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| Britain |
| Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Tramp Fooled Hitler |
| 2010-12-04 |
| The improbably named Cholmondeley [pronounced, IIRC, "Chumley"] and Montagu earlier in WWII had created a network of fictitious double agents to feed misinformation to the Nazis. These imaginary spies were given jobs, hobbies, family, lovers and bank managers. The Germans thought they had an established spy network in the UK - in reality, they had none. "I doubt such a plan would be feasible today, even in wartime. Imagine the scandal if it was revealed that British agents had deliberately stolen a dead body. One of the reasons it worked so well was that the organisers were left alone to get on with it, almost without supervision." Eventually the planted disinformation made it to Hitler's desk. He took the bait and transferred 90,000 troops to Greece to defend against what he thought was the planned Allied invasion of Greece. The irony of a homeless man posthumously impressed into His Majesty's Secret Service still catches the imagination. |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |
| #5 Eventually the planted disinformation made it to Hitler's desk. Then there's the tendency of bureaucracy to lie up the chain to keep the bosses happy as was the case in the former Soviet Union. Those official reports made it to the CIA desk and were taken as gospel. Thus the utter surprise to the CIA when the Soviet Union collapsed. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-12-04 23:27 |
| #4 with Doenitz' official "squiggle" of initials. Hey -- those guys work hard to make sure the squiggled initials look truly authoritative! (Hi, mom!) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-12-04 22:43 |
| #3 Montagu's book, The Man Who Never Was, is good reading. It includes copies of the letters sent along with Martin and the "Lieber Grossadmiral!" translation of the fake explanation of plans, with Doenitz' official "squiggle" of initials. |
| Posted by: mom 2010-12-04 21:49 |
| #2 Another story from the start of WWII, was how a survey was being conducted along the coast to determine where best to set up anti-aircraft guns. Each gun would be mounted on rails, so could be moved to cover a larger area as needed. And with inclement weather, they would be moved into a shed at the end of the tracks. Well, in one coastal town, they figured they had the ideal place to set up a gun, then discovered to their dismay that there were already tracks laid there. With nothing on their charts, they followed the tracks to their shed, where looking inside, they discovered a World War I anti-aircraft gun. Asking around, they discovered an elderly resident was still receiving a small stipend to maintain the gun and the tracks, by error it not having been discontinued with the armistice. They noted that both the tracks and the gun were in fine condition, though of the wrong type for current needs. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-12-04 21:10 |
| #1 A related incident from the Battle of Britain: During one of the nightly Luftwaffe attacks, an urgent call went out from a British camoufleur in charge of an elaborate fake airfield, complete with dummy planes, to an RAF fighter pilot. Camoufleur: “Sir! We’re being attacked!” Pilot: “Splendid, Sergeant. Good show.” Camoufleur: “They’re smashing the place to bits!” Pilot: “Yes, excellent. Carry on.” Camoufleur: “But, sir—we need fighter cover! They’re wrecking my best decoys.” |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-12-04 17:13 |