How The Allies Tricked Germany Out of Sicily With A Single Corpse

Operation Mincemeat

(Public domain)

When German spies in Spain intercepted secret documents en route to Britain in the spring of 1943, they believed they had stumbled upon a gold mine. The documents had been recovered from a body that had washed up on shore in a fishing village in Spain. The corpse belonged to Acting Major William Martin. The man was likely a spy or a military planner that had been on the move when he drowned at sea. The man’s previous life mattered not to the German spies, but his briefcase was of grave importance.

The spies dutifully intercepted the briefcase, recorded the contents, and whisked them away to Germany. Unfortunately, the information contained in the briefcase was fabricated. The corpse was a plant. The entire ruse was designed to affect Germany’s military thinking, and it did just that.

When the spies presented their findings to Hitler, the Fuhrer immediately agreed with their assessment. The Allied invasion of Italy was not going to be launched through Sicily but rather through Sardinia and Greece. In fact, the Allies might bypass Italy altogether. The weak underbelly of Europe wasn’t the Italian boot but rather the Balkans.

Hitler redeployed dozens of combat ready divisions to Greece, Corsica, and Sardinia, leaving just 60,000…