Comments on: Mincemeat and the Imaginary Man

By: Elena

Elena — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:08:48 +0000

One doubt: if he was supposed to have been in the sea for several days, his documents should have been wet and destroyed. How did they justified they weren’t? Even more: why should they be in a special suitcase to prevent any damage derived from water if he was a pilot and shouldn’t have a crash in the sea?

By: JarvisLoop

JarvisLoop — Wed, 02 May 2018 01:08:50 +0000

I clearly recall reading this story and thinking how good it was. Odd that I didn’t post anything.

By: Lillia

Lillia — Thu, 01 May 2014 09:10:16 +0000

Prince said: “three things.

1) how can you get pneumonia from rat poison?
2) what was/is Ultra?
3) If his name was never to be revealed, how exactly did Rodger Morgan come to the conclusion that Major Martin was Glyndwr Michael?”

1) you can’t. He died of the rat poison. The pneumonia was a made up cause of death.
2) Ultra was the name of the Allied code-breaking effort/machine that combatted Enigma (the German’s version)
3) Someone wrote a fictional novel about a similar situation to this, and although it was entirely imagined, MI5 got twitchy, so Montagu wrote down everything in a book entitled “The Man Who Never Was”. The book identified the body as Glyndwr Michael.

By: MacAvity

MacAvity — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:02:38 +0000

There’s a fairly new (2010?) book about this – Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben McIntyre. Since it uses Ewen Montagu’s personal journals and correspondences as never-before-seen sources, it answers some questions as conclusively as they can ever be answered – I recommend reading it, as it’s also entertaining, engaging, and full of stranger-than-fiction details. When I saw it in my local library, I checked it out just because I had read this article years before – thank you Damn Interesting!

By: ballpet

ballpet — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:01:34 +0000

There are Interesting comments in this thread, some on the mark and some who seem to be from another galaxy. …I haven’t read the book yet but it will be interesting to see if it adds anything to “The Man Who Never Was” (Ewen Montagu). For those who think that it should have been obvious to the Germans that this was a deception I would suggest further reading on the various and devious methods of deception used by the Allies during WW2. In particular Anthony Cave Brown’s tome “Bodyguard of Lies” (the title is from a Winston Churchill quote; “In war-time truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies”). Copies may be available from a used bookstore or your local library. Or just “Google” “bodyguard of lies”, there are excerpts available online.

By: Flackbash

Flackbash — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:42:51 +0000

[quote]family member said: “The man who never was as being a family member, have you told the real life of him, or this fake person, or the real person and his life. Thank you from family member.”[/quote]

I feel more like I do now than I did before.

Great article, Alan.

By: whateverewethink

whateverewethink — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:09:28 +0000

[quote]gm89 said: “For those who think it’s ridiculous they fell for it (and other people did, after that) and that it could never happen these days… do a Google search for ‘Top-secret Iraq documents found on train’. That’s right, the UK allegedly accidentally left very important stuff on a train, in an orange envelope, and someone read them. Happened on June 10 this year (2008).”[/quote]

During the first Gulf War, General Norman Schwarzkopf, used this trickery to divert attention away from the actual ground invasion plans. A good short write up about diversionary tactics can be found at http://muller.lbl.gov/TRessays/17-Deceiving_Saddam.html including notation about the first night vision system developed by the British being carrot powered.
Fly my wascally wabbits, fly!!!

By: family member

family member — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:10:00 +0000

The man who never was as being a family member, have you told the real life of him, or this fake person, or the real person and his life. Thank you from family member.

By: gm89

gm89 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:01:05 +0000

For those who think it’s ridiculous they fell for it (and other people did, after that) and that it could never happen these days… do a Google search for ‘Top-secret Iraq documents found on train’. That’s right, the UK allegedly accidentally left very important stuff on a train, in an orange envelope, and someone read them. Happened on June 10 this year (2008).

By: Rachelita

Rachelita — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:47:48 +0000

[quote]another viewpoint said: “However, in the world today, is there any way to turn OFF the media broadcasters from telling the world what the military is up to at any one time? I have to believe that our enemies get some of their best info and “intelligence” from watching CNN nightly news…for your convenience, beamed directly to you anywhere in the world. Thank you very much.”[/quote]

Seriously though!