Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II Paperback – 23 Dec. 2021

This is a wonderful true story told in such detail, with off shoots of nearly all the characters background who are involved in any way in this amazing event.I found the book, very interesting but hard going to read. Very well researched and absorbing, mentioning many famous names along the way!But I will try the previous book "The man that never was" after a break from this one, and hopefully it will read more like a story from say the film than a documentary version as this is.The cover of the book is for me is a bit misleading as it shows the cast of the new film. I thought it would be just the story, but a more up to date version, written in a modern way rather than the previous book.An update to my review, having read the other version, The man that never was, this book was a lot more concise and being so was nowhere near as interesting as this book! So I have upgraded this book to 5 stars from 3 as it really is well written and absorbing, you just have to set time aside to absorb it all!

Review of Kindle version.The story of Operation Mincemeat has to be one of the most incredible of WW2. There were times when reading this book that I just didn't understand why it wasn't rumbled immediately. Some of the actions of the main protagonists are farcical and I got to thinking that, like some of the stories now coming out about the Battle of Britain, Britain didn't so much as win the war as Germany lost it.Ben Macintyre does weave a good story around the facts and I liked his style of writing, even if it did at times wander from the main story, I like the fleshing out of the characters as it makes the story less dry.I bought the Kindle version of this so a few words about that.It's about 50p cheaper than the paperback but I have to say I wasn't that impressed. I should say I only have recently got a Kindle and this is the first factual book I have read on it.There are a number of errors in the text were you suddenly get a odd character i.e. a % or something similar in a word and in a few places there are two hyphens in a very short word. The photos in the book are clear but the wording with the photos is very small, and although I could read it others may struggle. So on balance I wish I had got the paperback version, Kindles seem to be more suited to novels. Still 4* for an absolutely fascinating read.

This is the gripping true story of the Second World War deception operation by which the Allies managed to convince the Germans that the planned invasion of Sicily in 1943 was in fact a decoy and that the real invasion was to be targeted at Greece in the eastern Mediterranean and Sardinia in the western Mediterranean. The success of the operation paved the way towards the invasion of Italy, toppling Mussolini and taking that country out of the war, the first major breach in the Axis coalition. The whole story reads like a rather unlikely thriller, disguising a dead body in a Marines uniform, planting a carefully constructed series of fake documents on him, drafted and presented in such a way that they would convince the enemy of their genuineness. The key was "not merely to conceal what you are doing, but to persuade the other side that what you are doing is the reverse of what you are actually doing." To do this they had to create a whole backstory for the fictional dead Marines officer, Major William Martin, and concoct supporting evidence for the documents and other materials found in his possession that would withstand investigation by any German or other enemy agent in Britain.The effectiveness of the plan also relied on understanding the psychology of individuals and nations, not just of the Germans, but also of the officially neutral Spaniards, juggling between those who were really pro-Axis and those (such as the Spanish navy) who were often pro-Allies. A lot of its success also depended on wishful thinking by those in the chain, wanting to believe the information, or wanting to ingratiate themselves by submitting the prized and explosive information further up the chain. It even convinced Hitler, supporting his entrenched belief that the Balkans was the soft underbelly of the Nazi Empire (ironically, Goebbels was the only leading Nazi who didn't fall for the deception).We meet a rich and varied cast of characters from all the participating nations, including on the British side a wide variety of people who were also novelists, most famously Ian Fleming, who took the original idea for the misleading corpse from a minor novel by a former top policeman published in 1937. (That said, this connection may not be so surprising as "the greatest writers of spy fiction have, in almost every case, worked in intelligence before turning to writing [.] Somerset Maugham, John Buchan, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, John le Carré.") We also come across the crucial role played by non-existent agents to deceive the other side and draw attention away from the activities of real agents - "Real agents tended to become truculent and demanding; they needed feeding, pampering, and paying. An imaginary agent, however, was infinitely pliable, and willing to do the bidding of his ....... handlers at once, and without question."One of the other tensions and fine balances the Allies needed to show once the body had been discovered was that of seeming to be reasonably alarmed when the papers were lost, but without making too serious an effort to recover them, and hoping that they would not be returned unopened by a friendly Spaniard. In the author's words, "in reality if top-secret plans really had fallen into enemy hands, and the breach of security was detected, then those plans might well be abandoned, or at least substantially altered. The Germans must be made to believe that they had gained access to the documents undetected; they should be made to assume that the British believed the Spaniards had returned the documents unopened, and unread. Operation Mincemeat would only work if the Germans could be fooled into believing that the British had been fooled." Such multiple levels of motivations go to make this such a fascinating and thrilling read - if a spy novel published today had this plot it might well be dismissed as too far-fetched to be believable.The leading instigators of the deception Ewen Montague and Charles Cholmondeley deserve great credit for their massive, but necessarily secret, contribution to ensuring the Allied victory on the European continent. After the war, the details of the deception were kept under wraps for years, partly to protect Anglo-Spanish relations, though Montagu published a partial account in 1953, and a film version was released in 1956 in which, bizarrely, Montagu played the minor role of a senior military officer, while his own role was played by an American actor. The final mystery of the real identity of the dead body - a poor and luckless Welshman, Gwyndyr Michael, who probably committed suicide through ingesting - was not revealed until the 1990s, when an inscription was added to the Spanish grave of Major William Martin, the most fictional person to make a major contribution to winning a war.

A thoroughly absorbing read. This is Ben Macintyre’s best book to date, though the quality of the writing is more than matched by the quality of the storytelling. Reads like a novel and is utterly spellbinding. Not my best review this but if I can pass on any message to anyone thinking of reading this book, I would say read it, you’ll not be disappointed. Do not watch the movie of the same name as you will be thoroughly disappointed. Great stuff, 5 stars.

Ben Macintyre is a superb writer. His experience in the espionage world, factual research, and his gift for storytelling is a fantastic combo.

Lo compré para regalo y fue lo que esperaban.

I found this book lying around at work. Someone highly recommended it. I am a big WW2 reader, but not spy books etc… this book was really good. It had me sucked in within the first 5 or 6 pages. It is very well written. There are a lot of different “characters” that are entertaining and funny. It well written and very readable.

Un libro che farà parlare di sé allorquando uscirà in tutto il mondo il film che ne ripercorre la trama e che, se ben prodotto e recitatopotrebbe ambire , perché no, anche a qualche statuetta. La storia, affascinante ed appassionante, è quella del depistaggio ordito dall'ammiragliato britannico ai danni delle forze dell'Asse per far loro credere che lo sbarco delle truppe alleate nei territori sotto il loro dominio sarebbe avvenuto non in Sicilia, ma altrove. Una guerra la si vince anche così, impedendo al nemico di predisporre contromisure adeguate e, col senno di poi, risparmiando ove possibile, risorse belliche e vite umane. Grazie all'inganno, di fattura romanzesca, i Tedeschi non rinforzarono gli argini meridionali dell'Italia facilitando il compito a Patton e ad Alexander, che sbarcarono in Sicilia il 10 luglio del 1943, sconquassando l'ormai precario equilibrio su cui poggiava lo stato fascista

Dieses Buch Beschreibt ein sehr erfolgreiches Täuschungsmanöver der Briten während den zweiten Weltkrieg. Das Erste mal das ich hiervon hörte war als ich den Verfilmung hiervon gesehen hab, Der Mann, den es nie gab (The Man Who Never Was) nach den gleichnamigen Buch.Die Briten wollen vor der Invasion von Sizilien die Deutschen soweit kriegen das die Truppen von Sizilien wo anders hin verlegen. Hierzu würde eine falsche Identität kreiert für eine an Lungenentzündung gestorbenen obdachlosen. Seine Leiche wurde mit ausführlichen falsch Information geschmückt und vor der Spanische Küste als Flugzeugabsturzopfer getarnt ausgesetzt.Der Deutsche Abwehr fiel voll drauf rein und Truppen wurden verlegt.Das Buch ist sehr gut recherchiert, dokumentiert den ganzen Operation hervorragend und erklärt auch die unterschieden zwischen Wirklichkeit und die doch etwas Romantisierte Verfilmung der Operation.Interessant für jeden der sich in Geheimdienstoperationen interessiert oder einfach eine spannenden buch lesen das sich liest wie ein Thriller aber keinen ist.