Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory (57 page)

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Authors: Ben Macintyre

Tags: #General, #Psychology, #Europe, #History, #Great Britain, #20th Century, #Political Freedom & Security, #Intelligence, #Political Freedom & Security - Intelligence, #Political Science, #Espionage, #Modern, #World War, #1939-1945, #Military, #Italy, #Naval, #World War II, #Secret service, #Sicily (Italy), #Deception, #Military - World War II, #War, #History - Military, #Military - Naval, #Military - 20th century, #World War; 1939-1945, #Deception - Spain - Atlantic Coast - History - 20th century, #Naval History - World War II, #Ewen, #Military - Intelligence, #World War; 1939-1945 - Secret service - Great Britain, #Sicily (Italy) - History; Military - 20th century, #1939-1945 - Secret service - Great Britain, #Atlantic Coast (Spain), #1939-1945 - Spain - Atlantic Coast, #1939-1945 - Campaigns - Italy - Sicily, #Intelligence Operations, #Deception - Great Britain - History - 20th century, #Atlantic Coast (Spain) - History, #Montagu, #Atlantic Coast (Spain) - History; Military - 20th century, #Sicily (Italy) - History, #World War; 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Italy - Sicily, #Operation Mincemeat, #Montagu; Ewen, #World War; 1939-1945 - Spain - Atlantic Coast

12
“Born as I was”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

13
“idiotic”: Ibid.

14
“the sort of American social life”: Ibid.

15
“I felt a great debt”: Ibid.

16
“The ‘spread’ among us three”: Ibid.

17
“already had a banker’s attitude”: Ibid.

18
“He and I were much”: Ibid.

19
“we had nothing to do”: Ibid.

20
“I advised [Ivor] to choose”: Ibid.

21
“Our great ambition was”: Ibid.

22
“to study something”: Ibid.

23
“I put it in my pocket”: Ibid.

24
“one of the best fly-fishermen”: Anthony Cave Brown,
Bodyguard of Lies
, vol. I (London, 1975), p. 278.

25
“never better than a mediocre”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

26
“the thrill of the strike”: Ibid.

27
“an exceedingly primitive vole”: Montagu,
Youngest Son
, p. 283.

28
“Baron’s Son Weds Secretary”:
Evening News
, March 23, 1927.

29
“Dear Gladys, I feel for you”: Obituary of Lord Swaythling,
Daily Telegraph
, July 4, 1998.

30
“a certain sympathy with rogue characters”: Ewen Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
(London, 1977), p. 9.

31
“see the point of view”: Ibid.

32
“gentle manners”: M. R. D. Foot, entry in
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
.

33
“If he could see a really artistic lie”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

34
“hard in the wind”: Ibid.

35
“This morning the British”: Radio Address by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, September 3, 1939.

36
“looking out to sea”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

37
“It is quite useless”: TNA, ADM 223/478.

38
“two stockbrokers, a schoolmaster”: Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 26.

39
“The permanent inhabitants”: Ibid.

40
“worked like ants”: Ibid.

41
“learning a new language”: Ewen Montagu, “History of Section 17M (Now Section 12Z),” October 26, 1942, Montagu Papers.

42
“the cream of all intelligence”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

43
“The Germans have a passion”: Ewen Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

44
“to do the detailed work”: Ibid.

45
“Auntie”: Pat Davies (née Trehearne), interview with the author, October 4, 2009.

46
“She is extraordinarily good”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, January 31, 1941, courtesy of Rachel Montagu, collection henceforth cited as “Montagu Letters.”

47
“watchkeepers”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

48
“far too small”: Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
, p. 51.

49
“which made everyone”: Pat Davies, interview with the author, October 5, 2009.

50
“were not supposed to listen”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

51
“a brilliant band of”: John Godfrey to Ewen Montagu, September 13, 1964, Montagu Papers.

52
“began to regard some almost as friends”: Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

53
“They were so kind to us unconsciously”: Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
, p. 52.

54
“in the racket”: Ewen Montagu to Vera Ruth Filby, February 3, 1979, Montagu Papers.

55
“If I am killed there are”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, August 17, 1941, Montagu Letters.

56
“The most fascinating job”: Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
, p. 50.

57
“very entertaining but useless”: Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

58
“a great number who”: Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
, p. 36.

59
“it might be an indication”: Naval Intelligence Department memo, July 13, 1947, TNA, ADM 223/794.

60
“Though I have kept”: Victor Rothschild to Ewen Montagu, November 13, 1941, TNA, ADM 223/794.

61
“had heard and believed the propaganda”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

62
“I thought you had realised”: Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
, p. 59.

63
“an out and out traitor”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

64
“a four-letter man”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, November 13, 1942, Montagu Letters.

65
“Fleming is charming”: Ibid.

66
“The bare idea of the dead airman”: John Godfrey to Ewen Montagu, September 13, 1964, Montagu Papers.

67
“I quite honestly don’t remember”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

Chapter Four: Target Sicily

1
“underbelly of the Axis”: Winston Churchill, speech to House of Commons, November 11, 1942.

2
“no major operation could be”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished critique of Constantine Fitzgibbon,
Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century
(London, 1976), Montagu Papers.

3
“and might be the beginning”: Rick Atkinson,
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945
(London, 2007), p. 7.

4
“Everyone but a bloody fool would know it was Sicily”: Montagu,
Beyond Top Secret Ultra
, p. 143.

5
“prepare deception plans”: Christopher Andrew,
The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5
(London, 2009), p. 284.

6
“When things were looking pretty bad”: Thaddeus Holt,
The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War
(London, 2004), p. 184.

7
“an ingenious imagination”: Nicholas Rankin,
Churchill’s Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914–1945
(London 2008), p. 178.

8
“fourteen of the biggest Nigerians”: Ibid., p. 181.

9
“special section of intelligence”: Ibid., p. 253.

10
“The idea of knocking”: “Future Anglo Saxon Operative Possibilities,” FHW of OKW, February 8, 1943, cited in Ralph Bennett,
Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945
(London, 1989), p. 227.

11
“wishfulness” and “yesmanship”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 10.

12
“If the authorities were clamouring”: Ibid.

13
“inclined to believe the one”: Ibid., p. 12.

14
“He could achieve single-handed”: Colin Evans,
The Father of Forensics: How Sir Bernard Spilsbury Invented Modern CSI
(London, 2009), p. 122.

15
“He formed his opinion”: Ibid., p. 27.

16
“just carried on”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

17
“England’s modern Sherlock Holmes”:
Washington Post
, March 30, 1938, p. 3.

18
“haughty, aristocratic bearing”: Evans,
Father of Forensics
, p. 5.

19
“unlucky sixteen”:
After the Battle
, November 11, 2006.

20
“that extraordinary man”: Montagu,
Man Who Never Was
, p. 122.

21
“wanted the Germans and Spaniards”: Ibid.

22
“never once did he ask why”: Ibid.

23
“clear, resonant, without any trace”: Evans,
Father of Forensics
, p. 27.

24
“Many die from exposure”: Montagu,
Man Who Never Was
, p. 122.

25
“doing a Burke and Hare”: Ibid.

26
“A depressing job?”: Robert Jackson,
Coroner: The Biography of Sir Bentley Purchase
(London, 1963), p. 5.

27
“They were found in Auntie’s bag”: Ibid., p. 260.

28
“rugged in appearance and character”: Ibid., p. 15.

29
“an impish sense of humour”: Ibid.

30
“an old friend from my barrister days”: Ewen Montagu to Roger Morgan, April 19, 1982, Montagu Papers.

31
“An alternative means of getting”: Bentley Purchase to Ewen Montagu, August 25, 1953, Montagu Papers.

32
“conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty”: Jackson,
Coroner
, p. 28.

33
“aching to get into the war”: Ibid., p. 104.

34
“distort the truth in the service of security”: Roger Morgan in
After the Battle
, no. 54, 1986.

35
“cursory in the extreme”: Ibid.

36
“a warlike operation”: Jackson,
Coroner
, p. 148.

37
“did not wish to disclose why a body”: Ibid.

38
“You can’t get bodies just”: Ibid.

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