The Man Who Never Was is a 1954 book by Ewen Montagu and a 1956 2nd World War war film based on the book. It is about Operation 'Mincemeat'. The film starred Clifton Webb as Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu , Gloria Grahame as Lucy Sherwood, Robert Flemyng as Lt. George Acres, Josephine Griffin as Pam, Stephen Boyd as Patrick O'Reilly, Laurence Naismith as Adml. Cross, Geoffrey Keen as Gen. Nye, André Morell as Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Michael Hordern as Gen. Coburn and William Squire as submarine commander Bill Jewell.
In 1943, British Intelligence were looking for a way to deceive the Axis powers into thinking Operation 'Husky', the Allied landings in Sicily, would take place elsewhere.
The plan they adopted was Operation 'Mincemeat'. It involved the acquisition of a dead body, dressing it as a 'Major Martin' and putting it into the sea near Huelva, Spain. Attached to the corpse was a brief-case containing fake letters hinting that the Allied attack would be against Sardinia and Greece. When the body was found, pro-German Spaniards passed the papers to the German Intelligence Service who passed it to the High Command. The ruse was so successful that the Germans thought Sardinia and Greece were the intended objectives weeks after the landings in Sicily had begun.
The real name of the person/body remained secret, but in 1997 it was reported that he was a homeless Welsh alcoholic named Glyndwr Michael. The body was buried as Major Martin in a cemetry in Huelva, Spain.
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Last updated: 05-18-2005 00:25:09
