In the spring of 1943, British intelligence set a body adrift off neutral Spain. It was dressed as a Royal Marines officer.
His briefcase carried letters. They said the Allies would strike Greece and Sardinia, not Sicily.
The officer looked real.
Major William Martin had a rank, papers, and a whole made-up life.
That major never existed.
The body was Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man. They dressed him, arranged his pockets, and launched Operation Mincemeat into the sea.
Spanish authorities passed copies of the papers to German intelligence. Those copies reached Adolf Hitler. He believed the trick.
On May 14, 1943, he told a German admiral that Sicily was not the next landing. Greece and Sardinia had to be reinforced.
Between March and July, German divisions in the Balkans rose from 8 to 18, more than double. Troops also headed for Sardinia and Corsica. Aircraft, artillery, and torpedo boats left Sicily itself.
How many men landed against the stripped island?
On July 10, about 180,000 Allied soldiers began the landing. Only two German divisions were there, sent as reinforcement.
Even then, Hitler called the strike a decoy, not the real target.
A telegram reached London: mincemeat swallowed rod, line, and sinker.
Hitler guarded the wrong shore.
The real landing met a thinner defense.
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