During World War II, the Nazis fell for an audacious British plot to pass off a dead tramp as an officer carrying secret documents. The operation, known as Mincemeat, involved transforming the body of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless Welshman who died by rat poison in London in January 1943, into a fictitious Royal Marines officer named Major William Martin.
Intelligence officers Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu spent months creating a plausible backstory for Martin, complete with an identity card, ticket stubs, and mementos from a fictional fiancée. Chained to his wrist was a briefcase containing a letter marked 'PERSONAL AND MOST SECRET', which falsely indicated that the Allies planned to invade Greece. The real target was Sicily.
The body was dumped off the coast of southern Spain, a country riddled with Nazi spies. The Spanish authorities, assuming Martin was a British courier who died in a plane crash, buried him with full military honours in Huelva. The documents were passed to the Germans, and thanks to Bletchley Park's code-breaking, the British could track the deception's progress.
Hitler fell for the ruse, diverting forces to Greece and allowing the Allies to invade Sicily with less resistance. The operation was the brainchild of Ian Fleming, later author of the James Bond novels, and was executed by Churchill's 'corkscrew thinkers'.
Ben Macintyre, author of a book on the operation, doubts such a plan would be feasible today due to the potential scandal of using a dead body without consent. The story was later turned into a film, The Man Who Never Was, in the 1950s.
