Deathly Deception: The Real Story of Operation Mincemeat

ISBN-13: 9780199605989 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 400 str.

Denis Smyth

Opis

In the pre-dawn darkness of April 30, 1943, a body disguised as a Royal Marine Major washed ashore on the coast of Spain, carrying false documents indicating that the Allies were set to launch an attack on Greece, rather than Sicily. Immortalized in the film The Man Who Never Was, Operation Mincemeat is renowned as the most spectacular episode in the annals of deception. In this accurate and in-depth retelling of the story, Denis Smyth draws on a vast collection of previously unavailable documentary sources to provide many key details overlooked in other accounts of Mincemeat. He reveals how the architects of the plan navigated a maze of medical, technical, and logistical issues to deceive the enemy at the highest strategic levels. Before planting the corpse in the Spanish coastal waters via a stealthy submarine operation, the planners not only gave their dead messenger a new military identity, but also a private one--as the fiance of an attractive young woman named "Pam." Nazi intelligence was fooled, falling for a ruse which ultimately saved thousands of American lives.

Recenzje

Now for the first time we have all the facts which dispel the mysteries surrounding the operation and show the complexities, pitfalls and dangers faced by British intelligence. Using official sources and an historian's acumen, Prof. Smyth has at last revealed the whole story of this fascinating ploy which did so much to save Allied soldier's lives.

O autorze

Denis Smyth studied for his Ph.D. in History at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Sir Harry Hinsley, official historian of British intelligence in the Second World War. He lectured in Modern European History at University College, Cork from 1976 to 1985, and has been a Professor in the Department of History, and in the International Relations Programme, at the University of Toronto since 1985. His previous publications have dealt with the diplomacy and strategy of the Great Powers during the twentieth century and he has edited a number of volumes in the British Documents on Foreign Affairs series.