Deathly Deception: The Real Story of Operation Mincemeat

by Denis Smyth

In the pre-dawn darkness of April 30, 1943, a body disguised as a Royal Marine Major washed ashore on the coast of Spain, carrying false documents indicating that the Allies were set to launch an attack on Greece, rather than Sicily. Immortalized in the film The Man Who Never Was , Operation
Mincemeat is renowned as the most spectacular episode in the annals of deception. In this accurate and in-depth retelling of the story, Denis Smyth draws on a vast collection of previously unavailable documentary sources to provide many key details overlooked in other accounts of Mincemeat. He
reveals how the architects of the plan navigated a maze of medical, technical, and logistical issues to deceive the enemy at the highest strategic levels. Before planting the corpse in the Spanish coastal waters via a stealthy submarine operation, the planners not only gave their dead messenger a
new military identity, but also a private one--as the fiancé of an attractive young woman named "Pam." Nazi intelligence was fooled, falling for a ruse which ultimately saved thousands of American lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II

367 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Anne Gafiuk]

I had seen a movie about Operation Mincemeat and wanted to learn a bit more.

[Anson Cassel Mills]

Smyth’s thorough investigation of the daring and successful 1943 deception of German intelligence—probably best known under the name of its officially censored account, The Man Who Never Was (1953)—will probably remain indefinitely the most important academic study of this British intelligence coup.

It would be difficult even for a pedant to make such a story boring, but Smyth wields a better pen than most professors. Occasionally he issues some heavy-handed humor; more frequently, he wanders off course with extensive biographical and historical detail. But how unfortunate for Smyth that the gifted journalist Ben Macintyre would publish his popular Operation Mincemeat the same year!

[Karen]

While this was an interesting read I thought that Ben MacIntyres Operation Mincemeat was a much better book.

[Rick Edwards]

A good story, somewhat cumbersomely told.