World War II · Film · 2021
Operation Mincemeat
In 1943 two British intelligence officers invent a life for a dead man, give him fake secret letters and float his body onto the Spanish coast to convince Hitler that the Allies will invade Greece, not Sicily.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Admiralty, London
Key location
In a cramped naval intelligence office, Montagu and Cholmondeley find a body and build 'Major Martin' down to his love letters and theatre tickets.
Stop 2: Holy Loch, Scotland
The body, packed in dry ice, is driven north and loaded aboard a submarine bound for Spain.
Stop 3: Huelva coast
A Spanish fisherman finds the body, and the British can only wait to learn whether the briefcase reaches German hands.
Stop 4: Sicily landings
The Allied fleet heads for the island the deception was built to hide.
What really happened
With Sicily the obvious next target after North Africa, Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley of the Twenty Committee turned the body of Glyndwr Michael, a Welsh vagrant, into 'Major William Martin' of the Royal Marines, carrying letters that pointed to landings in Greece and Sardinia. The submarine HMS Seraph released him off Huelva on 30 April 1943, and the Spanish authorities let German intelligence copy the documents.
Hitler reinforced Greece and Sardinia, and the invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943 met weaker resistance than feared. The film follows the real deception closely, but the rivalry between Montagu and Cholmondeley over the secretary Jean Leslie is largely invented. The same operation inspired the 1956 film The Man Who Never Was.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Operation Mincemeat
- Directed by
- John Madden
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English
- Released
- 2021
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe, Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Espionage
- True story
