new ones. In these genres, examples of such new gems include Mick Herron’s Slow Horses from the Slough House stable and Beyond Enkription, the first fact based spy thriller in The Burlington Files series by Bill Fairclough (Codename JJ aka Edward Burlington). They are both great reads. The celluloid adaptation of Slow Horses looks destined to become an anti-Bond classic. As for The Burlington Files let’s hope the film industry hears of it. Not being a remake this enigmatic and elusive thriller may have eluded you. For starters, do read a brief News Article dated 31 October 2022 about Pemberton’s People in MI6 on TheBurlingtonFiles website and then read Beyond Enkription.
I look forward to reading the book. Watched the movie a while ago and enjoyed it but I am sure I will enjoy the detail a book will deliver !
Another story from WWII that I've never heard about! This book sounds so interesting.
Cath, I did not know about a documentary but I did find one from 2010 (on IMDB) that had Ben Macintyre as the author and presenter. It sounds very good, featuring people who were described in the book. I would like to read more about Operation Barclay, the overall plan, but I have not looked for anything on that yet.
Patti, I enjoyed Slow Horses, I am hoping season 3 will be shown starting sometime this year. Another book I read by Macintyre was A Spy Among Thieves, about Kim Philby, and Glen recently read Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy, which he enjoyed.
MI6, I did not know that Operation Mincemeat is on stage, and I would love to see it, but I don't think I will ever get to London.
Di, thanks for stopping by to comment. The book does have more detail than the film and goes into some aspects of the initial stages of the Allied invasion of Sicily. I hope you will enjoy the book.
Lark, I knew about this only because my husband read the book 10 years ago, and we were both interesting in other books by the author. But I had little knowledge of the actual story. It is all very fascinating. I saw the film first, which I don't usually like to do, but it worked well this time.
An absorbing read about an amazing plot. I always enjoy Ben Macintyre's deeply researched and well presented tales.
The mission was also filmed in the 1950s as The Man Who Never Was. I recommend that diversion as well.
Susan, I am not a big one for reading nonfiction, but Macintyre's writing makes it a pleasure.
Thanks for reminding me about that movie from the 50s. I think I would enjoy that too.
I very much enjoyed the recent film based on this, and read the book afterwards - both excellent.
The stage show in London is apparently very quirky and unusual, not at all a straight translation of the story. I am seeing it later this month, will report back!
Moira, I enjoyed the film and I think the book was the most exciting nonfiction I have read. I enjoyed reading about the landing on Sicily, which I knew little about.
I cannot imagine this story as a musical, but if I ever got the chance to see it, I would.
I saw the musical of Operation Mincemeat! It is not based on this book, but more generally on the story of the project. I enjoyed it hugely - it is very hard to describe. the actors play many and unexpected roles. It is very clever, and has some excellent songs...
How lucky you are, Moira. Glen was reading about the musical recently, and he ordered a CD of the original cast recording, but now delivery has been delayed. I hope we finally get the CD and are able to listen to it.
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