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Operation Mincemeat
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`Fascinating ...The complexities and consequences of the story that Macintyre tells in Operation Mincemeat are compelling - a tribute to his impressive abilities as a sleuth (ones that we've witnessed in his previous books) and to his capacities as a writer. He has the instincts of a novelist rather than a historian when it comes to elision , exposition, narrative and pace, and is depiction of character is vividly alive to nuance and idiosyncrasy . Like the best novelists, he understands that all people are fundamentally individual - odd and unique to themselves - and that stereotypes exist only in bad fiction, whether on the page or on screen' --William Boyd, The Times
`Ben Macintyre turns up trumps in this rollicking tale of a second world war mission to dupe the Germans by using a corpse bearing fictional military plans ... The cast of characters is irresistible, and Macintyre's enthusiasm for them richly merited ... a terrific book with exceptional photographs of everybody, including the corpse. Students of the second world war have been familiar with Mincemeat for many years, but Macintyre offers a mass of new detail, and enchanting pen portraits of the British, Spanish and German participants. His book is a rollicking read for all those who enjoy a spy story so fanciful that Ian Fleming - himself an officer in Montagu's wartime department - would never have dared to invent it'
--Max Hastings, Sunday Times
'Ben Macintyre has taken a well known story of wartime deception, embellished it, and shown that it was even more ingenious and even more risky than we had all supposed. -- Spectator, January 2010
'This true story of wartime deception is as creative and as cunning as a good spy novel.' -- Sunday Telegraph, February 2010
'Ben Macintyre skilfully breathes life into the diverse cast of characters involved in the plan, imaginatively fleshing out the colourful personalities on both sides.' -- Metro London
'Macintyre tells a 'rollicking' story with 'infectious glee'. -- The Week, February 2010
' ... they would surely applaud his skill in finally bringing all to life.'
-- Times
`Ben Macintyre turns up trumps in this rollicking tale of a second world war mission to dupe the Germans by using a corpse bearing fictional military plans ... The cast of characters is irresistible, and Macintyre's enthusiasm for them richly merited ... a terrific book with exceptional photographs of everybody, including the corpse. Students of the second world war have been familiar with Mincemeat for many years, but Macintyre offers a mass of new detail, and enchanting pen portraits of the British, Spanish and German participants. His book is a rollicking read for all those who enjoy a spy story so fanciful that Ian Fleming - himself an officer in Montagu's wartime department - would never have dared to invent it'
--Max Hastings, Sunday Times
'Ben Macintyre has taken a well known story of wartime deception, embellished it, and shown that it was even more ingenious and even more risky than we had all supposed. -- Spectator, January 2010
'This true story of wartime deception is as creative and as cunning as a good spy novel.' -- Sunday Telegraph, February 2010
'Ben Macintyre skilfully breathes life into the diverse cast of characters involved in the plan, imaginatively fleshing out the colourful personalities on both sides.' -- Metro London
'Macintyre tells a 'rollicking' story with 'infectious glee'. -- The Week, February 2010
' ... they would surely applaud his skill in finally bringing all to life.'
-- Times
Product Description
One April morning in 1943, a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War. Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted, and certainly the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs, sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction, and saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different, in one crucial respect, from any spy before or since: he was dead. His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily, the Allied armies planned to invade Greece. The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer and a brilliant Jewish barrister, the great hoax involved an extraordinary cast of characters including a famous forensic pathologist, a gold-prospector, an inventor, a beautiful secret service secretary, a submarine captain, three novelists, a transvestite English spymaster, an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing, and a dead Welsh tramp. Using fraud, imagination and seduction, Churchill's team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate and so convincing that they began to believe it themselves. The deception started in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall. It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany. And it ended up on Hitler's desk. Ben Macintyre, bestselling author of "Agent Zigzag", weaves together private documents, photographs, memories, letters and diaries, as well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5 and Naval Intelligence, to tell for the first time the full story of Operation Mincemeat.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A page-turning history of WWII espionage,
By
This review is from: Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II (Paperback)
Operation Mincemeat is history written like good fiction: hardly surprising when you consider that Operation Mincemeat itself was pure fiction to begin with.This book tells the story of perhaps the greatest British deception operation of WWII, "The man who never was". To throw the Axis off the scent of the invasion of Sicily, a dead body was floated onto Spanish shores with a briefcase full of (bogus) secret documents. Added to other bits and pieces, it helped convince the Nazis that Sicily was only a feint, with the real invasion directed at Sardinia and the Balkans. That it worked is incredible, when you think about how many things could have gone wrong - and nearly did. Ben Macintyre has started at the beginning, covering off all the principals of the saga - the dead man himself, Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley, the men responsible for creating the deception operation, and the various spies and spies and counter-spies on all sides, plus a cameo appearance by Ian Fleming, then-future creator of James Bond. There is a little about Jean Leslie as the (beautiful) girlfriend whose photo "Major Martin" kept in his wallet, and about Ewen Montagu's Communist spy brother, Ivor (whose wife Hell appears on the cover of some editions, for no reason I can discern save gender balance and to hint at a femme fatale narrative). Then, after all the buildup, we get a rare look into Franco's wartime neutral Spain, a hotbed of intrigue with frantic espionage being undertaken by pretty much every combatant of WWII, and by the Spanish themselves, largely, but far from exclusively, as a proxy for the Axis powers. Some interesting questions are asked about why the Germans swallowed Mincemeat (and later, deception ops related to D-Day) whole; and the answer might be that the Abwehr, the German Army's military intel, was quite strongly anti-Hitler. Sadly the potential role of Admiral Canaris as Abwehr head is only hinted at here. There are then a look at Operation Husky itself - the invasion of Sicily which Mincemeat went to so much trouble to mask - and a recap of the lives after the event of the various principals, which is interesting and provides a little closure. The case is argued that Mincemeat was a hinge in the development of WWII, and if the case is not quite made, then doubtless an entire book could delve into the military impact of the success of Husky on WWII. What can be said, is that rarely can so little "total cost 200 pounds" have saved so many, who might otherwise have died on the beaches of Sicily. We know how the story ends, but you don't read history for a twist in the tale. Like Agent Zigzag, this book is an enthralling read, full of fun facts about spycraft, military deception, and the multitude of characters - real characters, from adventurers to cross-dressing colonels, table tennis aficionados to Jewish Nazis - who were not perhaps, fit to fight a war with their fists, and so settled for using their wits instead. If you are are interested in WWII history or spycraft, then this is a must read
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mincemeat,
By
This review is from: Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II (Paperback)
The story can now be told in full - and Ben McIntyre has certainly done his homework and presents his material in a very readable way. He brings the main protagonists to life with biographical detail and deft description. Anyone with an interest in the history of the Second World War will love this, but a general reader would also, I think, find it hard to put the book down.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A factual account of a classic example of deception,
By D.Kravic (The Caribbean) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II (Paperback)
Necessity is the mother of invention and the need to minimise casualties in an attack on a fortified target is justifiable grounds for this operation which,at another time and in different circumstances, would most certainly be unsavoury.Years ago I read Ewen Montagu's "The Man Who Never Was" and I always felt "uncomfortable" with it. Given Montagu's panache for deception,I always felt that we were not given the full/real details of the operation. But this understandable and should not be held against him. After all,intelligence work by its nature precludes full disclosure of events, even after 60 years.It is noted that Cholmondeley "Chumly" ...(Oh, the English and their pronounciation..never pronounce a word the way it's written),maintained his silence to the end observing all confidentialities. And that perversity produced by Hollywood with Clifton Webb in the starring role, albeit with a cameo appearance by Montagu,which I think is a betrayal of those men whose dedication ensured a successful and relatively low casualty landing in Sicily ...but then that's Hollywood for you.My congratulations to Ben Macintyre for his depth of research, especially the profiles of the many characters like Hillgarth et al.Macintyre cannot be praised too much for his endeavour in bringing into the public domain the details and yes,the emotions of one of the most thrilling episodes of World War II. In a nostalgic mood, I visited the grave in Huelva about 36 years ago and I just stood there in my shoes and I wondered ..I wondered ..who really lies in that grave. Now, with full disclosure ...I have a name.
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