Stratagem: the corpse of poor deceived Nazis Bashny.Net

Rat poison - not the most pleasant way of life care. But it was with the help of committed suicide winter of 1943 unemployed and homeless Glindauer named Michael.

His body was found a cold January night in the London warehouse. The death certificate states that the cause of withdrawal from life was "poisoning by phosphorus. Took rat poison, tried to commit suicide during the insanity of reason ».

The body has not been buried - in the capital, nor in his native town in southern Wales. Instead, the coroner suggested that "to take him out of England." And then Glindauer Michael died a second time. And that his death helped change the course of World War II.

Three months in the ice body lay in a London morgue, and then he was taken to the shores of southern Spain.

British intelligence officers Charles Kolmondeli and Ewen Montagu, putting a lot of effort, given the corpse of the deceased officer's view - crafted by Captain William Martin. For him they were for several months composing a legend, to which it would be impossible to find fault.

Stuffed in the pockets of his identity card, punch cards and letters from the bride and briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, inside of which was a note marked "Personally, and Top Secret." It said that the allied forces are going to invade Greece.

In fact, the anti-Hitler coalition was listed plans is not Greece, and Sicily.
letters +2 photos via nolxxx





When the corpse caught - not far from the port of Huelva - it took for the British military courier who died in a plane crash. The Spanish authorities have agreed to bury him without delay - because of the heat the body quickly decomposed - and placed his belongings under lock and key.

Thus the homeless Welsh alcoholic was buried with military honors in the sunlit Spanish cemetery under the slab with the writing: William Martin, RM (Royal Marines, ie the Royal Marines).

The best way to forge a document - to make sure that it was written by a real general

Michael (aka Martin) was based on Ian Fleming invented the operation "Minced meat" and realized Kolmodeli and Montague working in the military cabinet of Winston Churchill. Coroner in advance given the task to find appropriate corpse and fake documents - so that it looked as if they all agreed. In this case, however, such a reference was not necessary: ​​parents Michael was no longer in the world.

And - in full accordance with the intrigue woven writer - a true story invented officer was then implemented in Hollywood. In 1953, Montagu wrote a book about this and in 1956 filmed the movie "The Man Who Was not There».

But why Spain? Formally, the country maintained neutrality, but in reality was overrun by Nazi spies. The corpse was to be the bait for a meticulous, and having regard to the summit, but it does not have much imagination of the German agent, to act in this area. His name was Adolf Claus.

Montague been looking for a suitable body

The British hoped that the false documents that were with fake officer, will be convincing enough to Klaus misinformation handed up the chain - right up to Hitler himself.

At this time, the outcome of the war had not yet been clearly resolved in Germany kept the vast expanses of the Soviet Union and Europe.

"It was a time when spies were working very actively, bluffing, and hand kontrblefovali - says Godfrey Amias from a military research institute RUSI (Royal United Services Institute). - Use other tricks - such as the illusionist, who was sent to North Africa on a mission to create a mirror of inflatable tanks and feeling a huge army ».

"But the operation" Minced meat "was outstanding: she let rip a maximum jackpot, - the expert continues. - It was a very unusual operation, undertaken in a very unusual time. Her motto can be considered the phrase to be done once, but - for good ».

And the British came to play the ace, which they hid in the sleeve. So says Ben Macintyre, author of "Operation" Minced meat "which the BBC BBC has just turned into a documentary.

"We are due to cryptanalysts of Bletchley Park, in fact, read the German correspondence - McIntyre says, referring to the British unit that failed to decode the message" Enigma ", as the Germans had no idea. - We learned that Hitler was thinking, real-time & quot ;.

The Germans had no idea that their encoded messages read British

Interceptions, which carries out Bletchley Park, allowed the British command to read the top-secret correspondence of the German General Staff with troops. As a result, Montague and his people knew the most intimate of the key figures of the Reich, which allowed them to successfully develop such a plan.

"I doubt that this would be realistic today, even in wartime, - says McIntyre. - Imagine the scandal would be if it became known that British agents deliberately stole the corpse of a man. One of the reasons why it worked so well, was that the organizers were given the opportunity to do whatever they want done with little or no supervision from above ».

However, the Kolmondli and Montague already had experience of similar cases.

Even before the "minced meat" they wove imaginary network of double agents, through which were fed misinformation to the Nazis. These spies invented - just like Michael / Martin - had a job, family, lovers, favorite activities and even bank managers.

The Germans believed that they had in the UK operates a fine network of agents. In fact they were not.

After a tense week or two - the Germans were not the first attempt failed to get to the contents of the suitcase - photos of false documents lay down, in the end, to Hitler on the table. He believed - and threw in Greece a whole tank division.

One of the variants (rejected) was to use the corpse "the captain of the submarine»

Montague and his team Chechrillyu sent a telegram, whose meaning lies in the fact that the stuffing is swallowed.

And in early July, the Allies attacked Sicily. The island fell. At the same time the British have lost much less personnel and vehicles than might be supposed.

"Mussolini was simply knocked out - says McIntyre. - Faced with this invasion of the south, Hitler was forced to cancel a major offensive, which was preparing against the Soviet Union. The Germans were now on the defensive side. And the Red Army did not stop until it reached Berlin ».

The course of the war changed - thanks in part to the corpse tramp, which sailed over the Atlantic.



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