In early 1943, British intelligence was asked to help conceal Allied intentions of invading Sicily that summer. Germany and the Allies were involved in a high stakes deception to determine just exactly where the first European attack would occur. Two British intelligence officers came up with the idea of Operation Mincemeat, a plan to disseminate false information by allowing the Germans to "accidentally" discover faked top secret documents.
To carry out Operation Mincemeat, the British acquired the cadaver of homeless man Glyndwr Michael, transforming him into "Captain William Martin, Royal Marines." By the time a submarine crew pushed Michael/Martin's body gently into the water off the coast of Spain, he was handcuffed to a briefcase stuffed with falsified military documents and mundane items like keys, theater tickets, and a photograph of a nonexistent girlfriend.
Information concerning a supposed upcoming invasion of Greece was included in an official letter between two British generals. The British hoped Spanish authorities would turn this material over to German intelligence, and it would make its way up the chain of command, which is exactly what happened. Hitler had already decided Greece would be the next Allied objective. Based on info recovered from the British corpse, he diverted men, equipment, and even Erwin Rommel to Greece. When the Allies invaded Sicily on July 9, they were met with minimal resistance.
One April morning in 1943, a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain, setting in train a course of events that would change the course of World War Two.
The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer and a brilliant Jewish barrister, this great deception involved an extraordinary cast of characters including Ian Fleming, who would go on to write the James Bond stories; a famous forensic pathologist; a beautiful secret service secretary; a submarine captain; three novelists; an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing; and a dead, Welsh tramp. Using fraud, imagination and seduction, Winston Churchill's team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate and so convincing that they began to believe it themselves. From a windowless basement beneath Whitehall, the hoax travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany and ended up on Hitler's desk.
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Another infamous operation from WW2:
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, masterminded the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. In April of 1943, Yamamoto was conducting a morale building tour of Japanese positions in the Solomon Islands when American intelligence, having broken Japanese code, figured out his itinerary. Presented with an opportunity to get the man responsible for Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt personally ordered the subtly-named Operation Vengeance.
The mission required a 1,000-mile round trip, perfect timing, and the element of surprise, all of which Americans were able to pull off. On the morning of April 18, 1943, 18 American P-38 Lightning planes were in position to intercept the Japanese admiral. Over Bouganville Island, the Americans attacked Yamamoto's bomber and fighter escort. In the ensuing dogfight, Yamamoto's plane was sent crashing into the jungle. His demoralizing death was kept secret from the Japanese people for more than a month.
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Thank you!
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You're welcome!
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