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Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
by
In 1943, from a windowless London basement office, two intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple & complicated—Operation Mincemeat. 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 & the Allies ultimately chose. Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 & the
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Hardcover, 416 pages
Published
May 4th 2010
by Bloomsbury
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Charlie
That movie was --- THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS.
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Start your review of Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

I feel I ought to have liked this book more than I did. Lord knows, the author did his research, in commendable detail. But did he really have to include everything he learned in the final book? At some point the level of detail provided went (for me) beyond interesting and started to become stultifying. MacIntyre is a decent writer, but I think he falls into the trap that bedevils many non-fiction authors -- all the time and energy spent doing the research causes him to lose perspective. The st
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When a dead man becomes a highly effective spy, fools the enemy and helps win a war with the world in the balance, well, that sounds like something James Bond writer Ian Fleming would concoct. Oh wait, he did.
To be specific (and more correct), Operation Mincemeat, a plan devised by Britain's intelligence agency MI5 to convince Germany that a southern attack on Europe via the Mediterranean by Allied forces, was signed off on by Fleming, one of many in Britain's spy ring.
Though Fleming may not h ...more
To be specific (and more correct), Operation Mincemeat, a plan devised by Britain's intelligence agency MI5 to convince Germany that a southern attack on Europe via the Mediterranean by Allied forces, was signed off on by Fleming, one of many in Britain's spy ring.
Though Fleming may not h ...more

The basic story is well known, but since the appearance of the first book, The Man Who Never Was, an extraordinary amount of new material has become available. Even if you've read The Man Who Never Was (I had), I can't recommend Operation Mincemeat highly enough. This is, quite simply, the most extraordinary book of its kind that I've ever come across. I couldn't put it down, and finished it in a little more than a day.
The plot in a nutshell, in case you aren't already familiar with it. It's ear ...more
The plot in a nutshell, in case you aren't already familiar with it. It's ear ...more

Briefly, I have to say that this is one of the most fascinating books of history I've read in a very long time. You don't even need to be a WWII buff to appreciate it -- I'm not -- but it's simply amazing. The basic story is this: it's 1943, and the Allies have plans to invade Sicily to get a foothold in Europe and defeat Hitler. But since Sicily is the most obvious place for an Allied landing, Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley (it's pronounced "Chumley") of the Naval Intelligence section of
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A marvellous story of intrigue of actual events during World War II. There are a host of wonderful and eclectic characters in England, Spain and Germany. The author presents all these in readable detail.
The sequence of events – and there are several – are well depicted and we are clearly presented with the logical construction of this set-up meant to deceive the Germans into believing that the Allies mean to launch a multi-pronged invasion in the Mediterranean – instead of just Sicily.
The autho ...more
The sequence of events – and there are several – are well depicted and we are clearly presented with the logical construction of this set-up meant to deceive the Germans into believing that the Allies mean to launch a multi-pronged invasion in the Mediterranean – instead of just Sicily.
The autho ...more

It's a rare gem when history is unfolded for us in such a detailed and thrilling form. In 1943, Ewan Montagu of the British Naval Intelligence and Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 came together in collaboration of a complex plan of deception. The plan that was ultimately approved was to take a suitable corpse, dress it in a suitable military uniform, place certain well-planned personal items, attach to it a chained briefcase containing fake official documents and personal letters, and then drop it th
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You can't make this stuff up! Or more precisely, you can which is what makes this story of espionage and deception so much fun. It is almost hard to believe it is all true.
When I first began the book, I didn't think Ben Macintyre had enough material to make an interesting story. I presumed he would be repetitive, or worse, insert his own personal 'journey' into the narrative. I was proved decidedly wrong in both cases. So many unique, colorful characters pepper the story of Operation Mincemeat ...more
When I first began the book, I didn't think Ben Macintyre had enough material to make an interesting story. I presumed he would be repetitive, or worse, insert his own personal 'journey' into the narrative. I was proved decidedly wrong in both cases. So many unique, colorful characters pepper the story of Operation Mincemeat ...more

Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre was truly excellent. A true story told with all the verve and pace of a top notch thriller. This was a truly British caper full of eccentric characters such as the cross dressing spy master,an RAF intelligence officer who hated locusts with a passion and a myopic former racing driver turned MI5 operative who drove straight over a roundabout because he couldn't see it. Also, we mustn't forget Derek Leverton,the undertaker who became an officer in the Royal Art
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Sep 10, 2015
Dana Stabenow
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
hpl-s-15-in-16
An almost picaresque story about Royal Marine Major William Martin, who was lost at sea in an aircraft accident carrying important dispatches about future Allied plans in the Mediterranean. His body washed ashore in Spain and by nefarious means the dispatches were copied and forwarded to Abwehr, German intelligence.
Except that that major was no major and those dispatches were fake. It was all an elaborate plot cooked up by British Intelligence to deceive the enemy, and which disinformation Abwe ...more
Except that that major was no major and those dispatches were fake. It was all an elaborate plot cooked up by British Intelligence to deceive the enemy, and which disinformation Abwe ...more

“We fooled those of the Spaniards who assisted the Germans, we fooled the German Intelligence Service both in Spain and in Berlin, we fooled the German Operational Staff and Supreme Command, we fooled Keitel, and, finally, we fooled Hitler himself, and kept him fooled right up to the end of July." - Ewen Montagu
In 1943, a Spanish fisherman found the corpse of a British soldier floating off the Spanish coast. The sinister discovery would set a series of important events in motion. The year befor ...more
In 1943, a Spanish fisherman found the corpse of a British soldier floating off the Spanish coast. The sinister discovery would set a series of important events in motion. The year befor ...more

You may not be familiar with the names Ewen Montagu or Charles Cholmondeley but you may have heard of Operation Mincemeat, The spectacularly successful in World War II deception that they masterminded. Mincemeat was a small part of operation Barclay the deception intended to cover the invasion of Italy. Mincemeat convinced The German High Command that the allies target would be Sardinia or Greece, rather than the actual target Sicily. The ruse was accomplished by convincing the Germans that they
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Aug 27, 2015
Erik Graff
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
WWII & espionage fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
history
Dad was involved in the occupation of N. Africa and in the landings at Gela on the south coast of Sicily. An army cryptanalyst attached to the U.S. navy, he and his colleagues maintained ship-to-shore communications during the successful invasion. Books relevant to his experiences there and in the Pacific have long attracted my attention.
This book is an account of how the British successfully misled the Germans and Italians into believing that their European invasion plans were directed at Sardi ...more
This book is an account of how the British successfully misled the Germans and Italians into believing that their European invasion plans were directed at Sardi ...more

Rating Clarification: 4.5 Stars
From the book blurb:
"In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers (Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 and the British naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu) conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated— Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed, and the Allie ...more
From the book blurb:
"In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers (Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 and the British naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu) conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated— Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed, and the Allie ...more

This book by Ben MacIntyre is a very interesting and most of all enjoyable read. It almost reads like a novel. Ben MacIntyre leaves no stone unturned. I particularly enjoyed his description of the German reception of the fake documents and the aftermath of it. Also, the final chapters describes the fate of all participants in this high suspense operation, which is very nice to know.

This, the third book by Ben Macintyre that I've read this summer, had such a vast cast of real-life characters that I sometimes found it hard to keep them all straight. Still, the true story of the "Man Who Never Was," about an ingenious and risky ploy by British wartime intelligence to divert German attention from their intended invasion site in Sicily, was engrossing and suspenseful. Had the ploy failed -- and it very well could have -- the whole course of WWII might have turned out quite diff
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The fashion for World War Two films and novels these days is to play down the derring-do and instead concentrate on what exposure to all that battle and death does to a person’s soul. (Alistair MacLean is not an author in vogue.) Exactly the same is true of the spy genre, where the duplicity these men (and, to a lesser degree, women) do whilst playing their great game eats away at their insides. And yet in Ben McIntyre’s two non-fiction books detailing strange tales of espionage in the Second Wo
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I do like the odd History book - and this was an odd history book - and I liked it!
Firstly, you get the sense that you've read this story before, and you know the outcome. Then you remember that you read "The Man Who Never Was", and saw the film (countless times) over the years. Because "Operation Mincemeat" is pretty much this same story all over again. So like "The Titanic", you know the main parts - and you know the end. But it's the detail in between that is so absorbing here.
Most historical ...more
Firstly, you get the sense that you've read this story before, and you know the outcome. Then you remember that you read "The Man Who Never Was", and saw the film (countless times) over the years. Because "Operation Mincemeat" is pretty much this same story all over again. So like "The Titanic", you know the main parts - and you know the end. But it's the detail in between that is so absorbing here.
Most historical ...more

This thoroughly fascinating non-fiction about the British WWII plot to mislead the Axis forces (and hence allow decisive invasion of Sicily) by use of a corpse washed ashore in Spain, was well-written and made for a very interesting story. I'd heartily recommend people read this to learn more about the history of that time, especially if they have an interest in the part military intelligence forces play in the 'background' of war.
It was excellently researched and an absorbing read - I am lookin ...more
It was excellently researched and an absorbing read - I am lookin ...more

Seen the documentary from Ben Macintyre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8D3...
Highly recommended!!!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8D3...
Highly recommended!!!
...more

Apparently, whilst writing Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal, Ben Macintyre became aware of this strange tale of espionage and deception. I read, and really enjoyed, Ben Macintyre's Agent Zigzag in April 2013, and so didn't need much convincing to read this book too. It's not as entertaining and compelling as Agent Zigzag, however, whilst not quite as gripping, it is a story of huge significance to the way the Second World War played out. It saved lives, shortened
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A little difficult to get into (at least as an audiobook), with so many characters to keep track of, but I ended up enjoying this immensely. I have read/heard/watched a fair amount about WWII, but had never before thought about the influence of espionage on the outcome of the war. It was fascinating to hear about the intelligence and counter-intelligence, the way psychological maneuvers affect battles and nations and ultimate results. The author also had some really profound statements to make a
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Years back I read The Man Who Never Was, the first account of this famous WWII deception campaign, written by Ewan Montagu, who was one of the plan's two main architects. Like many, I was captivated by this real-life story of clever wartime deception. I have a keen interest in WWII deception campaigns, and Operation Mincemeat was certainly one of the finest: documents planted on a corpse that was strategically floated ashore in Spain, where German agents were apt to gain access to them. The docu
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“In 1943, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was dubbed Operation Mincemeat. They would trick the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece rather than Sicily… Their plan was to get a corpse, equip it with misleading papers concerning the invasion, then drop it off the coast of Spain where German spies would take the bait.”
History aside, this was a fun book just for its insight into intelligence operations. I assumed go ...more
History aside, this was a fun book just for its insight into intelligence operations. I assumed go ...more

often do succeed. The year 1943 was a turning point in WW2. In the European theater, the Germans were being pushed back on the Russian front and the Allies had gained back much of what they had lost in North Africa to the Axis powers. Allied leaders - both political and military - had to decide where the next military push should be. All agreed the island of Sicily - off the coast of the Italian boot - was the place to begin working on the long sought invasion of the European continent. It was c
...more

I like reading about espionage and World War II every once in a while, so based on some favorable review I read somewhere, I picked this up. Unfortunately, like all too many popular nonfiction books I seem to encounter these days (such as The Tiger and In the Heart of the Sea, to name the two most recent examples I read), the book is overstuffed with extraneous detail and (to my mind at least) vastly overstates the importance of the topic it covers. The title refers to a British intelligence ope
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This was a well-written story about how spies and deception made an important contribution to winning the Second World War. There were almost too many people involved to keep them all straight but the author did a good job of that. It kept me on the edge of my seat. Even though I knew very well the ending of the war, I did not much of the details of the battle for Italy. I certainly did not know the details of the invasion of Sicily. So for anyone enjoying a good spy novel, this true story read
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The rule of thumb is that if you have to explain a joke, it isn't funny. But if you do explain a joke, then I know how it works.
Operation Mincemeat was the name of an intelligence plan carried out by the British against the Germans during World War II, designed to fool them into thinking that the Allied assault from North Africa would not be going through Sicily - where all rational people assumed it would go - but instead through Sardinia and Greece, and any references to Sicily were merely de ...more
Operation Mincemeat was the name of an intelligence plan carried out by the British against the Germans during World War II, designed to fool them into thinking that the Allied assault from North Africa would not be going through Sicily - where all rational people assumed it would go - but instead through Sardinia and Greece, and any references to Sicily were merely de ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Bright Young Things: July 2013 Operation Mincement by Ben Macintyre | 26 | 43 | Jun 05, 2017 05:58AM | |
Casting the film. (Note, there is no film) | 1 | 4 | Jul 07, 2015 07:27PM | |
Alex Baron von Roenne: the real hero? | 1 | 10 | Dec 04, 2014 07:58AM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. WW II espionage & misinformation [s] | 2 | 30 | Jan 19, 2012 11:37AM |
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