Operation Mincemeat: The Shadow Catalyst for CIA's Dark Age

On April 30th, 1943, in the middle of. World War II, a body washed up on the. shore of Huelva, Spain. The deceased man. was wearing a British military uniform. There was a briefcase strapped to his. body containing British and American. military secrets. [music]. The man was Major William Martin, a. Royal Marine who was the single victim. of a fatal plane crash at sea. He had. just returned from temporary leave in. London, where he had gone to the theater. and purchased an engagement ring for his. fiance, Pam. But there was something.

very strange about Major William Martin. He didn't exist. It was the winter of 1942, and the. Allies needed a win. Hitler's Nazi war. machine had steamrolled all of Europe, and everybody knew England was next. The. United States had just been dragged into. the war by the attack on Pearl Harbor, and American bodies were piling up by. the thousands. Inside job. What? Pearl Harbor was an inside job. Didn't.

you see that image that was going. around? Show me. See, look at that. HOW COULD THE PLANES. FLY THIS DISTANCE IN 1931? Uh you know that was meant as a joke. Yeah, maybe. And you know the Earth is round, right? Allegedly. No, it really is. Could be round, could be flat. You know, who's to say? Uh science is to say. Oh, right. Science. I tried to make air. quotes, but uh my fins wouldn't bend. Anyway, [sighs]. German forces were better trained, better equipped, and of singular.

purpose. But Germany did have a. weakness. It's not a country rich in. natural resources. To wage war in the. 1940s, you need iron, oil, rubber, and. food. Germany had to import all of. these. If the Allies could disrupt. Germany's supply lines, the Germans. would no longer have the ability to. fight, and the war could come to a quick. close. But that was easier said than done. German engineers were among the best in. the world. Every time the German army. seized an inch of land, it was quickly. fortified. Any Allied advance on.

mainland Europe would be repelled and. would result in catastrophic losses. But the coastline of the Mediterranean. was not as heavily fortified. UK Prime. Minister Winston Churchill called this. the soft underbelly of Europe. The key. to taking back Europe was Italy, and the. key to taking Italy was Sicily. Unfortunately, the Germans understood. the strategic importance of Sicily as. well. They were fully expecting the. Allies to attack it. And if the Allies. had any hope of winning, they'd need the. element of surprise. MI5, Britain's.

intelligence agency, was tasked with. tricking the Germans into thinking the. Allies would attack Greece instead. If. the Germans bought the ruse, they would. divert forces from Sicily to Greece, leaving Sicily unprotected and ensuring. an easy win for the Allies. One of the. British intelligence officers working on. crafting this deception was Charles. Cholmondeley. Hang on. What? Cholmondeley, that's not what it says on. the screen. Yeah, I know. That's how he pronounced. his name. Well, he pronounced it wrong. Cholmondeley's primary role in the war.

effort was an ideas guy. Charles. Cholmondeley remembered a top-secret. memo distributed to British wartime. intelligence at the beginning of the. war. It became known as the Trout Memo. because it compared intelligence to fly. fishing. Well, why would anyone want to catch. flies? No, no. Fly fishermen try to catch fish. Those fishermen. The Trout Memo listed 51 specific ideas. for fooling the Germans. The list was. pretty wacky and included dropping. glow-in-the-dark footballs in the water.

to attract submarines. There was one. about a fake treasure ship, and there. was another about explosives being. disguised as food. But the craziest idea. in the Trout Memo was number 28. It. involved loading up a corpse with phony. documents, then dropping the corpse from. a plane behind enemy lines. And when you. read the entire Trout Memo, you can't. help but think whoever thought of this. stuff would be great at writing spy. novels. The Trout Memo officially was written by.

Rear Admiral John Godfrey, but it was. actually written by Godfrey's assistant, Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming. The. same Ian Fleming who went on to become a. novelist, best known for a series. featuring the character. Bond. James Bond. [music] Idea number 28 on. Ian Fleming's Trout Memo was titled "A. Suggestion", and not a very nice one. The following suggestion is used in a. book by Basil Thompson. A corpse dressed [music] as an airman. with dispatches in his pockets could be.

dropped on the coast, supposedly [music]. from a parachute that had failed. I. understand there is no difficulty in. obtaining corpses at the naval hospital, but of course, it would have to be a. fresh one. The idea was so crazy that Cholmondeley. thought it might be just the way to fool. the Germans into believing the Allies. were planning to attack Greece instead. of Sicily. He presented it to his. superiors, and they assigned a naval. officer named Ewen Montagu to help him. develop [music] the plan. Before the. war, Ewen Montagu was a lawyer. He came. from an extremely wealthy family of.

bankers, and when the war broke out, he. was too old for active service, but. found himself rising through the ranks. of naval intelligence. [music]. You know, I noticed that people from. wealthy families tend to rise through. the ranks rather quickly. Yeah, that does seem to be the case. As it turned out, an inclination for. wartime intelligence work ran in the. family. Ewen didn't know it at the time, but his own brother, Ivor Montagu, was. actually a [music] spy for the Soviet. Union. Uh-oh. Well, luckily, the Soviet Union and the. United Kingdom were fighting this war.

[music] on the same side. Well, that's true. So, did this Igor. Ivor. Igor. Ivor. Ivor. Ivor. Did he stop spying for the Russians. after the war? Uh-huh. The Montagus were also Jewish, so Ewen's. wife and children spent the war in. America for safety reasons. Ewen wanted. in on this unique operation to serve his. country, of course, [music]. but also to keep his mind off how much. he missed his wife. Cholmondeley and. Montagu fleshed out the plan for their. mission. They would deliver a dead body. via a submarine just off [music] the.

coast of Spain. The body would be. carrying information identifying him as. a royal marine, and most importantly, falsified documents regarding an. upcoming military [music] offensive in. Greece. Spain was the ideal country to. find the body because though they were. officially neutral, they were in close. communication with the Germans. And if. military secrets washed up on the. Spanish shores, there was a good [music]. chance those secrets would end up in the. hands of the Germans. Cholmondeley and. Montagu had the plan. Now they just. needed a dead body. But not just [music].

any dead body. It had to be male and of. military age. The cause of [music] death. needed to line up with the story of a. plane crash at sea. So, drowning, exposure, shock, or traumatic injury. And the man shouldn't have any pesky. family [music]. members who might not appreciate their. loved one's corpse being dressed up as. someone else [music] and taken out of. the country. Ewen Montagu was friendly. with a local coroner who agreed to keep. an eye out for just such a body. Yeah, it's good to have a cool ups guy. It is. And on January 26th, 1943, the coroner.

called Montagu and told him, "I got one.". Glender Michael had a hard life. His. father attempted suicide by stabbing. himself in the neck with a knife. He was. taken to a mental hospital where he. caught influenza and later died. His. mother struggled to care for the family. on her own. They were often homeless and. there was never enough food. Shortly. before the war, she died of a heart. attack. Glender was declared ineligible. for military service, though it's not.

clear why. It could have been for poor. physical health, poor mental health, or. both. He eventually became homeless and. wandered the streets of London. On. January 26th, 1943, Glender Michael consumed rat poison in. an abandoned warehouse. It could have. been suicide, but most likely he was. starving and found some bread. The bread. had been laced with rat poison, and. Glendower died two days later. Death by. rat poison is a rough way to go. But, considering the forensic technology. available at the time, dying from rat. poisoning could pass for drowning.

Cholmondeley and Montagu now had a body. Not for long, though. Montagu's coroner. buddy. Whoops, Guy. is Corpsesky stressed that Glendower's. body was already starting to decompose. He could keep him on ice, but he needed. to be deployed within the next 3 months. At this point, Cholmondeley and. Montagu's mission had also been given an. official code name, Operation Mincemeat. And this was a dark joke. Mincemeat is a. recipe combining chopped meat or animal. fat with fruit and spices and whatever.

you've got lying around. And when those. things you've got lying around include. sugar and alcohol, it's a good way to. preserve meat. At this time in the UK, people needed to preserve meat to make. their rations last longer. But this. time, the meat was a man. It turned out that acquiring a highly. specific dead body was the easy part. It's good to have a Corpsesky. Now, Montagu and Cholmondeley needed to. create a new identity from thin air, [music]. and it had to stand up to German. scrutiny. He needed to be a military.

officer if it was going to be believable. that he had possession of sensitive. documents. They chose the Royal Marines. because it was a common uniform and easy. to get. To avoid the uniform looking too. new, Cholmondeley wore it every day for. the next 3 months. Now, they needed a. name. Montagu and Cholmondeley looked. through the list of servicemen and found. several Royal Marines named William. Martin who were around the rank of. captain. The Germans likely had access. to the same list of names, but not their. postings. So, Montagu and Cholmondeley.

borrowed the name. The fictional William. Martin also needed identification. Royal. Marines carried ID cards on them at all. times that included a picture. Montagu. and Cholmondeley attempted to photograph. the dead body, but this was. unsuccessful. Nah, they couldn't pull a Weekend at. Bernie's. Well, they tried, but the body was in. rough shape and getting worse. The. pictures were frightening. But working. in another department was a man who. looked similar to Glyndwr Michael, and. he was willing to be photographed. [music]. Montagu and Cholmondeley borrowed his. face. There was one more thing they.

needed, but this one they wouldn't be. able to get back. Underwear. A British military officer at. the time would have been wearing. underwear. Underwear was rationed in the. UK at the time, meaning you couldn't. find it in a store, and no one was. giving theirs up. Ah, and this is where the expression. going commando comes from. Uh uh I don't think that's right. Well, Montagu presented this predicament to. one of his superiors, [music]. and it just so happened that one of his. superior's academic enemies had recently. been run over by a truck. He was.

delighted to acquire his former. colleague's underwear for Operation. Mincemeat. Montagu and Cholmondeley now. turn their attention from the physical. to the fictional. They needed a. backstory for Major William Martin. Every night they would go out with a few. of their colleagues and fill in details. on William Martin's backstory. [music]. He liked fishing and was bad with money. He was romantic and secretly wanted to. be a writer. The team came to view Major. William Martin as a friend. The. backstory they created would be told to. the Spanish who found the body, and. hopefully the Germans they showed it to.

in the form of pocket litter. Pocket. litter is the term for the random stuff. people carry in their pockets. For the. fictional William Martin, that included. [music] his falsified military ID card, the military documents hinting at the. Allied plans to invade Greece, ticket. stubs from the theater, a receipt for an. engagement ring, an overdraft letter. from the bank, and a photograph and love. letter from his fiancee Pam. Jean. Leslie, a secretary working at the. agency, agreed to provide a photograph. Jean now became Major Martin's fiancee.

Pam. And here's where things get a. little awkward. Ewen and Jean began. spending a lot of time together. They. went dancing, they went to the movies, but not as themselves, not as Ewen and. Jean, as William and Pam. They may have. been playing characters, but the romance. was real enough that Montagu's own. mother wrote to his wife suggesting she. come back to the UK as soon as she. could. But there was one last very. important letter to be written. The. military communication from a general. revealing the supposed joint American.

and British attack on Greece. The work. on this letter took over a month, and. after many drafts were written by an. increasingly frustrated Ewen Montagu, they just had the general write the. letter himself. Nobody likes getting notes. That's true. And in the letter was placed a single. eyelash. Eyelash? Yep. The British needed to know if the. letter was opened. If the plan worked, they'd have the documents returned to. them. If the eyelash was missing, that. means someone opened the letter. Oh. But the month of rewrites was a problem.

considering the three-month window given. to Operation Mincemeat by the coroner. Looks like. They needed to get Glyndwr Michael, the. photo of Jean, the worn uniform, the. love letters, the dead academic's. underwear, the all-important military. document, and the pocket litter to. Spain, and they needed to do it fast. because acting Major William Martin. [music]. was starting to rot. At this time, MI5 employed one of the. UK's most famous race car drivers. During the war, Jack Horsfall had been.

recruited by British intelligence to. provide transportation for its agents. when they needed to get somewhere and. get out of somewhere fast. In this case, he needed to transport Ewen Montagu, Charles Cholmondeley, and a secret. package from England to Scotland where. Ewen and Charles would meet a submarine. that would deliver Major William Martin. to a specific location off the coast of. Spain. Glyndwr Michael's body had been. placed in a special container that was. created for this exact purpose. It was. essentially a thin coffin packed with.

dry ice. This would help keep the body. cold to slow down the decomposition. process and help keep it secret. It. would also save the submarine's crew. from being trapped in a small space with. a very bad smell. They decided to travel. overnight to risk being seen. But the UK. was under a strict blackout at the time. Every night entire cities went dark to. make them harder for German bombers to. identify from overhead. This meant all. street lights were out and all vehicle. headlights had to be covered. So Montagu. and Cholmondeley were going to be driven.

at high speed by a race car driver in. pitch darkness. And by the way, Jack. Horsfall was legally blind and refused. to wear glasses. That's kind of badass. Well, maybe or stupid. Horsfall wouldn't. wear glasses because he was always very. well dressed. He liked Martinis and was. famous for driving an Aston Martin. Which is like. James Bond. You'll be using this Aston Martin DB5. modifications. Now, pay attention, please.

James Bond was a composite character. based on real people that Ian Fleming. knew, including Jack Horsfall. The. overnight road trip from England to. Scotland was crazy and included a couple. of close calls, but they made it to. Scotland on time. In Scotland, they met. the crew of the submarine HMS Seraph and. loaded in their suspiciously large. container, which was labeled optical. instruments. [music]. In the early morning hours of April. 30th, 1943, the submarine reached its.

destination. The officers aboard the HMS. Seraph performed a brief funeral service. for Glender Michael, then placed his. body with the briefcase attached into. the water. Then the sub was positioned. in a way that the propellers could be. used to. propel the body toward the shore. They. gunned the engine and the body was on. its way. Their final task was to sink. the body's container and this turned out. to be one of the biggest hurdles. Operation Mincemeat faced. [music] Part. of the special container's cooling. system included air pockets, and so when.

placed in the water, it floated. [music]. They tried shooting at it, but it still. wouldn't sink. And if they couldn't sink. it, this would be [music] a big problem. Imagine a strange coffin riddled with. bullet holes washing up on shore just. after Major William Martin's body. [music] The Spanish would know things. were not as they seemed. So, the serve. crew decided to blow it up. The. explosion was loud, but the container. did finally sink. [music]. And Major Martin? He ended up on the. beach.

[music]. At around 9:30 on the morning of April. 30th, 1943, the body of Royal Marine. Acting Major William Martin was. discovered by a fisherman in Huelva, Spain. This was chosen as the drop-off. site because of one specific Huelva. resident, Adolf Klaus. That's the most German name I've ever. heard. Klaus was a notorious German spy who was. the key to making sure the falsified. documents were seen by the Germans. The. fisherman who found the body notified. the Spanish authorities who informed the. British consulate in Spain. And now.

began a delicate diplomatic dance. After. enough time had passed for news [music]. of Major William Martin's death travel. through official British channels, the. British needed to start requesting. Martin's briefcase. And by pushing for. the return of the briefcase, it would. alert the Spanish and hopefully the. Germans that there was something juicy. inside. But they couldn't push too hard, or the Spanish might return the. briefcase before the Germans could get a. peek. But they did eventually need to. get the documents back if this thing was. going to work. Cuz look, if the Germans believed that.

the British believed that their. documents had been lost and the Germans. had possibly gained possession of them, they would likely cancel the planned. Greek attack. No reason to attack if the. Germans know it's coming, and that. couldn't be allowed to happen. The. Germans had to read the letter and have. it returned unopened. So, a delicate. dance. Less delicate was the matter of. the autopsy. Glyndwr Michael had, of. course, not died by drowning or blunt. trauma or shock or exposure. He ate rat. poison. A detailed autopsy would almost.

certainly have revealed that something. was off. But, by this time, the stench. of the body was so foul that the British. vice consul, who was aware of Operation. Mincemeat, was able to cut the autopsy. short. He told the staff in the. coroner's office, "It's hot. This place stinks. Let's go. grab lunch instead. I'm buying." And. that was the end of the autopsy. A few. days later, a funeral was held for Major. William Martin. He was buried in Spain. with full military honors. Among the. crowd of mourners was the German spy,

Adolf Klaus. Adolf knew about Major. William Martin's arrival in Spain and. was already working on obtaining a copy. of the documents. Now, it took a week. and a half, but the documents did make. their way into the hands of the Germans. before finally being returned. No eyelash? No eyelash. To get the letter out of the. envelope, the Germans inserted a thin. wire and actually wound the letter into. a tight scroll. The scroll was carefully. pulled from a small fold in the. envelope. It was dried, copied, twisted.

around the wire again, and put back in. the envelope without breaking the wax. seal. [music] It was then soaked in. seawater and returned. Even if the. eyelash was there, the British would. have known the letter was read because. when they dried it out, it curled up. like a potato chip. [music] And then the. information from the falsified documents. made it all the way to Hitler. On July 9th, 1943, the joint American. and British invasion of Sicily, code-named Operation Husky, began. The.

Allies were met with stormy weather, but. little German resistance. [music]. The enemy was too busy planning for the. invasion of Greece. Hitler had bought. the Operation Mincemeat deception. completely. The British had expected. 10,000 killed or wounded in the first. week of fighting, but only suffered. [music] 1,400 losses. The Navy expected. that 300 ships would be sunk in the. action, but they lost only [music] 12. The predicted 90-day campaign was over. in 38 days. Operation Mincemeat is now. considered one of the greatest episodes. of wartime deception in history and is.

broadly credited with one of the turning. [music] points of World War II. But this. successful operation had a dark side. effect. [music]. It ushered in a new era of espionage. It. opened a Pandora's Box of intelligence. operations focused [music] on deception, but the targets of the deception were no. longer military. The targets were now. civilians. In 1942, the United States. military created the OSS, the Office of. Strategic Services. This was an. intelligence agency modeled after. Britain's [music] MI6. After the war,

the OSS was dissolved, but in 1947, a. new intelligence agency was created, the. CIA. [music]. Technically, the CIA is a civilian. agency tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national. security information from around the. world. But CIA operations are much more. creative and devious than simple. intelligence gathering. In 1953, the CIA. helped overthrow Iran's government via. Operation Ajax. In 1954, Operation.

PBSuccess overthrew the president of. Guatemala, a democratically elected. president. Syria, Indonesia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Haiti, Uruguay, Panama. In these countries and many others, the. CIA attempted coups, attempted to remove. elected leaders, and in some cases, assassinate those leaders. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis is taught. in every American school. It's a story. about Soviet aggression and the bravery.

of President JFK. What's not taught is that in the years. leading up to the crisis, the CIA. established a base of operations in. Miami. The only place that had more CIA. officers in the world was headquarters. in Langley. These men belong to a terrorist. organization. [music]. responsible for a recent wave of. bombings, kidnappings, and. assassinations. They are Cuban exiles [music] waging a. terrorist war against Fidel Castro, and. their base of operations is an American. [music] city. From the Miami base, Operation M Wave.

was launched. Cuban exiles were. recruited and trained by the CIA to. operate as agents. Those agents then. spent years engaging in an extensive. campaign of terrorism on economic and. civilian targets. A lot of civilians. were killed, and this was a major factor. in the Soviet decision to place missiles. on Cuba. These terrorist attacks. continued for years. In 1976, [music]. Cubana Flight 455 was destroyed by a. bomb, killing all 73 people aboard. [music] The CIA was immediately.

suspected, but naturally they denied it. But in 2007, [music]. independent research connected the. bombing to a CIA asset. During the Vietnam War, the CIA spun up. the Phoenix Program. [music]. This program was designed to identify. and destroy the Viet Cong, the VC, by. infiltration, [music] assassination, terrorism, and torture. Phoenix was shut. down after the abuse, torture, and. murder were exposed. [music] In the. 1970s back home, the CIA's Operation. Chaos targeted anti-war protesters.

I thought the CIA only operates overseas. and doesn't spy on Americans. Yeah, yeah, I realized how stupid I. sounded when I said it. Hey, it's a good. thing that the CIA, FBI, and other. agencies aren't being weaponized and. used against American citizens, huh? Sarcasm. Operation Condor ran for over 20 years. and was a program of terrorism, assassination, and overthrow attempts of.

every socialist leader in South America. There's compelling evidence to show that. for over 30 years, the CIA helped. organize, train, and fund death squads. in El Salvador. During the US inspired. civil war, at least 75,000. civilians were killed. MK-Ultra was an. illegal human experimentation program. The CIA was testing drugs that could be. used to force confessions through. brainwashing and psychological torture. The program ran for 20 years before.

being exposed. Through the '80s and. '90s, the CIA was the biggest illegal. drug trafficking and money laundering. operation in the world, though this is. only alleged. Operation Mincemeat is. hailed as a great success, a major. turning point in World War II that led. to the Allied victory and probably saved. millions of lives. And I believe that's. true. But out of the ashes of the war, and. emboldened by the success of the OSS, emerged the CIA.

Now, the CIA and its defenders will say. that yes, mistakes were made, but the. ultimate goal of the agency is to. protect American lives and America's. interests overseas. And that's what. we're taught here in the US, and that's. what we're shown in every movie about. the CIA, which all have to be approved. by the CIA. But there are people around. the world and throughout history that. view the CIA as an instrument of evil. Thousands, perhaps millions of people. would say the CIA is the most villainous. organization ever conceived by man. And.

I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying. every story has two sides. So, is the. CIA a hero or a villain? Well, it all. depends on which side of the table. you're sitting, on which end of the gun. you are, on which end of the needle, on. whether you are the tortured or the. torturer. Now, given the nightmarish abuses and. atrocities it's committed, and given the. political weaponization of the agency. that exists today, the CIA, at least the. way it's currently structured, might be.

doing more harm than good. But if. America is going to have a powerful. intelligence agency like the CIA, and I. think it should, that agency needs to do. better. And we the people, we need to. demand it. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. today. My name is A.J. There's. Hecklefish. Let's Kraken. This has been the Why Files. If you had. fun or learned anything, do him a favor, like, subscribe, comment, share. I know I'm a broken record. It's. annoying. They all say to do it, but it.

actually really does help. [music]. And like most topics we cover here on. the channel, today's was recommended by. you. So if there's a story you'd like to. see or learn more about, go to the. whyfiles.com/tips. And big [music] thanks to our patrons. You guys are amazing, and without your. generosity, there would be no Why Files. I'm grateful you're out there. Now if. you'd like to join a great community, join the Why Files Discord. It's free. and it's fun. But if you'd like to. support the channel, consider becoming a. member on Patreon, or [music] grab. something from the Why Files store. Or grab yourself a Hecklefish T-shirt.

They're 100% guaranteed to have not been. worn by any corpses in an intelligence. operation. I hope. Me too, pal. That's going to do it. Until next time, be safe, [music]. be kind, and know that you. are appreciated. [music]. [music]. [music].

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