Ewen Montagu

Ewen Montagu's legendary memoir is released to coincide with the film version of 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...

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 daring and complex 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.The corpse was discovered as planned, the officer's documents examined and verified by German intelligence, and action was taken. By any measure, the operation was a success, and likely saved many lives. Even two weeks into the invasion of Sicily, German leaders still believed that the main attack would be in Greece.

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 Hitler’s 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 Cooper’s 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 Macintyre’s best-selling Operation Mincemeat will have to read this double volume to understand the full story.

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 Churchill’s post-war habit of telling the story at dinner). It gave rise to two very different books. In 1950 came Duff Cooper’s poignant novel Operation Heartbreak, a romantic tale, one which the government – right up to PM Clement Attlee – attempted to suppress. Its publication prompted the intelligence services to pressurize the operation’s mastermind, Ewen Montagu, into writing a factual account, The Man Who Never Was. Spellmount are proud to present these two accounts, fictional and factual, of one of the greatest intelligence operations ever undertaken, with an introduction by Duff Cooper’s son, John Julius Norwich.

30.04.1943, a corpse, wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines, was slipped into the waters off the coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, with papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi high command.

As plans got under way for the Allied invasion of Sicily in June 1943, British head of counter-intelligence 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. Montagu tells the story as only an insider could, offering fascinating details of the difficulties involved especially in creating a persona for a man who never was and the risks involved in mounting such a complex operation. Failure could have had devastating results. Success, however, brought a decided change in the course of the war.