Operation Mincemeat was published by Bloomsbury in 2010, adapted into a 2022 film with Colin Firth. The operation: in April 1943, a corpse dressed as “Major William Martin, Royal Marines” was released from a submarine off the coast of Huelva, Spain, carrying a briefcase chained to his wrist. Inside were letters between senior British generals indicating that the Allied invasion of southern Europe would target Sardinia and Greece — not Sicily.
Spanish authorities recovered the body and, as the British hoped, shared the documents with German intelligence. Hitler was convinced. He reinforced Greece and Sardinia while leaving Sicily relatively undefended. The Allied invasion of Sicily (July 1943) succeeded far more easily than it might have.
Macintyre tells the full story behind the deception: who devised it (Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu of Naval Intelligence), who the corpse actually was (Glyndwr Michael, a Welsh vagrant who died from rat poison ingestion), how the cover identity was constructed (down to love letters, a photograph of a fiancée, and ticket stubs), and how close the operation came to exposure at multiple points.
Collecting Operation Mincemeat
First edition (Bloomsbury, London, 2010): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $20–$50
- Signed first: $50–$100