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Deathly Deception : The Real Story of Operation Mincemeat
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Review
Now for the first time we have all the facts which dispel the mysteries surrounding the operation and show the complexitites, pitfalls and dangers faced by British intelligence. Using official sources and an historian's acumen, Prof. Smyth has at last revealed the whole story of this fascinating ploy which did so much to save Allied soldier's lives. (James Munson, Contemporary Review )
Captivating (Military Review: The Professional Journal of the U.S Army )
Superlative... Readers are likely to find this book impossible to put down once started and impossible to forget once finished (Roland Green, Booklist )
This is another fascinating and very readable book on the most brilliantly tangled web of deception spun in the Second World War (History Today )
Smyth's book gives an engaging picture of an exceptionally intricate, exceptionally secret piece of military deceit... He scores over Macintyre one important point: he has done a lot of work on the archives of the Special Operations Executive. (M R D Foot, Literary Review )
An engaging picture of an exceptionally intricate, exceptionally secret piece of military deceit. (Literary Review )
What comes through most clearly in Smyth's book is the incredible complexity of the undertaking...It is fascinating stuff, much like a police procedural on television, and more than a little ghoulish. (HistoryNet.com )
Smyth completes the story... He presents the complex processes of the false information's evaluation by German intelligence, the high command, and Hitler himself. Second, he describes the painstaking method by which the British verified Mincemeat's progress. And third, he relates the vital achievement of Allied intelligence to convince the military commanders to undertake the deception. As a strategic success, Mincemeat has few rivals and no superiors (Publishers Weekly )
This fascinating story is told with new thoroughness. Recommended for all studying World War II intelligence activities. (Library Journal )
An important, well-written and soundly documented history of Operation Mincemeat. (Hayden B. Peake, Studies in Intelligence )
Captivating (Military Review: The Professional Journal of the U.S Army )
Superlative... Readers are likely to find this book impossible to put down once started and impossible to forget once finished (Roland Green, Booklist )
This is another fascinating and very readable book on the most brilliantly tangled web of deception spun in the Second World War (History Today )
Smyth's book gives an engaging picture of an exceptionally intricate, exceptionally secret piece of military deceit... He scores over Macintyre one important point: he has done a lot of work on the archives of the Special Operations Executive. (M R D Foot, Literary Review )
An engaging picture of an exceptionally intricate, exceptionally secret piece of military deceit. (Literary Review )
What comes through most clearly in Smyth's book is the incredible complexity of the undertaking...It is fascinating stuff, much like a police procedural on television, and more than a little ghoulish. (HistoryNet.com )
Smyth completes the story... He presents the complex processes of the false information's evaluation by German intelligence, the high command, and Hitler himself. Second, he describes the painstaking method by which the British verified Mincemeat's progress. And third, he relates the vital achievement of Allied intelligence to convince the military commanders to undertake the deception. As a strategic success, Mincemeat has few rivals and no superiors (Publishers Weekly )
This fascinating story is told with new thoroughness. Recommended for all studying World War II intelligence activities. (Library Journal )
An important, well-written and soundly documented history of Operation Mincemeat. (Hayden B. Peake, Studies in Intelligence )
Product Description
Deathly Deception tells the true story of the classic World War Two intelligence plan to pass misleading strategic information to Hitler and his Generals that was immortalized in the 1956 Hollywood film The Man Who Never Was. Drawing on a wealth of recently available documentation, Denis Smyth shows how British deceptioneers solved a multitude of medical, technical, and logistical problems to implement their deceptive design. The aim of their covert plan was to persuade the German High Command that the Allies were going to attack Greece, rather than Sicily in the summer of 1943. To achieve this, they equipped a dead body with a new military identity as a Royal Marine Major, a new private personality as the fiancé of an attractive young woman named 'Pam', and a government briefcase containing deceptive documents. They then planted the corpse in south-western Spanish coastal waters via a stealthy submarine operation, and carefully monitored (through their codebreakers and spies) how the Nazi intelligence services and their warlords proceeded to 'swallow Mincemeat whole'. The result was a stunning success. The German mis-deployment of their forces to meet the notional Anglo-American threat to Greece materially contributed to the Allied victory in Sicily - which, in its turn, drove Mussolini from power in Italy and inflicted irreparable damage on the German war effort.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book has obviously suffered by being in 'competition' with Ben Macintyre's bestseller on the same subject. It bears signs of having been rushed out (I found several misprints and minor errors). It is however a scholarly study and delves in to some different areas of research from Macintyre, but in similar depth. When introducing a new character to the story, Smyth, like Macintyre, includes a couple of pages on his background, but typically these will relate to his military achievements and position in history; Macintyre tells you instead about his personality, family, and colourful habits, which is much more readable. On the other hand Smyth goes into more detail than Macintyre about the relationship of Mincemeat to other deceptions and plans and describes better how it fits into the overall strategy of this phase of the war.
The book has an excellent index, but is disfigured by dozens of annoying endnotes. Why authors expect you to turn back and forth to read endnotes is beyond my understanding.
If you have already read Macintyre's book, you do not need to buy this one unless you are obsessively interested in the Mincemeat story, or unless, like me, you are related one of the characters involved in it.
The book has an excellent index, but is disfigured by dozens of annoying endnotes. Why authors expect you to turn back and forth to read endnotes is beyond my understanding.
If you have already read Macintyre's book, you do not need to buy this one unless you are obsessively interested in the Mincemeat story, or unless, like me, you are related one of the characters involved in it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
A fine academic study
19 Aug 2010
Format:Hardcover
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 gives way to 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!
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 gives way to 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!
mincemeat
18 April 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Too many facts and personnel information. Story drowned in petty rivalry between people involved in making decisions. I am surprised that the plan worked with so many people involved. It shows the petty jealousy that these people had towards each other. A very poor read, I am sorry I purchased this book, very disappointing. I will review future purchases more closely. If I could get a credit for the purchase price of this book I would purchase another book more readable.
Peter Pollard
Peter Pollard
Operation Mincemeat
20 Dec 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Denis Smyth writes with the authority of a master of history. He provides in depth analysis combined with the human touch. His coverage of my late father's military identity being used in the deception is accurate to a fault. His book is, in my opinion, second to none, and provides an extremely well researched account of a truly complex operation.
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