The Origin of Weird: Operation Mincemeat

Transcript

WEBVTT

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oh, hey, there microphone, I just hit yeah, you got a little close to her, hey, don't you know, oh, I sure did yeah, that could have hurt you.

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You know, break your nose.

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This is History.

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Buffoons Hi the Companion.

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The origin of weird.

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This is the origin of weird.

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Dun dun dun.

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I hope you like the new intro music.

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Wait, what Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

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We're inserting new music.

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We're working on that.

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I have yeah.

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You've got some things in the pot.

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Yep, let's go with that one.

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I think he's a brother Right, your brother.

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I tasked my brother with coming up with some type of background noise.

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I don't know if I ever asked him for the intro music.

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I might have to talk to him.

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Stay tuned, folks.

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This is riveting podcasting.

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Yeah, this is probably never going to see the light of day.

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Welcome to our first episode of the Origin of Weird.

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Yes, where we are literally trying to find where did weird come from?

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yeah, we're on a quest to discover the origin yeah of weird yeah like.

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I mean it's literally in the title, so it's.

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We're not trying to veil anything here we're not trying to hide it, we're just trying to pull one on you no, why would we do that?

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we're buffoons, we don't know how yeah but uh.

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So what weird tale do you have for me on our first official origin of weird episode?

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well, first of all, I hope that they like the the mel blank yeah, the little teaser little teaser.

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I think that was excellent I, I thought that was great.

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I didn't know that we discovered it's not blank, it's blank.

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Yeah, my bad.

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So I'm going to talk about A weird A weird story.

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That's why we're here.

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That's why I'm podcasting.

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It takes place in World War 2.

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Oh my god.

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I'm sorry I know you like world war ii.

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There's just so much information on it let's see, we'll just go from year one to this year.

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That's 2024 years, and she focuses on five of them but this is cool, this is cool, I mean I, I'm not saying it's not, but like let's, I know let's broaden our horizons.

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I tell mel blank, mac mel, yeah blank yeah, not the blanc okay matt leblanc a body, oh, a body was found in the ocean yeah 9, 30 in the morning.

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That's early.

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On April 30th 1943.

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Okay, Two years to the day before Hitler died.

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I was just going to say that that's crazy.

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So this body was found by a local fisherman, okay, and he was taken to Juleva, which is a coastal town in Spain.

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What was he fishing for?

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Pardon.

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You said he was found by a local fisherman.

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What was he fishing for?

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Pardon, you said he was found by a local fisherman.

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What was he fishing for?

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Fish, okay yeah, um.

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So this um coastal town is off the gulf of cadiz okay so spain was officially neutral in world war ii, okay, but many a sympathizer, a nazi sympathizer, gotcha.

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So the body was taken to the me, the medical, medical examiner, and underwent an autopsy.

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Okay, it was determined that the body was a British soldier, oh, and therefore a British consulate was present.

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Okay.

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So before a definitive cause of death was issued, that consulate suggested they leave early for lunch because of the horrendous smell coming from the corpse.

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Naturally you go to lunch after that well, who doesn't?

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I always like.

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To smell a corpse and go to lunch to waft some death before I eat yeah, so they agreed and the emmy signed a death certificate for major william martin oh, they were able to identify him.

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Yep, he had papers.

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Oh, he did Okay.

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Major William Martin, and the death certificate said that it was asphyxiation through immersion in the sea.

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Okay.

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So the body was released by the Spanish and Major Martin was buried in San Marco section of Nuestra Señora C and he'll huelva and he had full military honors on may 2nd.

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I mean, he was a british.

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Was he an officer, did you say?

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major major okay, so on his person, he also had a briefcase that was like attached I say it like did he had a handcuff to his wrist.

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He had a handcuff, yeah.

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Holy shit.

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So, and it was also chained to his belt, really.

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Yes, he really didn't want to lose that.

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No.

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So he had a picture of his fiance Pam.

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In the briefcase.

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It was either on his person or in the briefcase.

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I know there were two love letters from Pam Aw.

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There was a receipt for a diamond engagement ring costing about 53 pounds, which would be over $1,000 today.

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That's pretty good.

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He had a letter from his father Okay, he had a book of stamps Okay, a silver cross Interesting A St Christopher's medallion Okay.

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Cigarettes and matches Okay, a pencil stub.

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Really.

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Yeah, he had some keys, okay, and he had a receipt from Jeeves which is like a menswear retailer for like a new shirt.

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He had ticket stubs for a London theater.

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What.

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Yeah, and a bill for four nights lodging at the Naval and Military Club.

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He also had an identity card, which is how they got his name, where's the Naval and whatever club.

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Military Club.

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It's in London.

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Okay.

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And the dates of some of these documents.

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They were from like April 18th to the 24th, and then they found him on the 30th.

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Found him six days later, okay, so they kind of have like a little timeline, sure, If you will.

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Huh, so they kind of have like a little timeline, if you will.

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So the war letters were included in his briefcase.

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Okay.

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Okay, so one letter was from Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye to General Sir Harold Alexander.

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So was he delivering these?

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Yes Is that what they kind of figured out?

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Yes, so it explained that the Allies were planning on an invasion of Greece and Crete.

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Right.

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And it outlined a plan to reinforce Allied forces in those areas.

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Okay, the other letter was an introduction of a British officer.

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Martin Okay.

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This letter from Admiral Lord Lewis Mountbatten that's a lot To Admiral.

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Sir Andrew Cunningham introduced Martin as a warfare expert.

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Here's the paperwork for me.

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This is who I am and it comes from the top Nazi sympathizers in Spain.

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Forwarded the documents onto Abwehr A-B-W-E-H, h, r and w usually has a v sound typically yeah, abvair it was a german military intelligence organization.

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Oh, wow, um.

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And they read the documents and proceeded to take action oh, so they were going to greece.

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They, the Intel, yes, okay.

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So, with Hitler having the final say, the troops were led out of Sicily and into Greece, corsica and Sardinia.

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So they were all in Sicily, gotcha, okay.

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End of June 1943, german troops strengths on Sardinia had doubled to 10,000.

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And fighter aircraft also based there were there for support.

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Okay, german torpedo boats, divisions, nope, german torpedo boats were moved from Sicily to the Greek islands.

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Sure.

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Seven German divisions transferred to Greece.

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Wow, and 10 divisions were posted to the Balkans.

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Okay, and so lots and lots of reinforcements in the Balkans.

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Okay, so, lots and lots of reinforcements in the Greek islands.

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Sure, so on July 9th, the Allies invaded Sicily.

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So it was all a ploy to get them off of Sicily?

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Yes, holy shit.

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And it worked.

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So Sicily was a key Axis stronghold, providing air and naval bases for attacks on Allied shipping in the Mediterranean.

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Sure makes sense.

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And by capturing the island, the Allies aimed to weaken the Axis support sorry, the Axis control over the Mediterranean and disrupting their supply lines.

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Okay, so invading Sicily would open a new front in Europe, forcing Germany to divert troops and resources away from other critical areas such as the Western Front, and this would relieve pressure on the Soviet Union and potentially hasten Germany's defeat.

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Wow.

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Let's get this going Sure.

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The Allies hoped that the successful invasion of Sicily would destabilize the Italian government and lead to its surrender.

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This would eliminate Italy as an Axis ally and provide a base for further attacks on mainland Europe.

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Okay, okay, as an Axis ally and provide a base for further attacks on mainland Europe.

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Okay Okay, sicily also offered valuable airfields and harbors that would be used to launch further attacks on Italy and the Balkans Right and an invasion of Sicily would demonstrate specifically allied strength and undermine Axis morale.

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Okay Okay, thus ended Operation Mincemeat.

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Oh, the good old Operation Mincemeat.

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I've heard of that.

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The body, yeah, the documents, the pictures.

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The receipts the theater tickets were all a ruse Right To make Hitler think that the Allies were going to overrun greece, when in reality they wanted to overrun sicily so was this?

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was it a real body then?

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it was real and I'm going to tell you about it.

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Oh cool.

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So british intelligence officer charles commended lady I believe you.

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I believe you.

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Okay, let's keep saying it, I'm going to call him Charles.

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Charles, he came up with Operation Trojan Horse Mincemeat's way better.

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Yeah, so together with Ewan Montague, a British judge and naval intelligence officer, all right.

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They both fine-tuned this ruse into Operation Mincemeat.

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Okay.

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Like basically finding a meat suit.

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Yeah, that's kind of where I was going with that because obviously they had a body.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Trojan horse is a little too obvious.

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Yeah, so they had to find a corpse that didn't need to be accounted for.

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Sure Makes sense so a soldier, for instance, would need to be.

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Yeah.

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Or someone with a family who's expecting them to come back.

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Right.

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So they found a body by Bentley Purchase, who was an ME in London.

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Okay, so he was a homeless man who had died from rat poison.

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Oh shit, who had?

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died from rat poison.

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Oh shit, the ME Bentley purchase assured them that the small amount of poison in the body would not be detectable after a few days in the sea, oh, I suppose.

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So it kind of diluted it, or whatever.

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So while Montague expressed concern that the body didn't look like a fit officer, purchase reassured him that the body's appearance wasn't crucial, as he would be.

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He would be represented as a staff officer, so a major, more accustomed like desk work oh yeah, so it's not like someone out there on the field, the field he's behind a desk.

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Yes, pushing papers.

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Yes, gotcha okay so purchase also emphasized the time constraint, stating that the body needed to be used within three months before it decomposed beyond usability.

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Sure it makes sense.

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So he planned to store the body in a mortuary refrigerator at a specific temperature to prevent freezing and maintain his appearance.

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Sure, yeah?

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makes sense, okay, wow so montague refused to identify the individual and only described him as a bit of a ne'er-do-well.

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Okay, and that of the only worthwhile thing that he ever did was after his death.

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Yeah, wow, so there was a team of people doing this, so the team chose the identity of Captain William Martin.

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He was an acting major.

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So that was a real person.

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No, oh, okay, they just picked his name.

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That's just the name they picked.

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Yes, oh, I see.

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So they chose to make him an acting major Captain William Martin, a Royal Marine assigned to the Combined Operations Headquarters.

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Okay, to the Combined Operations Headquarters.

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The name Martin was common in the Royal Marines, making it really easy to create a believable backstory.

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Gotcha, wow.

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As a Royal Marine, major Martin would be under Admiralty authority, allowing for easier control of official inquiries and messages related to his death.

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He's more likely to have this intel on him right.

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Additionally, royal marines wore battle dress or a standard military uniform, and that was readily available well, yeah, makes sense the rank of acting major.

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Major was closely chosen, carefully chosen.

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There it is.

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It was a.

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He was senior enough to justify access to sensitive information, but not so prominent that would it would raise suspicion.

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Okay, so to reinforce the impression of martin being a real person, montague and chamondley provided corroborative details to be carried on his person.

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Okay, and in espionage circles it's known as pocket litter.

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Pocket litter.

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Uh-huh, really.

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Yeah.

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That's different.

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So what I described earlier on his person was what he was.

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Yeah, that's what this pocket litter was.

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His pocket litter?

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Yeah, Okay.

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The photo of Pam is actually a photo of Jean Leslie, who was a secretary at MI5.

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Oh wow, she volunteered her image.

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That's funny.

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So the team attempted to photograph the body of Martin's identity card, but the results were obvious that he was a corpse.

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So instead they found Captain Ronnie Reed of MI5, who agreed to be photographed in a Royal Marine uniform for the card.

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Oh, so they just used someone else for it.

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Yeah, they found someone that was similar.

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Similar looking.

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yeah, so to make the identity card and make it pass as if it was authentic, Montague actually created replacement cards instead of an original identity card.

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So, if you were to lose it, you would have a replacement card.

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Yeah, this one was a replacement card.

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Okay, makes sense um, they would also wear the identity card in trousers to give it kind of a used appearance yeah, so it didn't wear and tear, nice and crisp, basically okay, that makes sense yes, with the corpse's story, secure the documents created the execution granted from Winston Churchill.

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The body was sent to a submarine the Seraph.

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Seraph okay.

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On April 30th, the officers of the Marine placed the corpse into the water and headed for the shoreline.

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Oh, they didn't shoot him out of a torpedo tube.

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No Damn.

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But that is where my story started Right water and headed for the shoreline.

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Oh, they didn't shoot him out of a torpedo tube.

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No damn, but that is where my story started.

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Right was a fisherman found the body.

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Yeah, wow, so this is like kind of the weird part, okay okay, wait, besides the corpse, yeah, so in 1939, rear admar Admiral John Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence, circulated a memo proposing various deception tactics against the AXI powers Sure and one of these ideas involved planting false information on a dead body to mislead the enemy Right.

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And the idea was to create a convincing scenario such as a downed airman Sure With false documents to lure the enemy into making mistakes.

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So that was in a memo in 1939.

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So that was four years prior to mincemeat.

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Wow, so the memo was signed by Godfrey.

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Yeah.

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But it was actually written by none other than then James Bond.

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Author.

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Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming no way.

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Who happened to be Godfrey's personal assistant.

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That's fantastic.

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I love Ian Fleming, my daughter's named after one of his characters.

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That is awesome, isn't that cool?

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Yeah, I know he had some dealings with the war and everything.

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I didn't realize that, though that's fucking fantastic, so he wrote this memo yeah and godfrey signed it wow and then, several years later, they put it into actually used it.

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That's crazy so ewan montague was appointed an officer of the head of the british empire in 1944 for his part in Operation Mincemeat.

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Okay, For masterminding the plan Chalmondalee.

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Charlie.

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Was appointed a member of the order in 1948.

00:17:53.590 --> 00:17:57.319
Okay Montague went on to write two books about his experience, oh wow.

00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:05.990
One in 1953 called the man who Never Was Okay, and in 1977, he published Beyond Top Secret.

00:18:05.990 --> 00:18:07.251
U like the letter U.

00:18:07.393 --> 00:18:07.613
Yeah.

00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.086
And it was a wartime autobiography.

00:18:10.086 --> 00:18:19.607
Oh, okay, so the Commonwealth War Graves Commission took responsibility for Major Martin's grave in 1977 in Spain.

00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:20.130
Okay.

00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:33.555
In 1996, Roger Morgan, an amateur historian from London, uncovered evidence in the public records office that the identity of the corpse was Glender Michael.

00:18:34.141 --> 00:18:35.527
Glender, mike Michael.

00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:42.733
He was a vagrant who found a piece of bread and died because that bread had rat poison smeared on it.

00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:45.027
Jesus Christ died because that bread had rat poison smeared on it.

00:18:45.047 --> 00:18:46.976
Jesus christ in 1997.

00:18:46.976 --> 00:18:50.346
The commission, the grave commission yeah added the postscript.

00:18:50.346 --> 00:18:56.339
Glendore michael served as major william martin rm for royal marines.

00:18:56.339 --> 00:19:00.763
Yeah wow, that's weird isn't that a weird story?

00:19:01.025 --> 00:19:03.586
well, yeah, because I mean first of all using a corpse.

00:19:03.586 --> 00:19:04.548
I mean I know it's wartime.

00:19:04.548 --> 00:19:05.909
I mean first of all using a corpse, I mean I know it's wartime.

00:19:05.909 --> 00:19:08.451
So obviously a lot of things went that normally wouldn't.

00:19:08.451 --> 00:19:09.672
But that's wild.

00:19:09.672 --> 00:19:14.576
And then putting all the pocket litter I don't ever have pocket litter, I just have pocket lint.

00:19:14.576 --> 00:19:44.693
But the fact that Ian Fleming is the one who drafted it or whatever, is fucking cool, because I love Ian Fleming, I love Jamesames bond, obviously, but wow, that's weird so sometimes when I'm doing research, I can't quite grasp sure the, the themes and the understanding of everything right and audio or, excuse me, visual learning, is basically where I thrive, yeah.

00:19:44.875 --> 00:19:45.275
I get that.

00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.445
So I read over all the Operation Mincemeat stuff and I hadn't begun writing yet.

00:19:54.445 --> 00:19:58.473
So I went to YouTube and Netflix and I was like is there any documentaries I can watch as a visual?

00:19:58.473 --> 00:20:03.652
There is a movie with Colin Firth, yes, who you love, I adore.

00:20:03.652 --> 00:20:08.157
I adore Sir Colin Firth, yes who you love, I adore I adore Sir Colin Firth?

00:20:08.157 --> 00:20:08.419
Yes, you do.

00:20:08.419 --> 00:20:16.869
He stars in a movie called Operation Mincemeat Right and that is available on Netflix.

00:20:16.869 --> 00:20:18.626
It's a 2022 movie.

00:20:19.461 --> 00:20:23.006
Oh, it's very recent, it's new, it's very well done.

00:20:23.099 --> 00:20:26.750
The story is pretty much the same as what I just described.

00:20:26.750 --> 00:20:30.286
I'm sure there's plenty of liberties taken, but but it was.

00:20:30.286 --> 00:20:32.907
It's a very great movie and I highly recommend.

00:20:32.907 --> 00:20:35.826
I'll have to give that a watch, and I would absolutely rewatch it with you if you wanted.

00:20:36.067 --> 00:20:38.925
Okay, sounds good so operation mincemeat.

00:20:38.925 --> 00:20:39.567
That's weird.

00:20:39.567 --> 00:20:44.614
I mean the tie-ins with, I mean the thing, like you said, ian Fleming thing.

00:20:44.693 --> 00:20:46.536
I knew you would like the Ian Fleming connection.

00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:48.046
You know, I like Ian Fleming.

00:20:48.205 --> 00:20:48.406
Yeah.

00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:49.580
Again.

00:20:49.580 --> 00:20:55.351
My daughter's name is Vesper, after one of his first characters he wrote about in James Bond world.

00:20:55.351 --> 00:20:56.513
That's awesome.

00:20:56.513 --> 00:20:59.463
Wow, yeah, that's so.

00:20:59.463 --> 00:21:04.568
Man, isn't it fucked up that they bought it so hard and like, yeah, we should go to Greece?

00:21:05.019 --> 00:21:13.933
So the British consulate in the morgue when they were doing the autopsy he was in on it.

00:21:14.374 --> 00:21:14.734
Oh really.

00:21:14.914 --> 00:21:15.174
Mm-hmm.

00:21:15.174 --> 00:21:18.970
He was afraid they were going to find out that he didn't die at the sea.

00:21:19.310 --> 00:21:19.471
Sure.

00:21:19.579 --> 00:21:26.432
So he was the one who suggested they go to lunch early, and that's when the ME just signed off on asphyxiation of the sea.

00:21:30.107 --> 00:21:37.192
Oh, okay, that makes sense, yeah, not, I mean, it probably didn't smell great, but wow, he was in on it.

00:21:37.192 --> 00:21:39.967
Okay, that's a pretty big opera.

00:21:39.967 --> 00:21:41.190
A lot of people had to be involved.

00:21:41.250 --> 00:21:51.948
Yes, there was another person overseas that helped in getting the information into hitler's hands right um.

00:21:51.948 --> 00:21:53.272
I don't recall his name, but he is portrayed in the movie as well.

00:21:53.292 --> 00:21:57.165
Can you imagine what would have happened if like I don't know the wave just went the different way?

00:21:57.246 --> 00:21:58.490
I know they.

00:21:58.490 --> 00:22:06.731
They did extensive research on um the tide, the tides right, and where they could drop him off safely to get it to Spain.

00:22:06.731 --> 00:22:07.825
Cause they chose Spain.

00:22:08.046 --> 00:22:08.267
Sure.

00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:11.188
They chose the Gulf of Cadiz specifically.

00:22:11.188 --> 00:22:16.125
Okay so so, uh, yeah, they, they did all of that research.

00:22:16.125 --> 00:22:19.548
They spent months, Wow, going through this.

00:22:20.470 --> 00:22:21.231
I mean it's funny.

00:22:21.231 --> 00:22:27.348
How did they say any of?

00:22:27.368 --> 00:22:28.137
like what the theater tickets were for.

00:22:28.137 --> 00:22:35.946
Well, in the movie they actually did go to the theater, sure to make it look used and right, but I don't recall what it was.

00:22:36.147 --> 00:22:36.842
I was just curious.

00:22:36.842 --> 00:22:39.304
I mean, it's something, obviously that's yeah relevant.

00:22:39.364 --> 00:22:53.891
But yeah, I just thought it'd be kind of funny to actually know so they had, like this planned timeline for this Major Martin, so between the 18th and the 24th, and then he was in the seat by the 30th.

00:22:53.891 --> 00:22:57.528
Wow, so they wanted to make it that legit.

00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:59.507
Oh, they wanted to make him seem like a real person.

00:22:59.507 --> 00:23:04.430
Yeah, that's weird, awesome, great bring for the first one because that's weird, awesome, well, great, uh, great.

00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:20.726
Bring to the for the first one because that's fucking weird yeah and well done with the ian fleming yeah, connection I love that awesome well I suppose all right, buffoons, that's it for today's episode buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you.

00:23:20.786 --> 00:23:28.808
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00:23:29.369 --> 00:23:30.673
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00:23:30.673 --> 00:23:35.670
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00:23:35.670 --> 00:23:40.266
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00:23:40.867 --> 00:23:45.663
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00:23:45.903 --> 00:23:49.136
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The Origin of Weird: Operation Mincemeat

The Man Who Never Was: The Remarkable Story of Operation Mincemeat by Ewan Montagu

Beyond Top Secret U By Ewan Montagu

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