Published in 1953, this is the account of Operation Mincemeat by a man involved in the deception from the very beginning, when a chat between two colleagues threw up the wild idea of misleading the German High Command about the Allied invasion of Sicily by planting fake documents on a dead body. The same story was covered in Ben MacIntyre's breathlessly dramatic Operation Mincemeat, but because Montagu is an insider this book has a different slant and we're with him as he wades through the operational difficulties, from finding a suitable body, through dealing with the conflicting opinions of his superiors, establishing a background for the pretend Major Martin and ultimately delivering the Major to the coast of Spain. All the way through, Montagu can barely believe that the plan is working. ( )

Interesting detailed account of a complex British Intelligence operation in WWII. It fooled the Germans.

The inside story of perhaps the most successful ruse in the history of warfare. It's a truth more fantastical than fiction, down to the (randomly selected!) codename "Operation Mincemeat." Packed with "there will always be an England" moments.

"You have nothing to fear from a Spanish autopsy" ( )

I CANNOT wait to read this again! This is one of the (very) few books I actually read when I was young. I remember finding it in an upstairs bedroom at my grandfather's house and reading it. The cover illustration has always stuck in my mind along with the mission name (Operation: MINCEMEAT). My recently piqued interest in WWII and desire to find books from my past caused me to search and purchase this from the web ($.75!)

Can't wait to crack it open again!

From vintage scholastic cover: How to suceed in business without really spying:

1. Take one anonymous corpse--give him the identity of a supposed Major of the Royal Marines bearing "top secret" messages;
2. Cast him from asubmarine into the sea just of the coast of Spain;
3. Sit back and wait for the body to be discovered by the Spanish and the messages turned over to the Germans;
4. Then watch the enemy-right up to the High Command--fooled into changing their Mediterranean defense plans!

RESULT: Spectacular success...and one of the most startling and entralling true tales to come out of World War II. ---With a forward by Lord Ismay, G.C.B.,C.H.,D.S.O. The true account of an operation carried out by British Navy Intelligence in 1942-1943.