We are still with the intelligence operations that changed the course of events and shaped the history of the world the way we have it today.. and with the Prime Minister of England.. Sir "Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill".. whom we know as "Churchill".
Not many people know that "Churchill" was a bit of a character.. he was an alcoholic.. drinking morning, noon, afternoon and night.. even when he became prime minister, and they offered to treat his alcoholism gradually, he refused. Sometimes he would drink just enough to stay steady.. and most of the time he drank until he was drunk.
In early 1943, after the Allied forces "Britain, America and the Soviet Union" had succeeded in defeating the German Nazi forces in North Africa; they began preparing for a new decisive stage of fighting in the heart of Europe.
And brother "Churchill" decides to make a speech to the people, to fire them up.. so he downs a bottle of alcohol.. which leaves him unable to see in front of him.. and then he goes out to address the masses, shouting to them that "Sicily" is the new battlefield for the Allies, from which they will advance against the Nazi forces, God willing!
The rulers of the Allied states trembled and the hearts of their army commanders were seized with panic.. the truth is that "Churchill", under the influence of alcohol, announced a top-secret plan of the Allied states.. which had in fact decided to head for Sicily later on.
Calls poured in on "Churchill".. and meetings were held and adjourned and held dozens of times.. and in the end.. they decided to change the attack plan.. and head for Greece.
But "Churchill" rejected this.. and told them he had a better plan.. that would solve this problem.. he did not have a plan yet.. but he throws this task onto the shoulders of one of his most dangerous men, the writer, man of law, musician and naval intelligence officer, Captain "Ewen Montagu".. the one wearing the military cap in the picture.
And in turn "Montagu" met with the air lieutenant "Charles Cholmondeley".. the one wearing glasses in the second picture.. and they sat and planned and studied.. and then they went to Churchill with their idea...
It seems that what was said about Churchill was true, and that he really was a cool-headed man.. because when they went to him he was relaxing in bed in his country house, smoking a cigar and drinking a bottle of whisky.. so they began to put their plan to him, which they had given a distinctive code name. "Operation Mincemeat".
The plan was based on a very simple trick.. that the Germans would not easily believe "Churchill's" statement.. and would begin studying the possibility that it was a trick.. and accordingly.. they had to move them in that direction.. and confirm to them without them realising.. that it was a trick.
The plan, in short.. is a dead corpse.. of a young man from the Allied forces.. that appears on one of the coasts controlled by the Nazi forces, as if he had drowned with a plane of the Allied air force, which was constantly crashing.. and with the corpse, misleading documents that deceive the Germans.. and make them completely convinced that "Churchill's" statement was a trick.
And the English intelligence service began working like a beehive, to set up this new plan. And with the help of the genius pathologist "Sir Bernard Spilsbury".. they chose the corpse of a young man of 34 named "Glyndwr Michael" from Wales.. an only child with no family and no acquaintances.. who died after committing suicide with rat poison.
They began working on confirming the identity of the dead man.. giving him a history and an existence.. so they dressed the corpse in a British officer's suit and an inflated life jacket full of air.. and they put in the corpse's pockets a military card, showing that the owner of the corpse is "Major/ William Martin", along with a sum of money, a tobacco tin, and part of a cinema ticket in London.. then a love letter from an unknown girl, which they used a real girl from British intelligence to write, so that the German handwriting expert would not uncover the difference between a feminine and a masculine hand.
And they tied a special briefcase around his wrist with handcuffs.. and placed inside it fake documents.. and filled his lungs with sea water and algae.
And then they soaked the young man's corpse in real sea water for several days.. until it entered the stages of decomposition, so they took it out, and preserved it in ice.
The contents of the briefcase that they tied to the wrist of the young man's corpse with handcuffs.. was a set of top-secret documents and papers, indicating that when Churchill made his statement.. he was carrying out part of a plan.. and that the Allies were deceiving the Germans and would not land in Sicily.. they would land in Greece or specifically Sardinia.
And in April 1943 a British submarine carried the corpse of William preserved in ice.. and then brought it out near the coasts of Spanish Huelva.. after English experts had calculated with extreme precision, where the sea currents would throw the corpse.
The corpse reached the shore.. and Spanish fishermen picked it up, who informed the authorities, so the Nazi forces attended in a hurry.. and saw the briefcase fastened to its wrist, so they took it to their headquarters.
The bag had secret locks.. and this was very rare at the time.. it was also equipped with a special defensive system, so that opening it by force would activate it, and a strong acid would flow inside it.. destroying its contents.
And German intelligence experts began verifying the identity of the corpse.. so they went through their spies in Europe to confirm the identity of "William".. and they confirmed - from the fake history Britain had made for him - that he was indeed a major in the navy.. and they reached his town and watched his fiancée "Pam".. who had supposedly learned of her fiancé's death and lived in terrible grief and began drinking wine constantly.
And the Germans were reassured about the matter.. especially after the matter of his fiancée.. without knowing that this grieving fiancée "Pam" was an agent of "the British Fifth Office MI5" at the time.. and her real name was "Nancy Jean Leslie".
And the Germans open the briefcase, without damaging the documents or showing that they opened it.. they photograph all its contents.. and close it again.
And England keeps demanding that Spain urgently hand over the corpse of its officer.. so the Nazis hand the corpse over to the Spaniards.. who return it to the English with the bag tied to its wrist as if nothing had happened.
And the corpse reaches London, and immediately "Montagu" and his companion examine it with their hearts in their mouths.. and then they sigh in relief.
The Germans did open the briefcase.. and while doing so they tore a fine hair.. that "Montagu" had planted in the lock of the secret briefcase.
And the Germans read the documents saying that the attack would come through Greece.. and they actually prepared and massed all their forces there.. while "William Martin" is given a solemn military funeral in England and buried as an army officer in fact.
And the Germans brace for the attack in Greece.. but the attack happened in Sicily in fact.. just as Churchill said in his speech.. and Sicily fell into the hands of the Allies with hardly any resistance.
Because of this operation.. German intelligence afterwards ignored extremely secret documents it found in a sunken plane near Normandy.. and other documents about future targets, found in the corpse of an officer in Holland.
The problem is that this time the documents were real and their contents were real.. but because the Allies, when they lost them.. spread two rumours through their spies, that they were about to carry out two new deception operations like "Operation Mincemeat".. the rumours reached the Germans and they ignored these documents and papers.. and they could have changed the course of the war.
After his retirement from work in 1950.. "Montagu" published the story of "William Martin" in the novel "The Man Who Never Was".
In 1970 "Montagu" published his second book "Beyond Top Secret ULTRA".. in which he spoke at length about his exploits and his role in secret operations, including the "William Martin" operation.
"Churchill" remained addicted to alcohol, until he died of a stroke, on 24 January.. 1965.. at the age of 90.
This operation differs from the operation because of which the United States entered the war.. which we will talk about later.
And the conversation will have a remainder.
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