Operation Mincemeat’s Deadly Deception

In 1943, one of World War II’s most important intelligence victories began with a dead

man—and chronic alcoholism. His name was Glyndwr Michael, a Welsh drifter

who died in London in January 1943. The official cause: poisoning from phosphorus-based rat poison,

worsened by severe alcohol abuse. He had no family. No one claimed the body.

British intelligence saw an opportunity. Under Operation Mincemeat, officers Ewen Montagu

and Charles Cholmondeley turned Michael into a fake Royal Marine officer—“Major William Martin.”

They planted forged documents on his corpse, suggesting the Allies would invade Greece,

not Sicily. In April 1943, the body was released off the coast of Huelva,