Title: The Man Who Never Was: The Remarkable Story of Operation Mincemeat
Author: Ewen Montagu
Major Themes: World War II, Memoirs
Synopsis: As the Allies prepared to invade Sicily in World War II, they carried off one of the most successful cover operations in recent history—by convincing the Germans, using a dead body with a briefcase of important letters attached to it, that they were planning to attack Greece instead.
Early this year, I got to read The Enigma Girls, a fascinating biographical work about some of the women who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II. In that book was a passing reference to Operation Mincemeat, which piqued my curiosity. Mom also listened to that book, and she said that when she was a girl, they had The Man Who Never Was on their family bookshelf, and she’d found that story a fascinating read. That made me want to read it even more, so when I happened to be reminded of it recently and then found it in an online library, I decided it was time to read the story.
Publisher’s description:
In the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines was slipped into the waters off the south-west coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the story whole. It was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for the Allies had no such plan: the purpose of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ was to blind the German High Command to their true objective—an attack on Southern Europe through Sicily. Though officially shrouded in secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to Churchill’s habit of telling the story at dinner).
Ewen Montagu was the operation’s mastermind, and in his celebrated post-war memoir, The Man Who Never Was, he reveals the incredible true story behind ‘Operation Mincemeat’.
My thoughts:
This isn’t a very long book—but wow, is it ever an interesting story! I can’t say I fully enjoyed it; after all, the whole premise of the book is based on high levels of deception and manipulation. However, I found it fascinating from the perspective that 1) this scheme worked, and 2) the incredible amount of work and different facets (lies) needed to get the operation just right to make it work.
Ewen Montagu does a great job at laying out the dilemma the Allies faced as they prepared for their invasion of mainland Europe from the African side. He then quickly moves into what they did to make this particular deception work—from sourcing a dead body (understandably difficult), to figuring out exactly what paperwork to attach to the body to fool the Germans, to building up a whole identity and personality for this fictitious character. It was a very detailed scheme, and could have easily failed if the wrong people started asking questions (maybe it was an act of God that they didn’t?).
If you’re interested in history of any sort, I think you’d find The Man Who Never Was a fascinating read. It only took me a couple of days to get through, as it’s written in a very interesting, easy-to-read style (even though I’m not a war analyst, by any means!). This is just one more piece of the overall picture of how the Allies eventually won World War II, but in my opinion, it’s one of the more interesting ones. Recommended!
WARNING: As mentioned in the review, there’s a lot of deception, mind games, and manipulation involved in this story. Chapters 1 and 7 each use the word “damn” once.
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Ages 15 and Above, Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
