Ben McIntyre “Operation Minced”

Operation Mince is a real-life British intelligence operation during World War II. A wide range of readers could learn about it already in the 1950s, when one of the main participants in the operation, Ewan Montgomery, published the fictional novel The Man Who Wasn’t There (in Russian translation, it came out in the early 1960s). He took a true story from his career in intelligence as the basis of the plot, but deliberately changed many details and names.

In the 2000s, Operation Minced caught the attention of historian Ben McIntyre, who wrote several non-fiction books and nonfiction novels on the history of British intelligence during World War II and the Cold War.

Operation Minced meat was very daring and, over time, resembles more a historical anecdote or a figment of the imagination of a fiction writer than reality. This is probably why McIntyre chose the format of a documentary novel for his book – the story in his presentation contains a lot of historical references and references to official and archival sources.

In December 2021, the film adaptation of the same name with a brilliant cast was released. To understand all the intricacies of this dizzying intelligence operation, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the novel by Ben McIntyre before viewing.

The situation on the fronts of World War II in 1943
If in the first 3 years of the war the Nazi army successfully advanced in all directions, then already at the beginning of 1943 there was a turning point in favor of the allies.After the decisive Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Union launched a counteroffensive, the German armies in North Africa were forced to capitulate under the pressure of the British divisions.

There was still a year left before the landing in Normandy, but for now the British and Americans were choosing a good place to break into Europe from the south. But the German command was not going to give up without a fight: Greece and southern Italy were securely fortified, and anyone who tried to land there would have to lose a lot of people before calling these lands their own.

Then the idea arose to introduce misinformation and landing plans to the German command so that it would concentrate troops in Greece and not so closely monitor Sicily. This would make it possible to land and occupy the island with little bloodshed.

But far from stupid people served in Nazi intelligence, and a truly brilliant plan was needed to deceive them. This is how the idea of ​​​​operation code-named “Mixing” arose.

“Operation Minced” summary
Few people knew about the unit engaged in developing plans to disinform the enemy – it was one of the most secret units of British intelligence. It was based in the basement of the London Admiralty. Such work required a very specific mindset: conceiving and implementing plans for disinformation is a piece of jewelry that requires both wild imagination and a strong connection with reality.

The essence of Operation Minced was to give the Germans information about the planned landing in Greece in such a way that they would definitely believe in its authenticity.After much deliberation, the most plausible option seemed to be to arrange for the corpse of an officer to be thrown onto the Spanish coast, in whose bag they would find important secret letters mentioning the upcoming landing in Greece.
Although Spain formally remained neutral, in fact it gravitated towards the Axis countries, and with a high probability the Spanish authorities would have transferred the obtained data to the Nazis.

The Officer Who Wasn’t There
Read “Operation Mincemeat” online on our website – Ben McIntyre gives a fascinating description of the process of preparing the operation. In order for the deception to work, not only was a dead man suitable in all respects, but also the identity of a never-non-existent officer, which, upon verification, would seem real.

Work on a fake identity took several months, involved all the employees of the department. One of the female secretaries even donated her candid 1940s photo in a bathing suit to a more believable legend about the bride of a drowned officer.

The body for the operation was “donated” by a tramp who committed suicide in the London slums – ironically, no one needed during his lifetime, after his death he became famous and saved thousands of soldiers from certain death.