In April 1943, the Allies reversed their decline in the North African theater and won a decisive victory. The Second World War had entered the stage of a counter-offensive against Nazi Germany in its entirety. However, the Soviet army in the Soviet theater in Eastern Europe was still strongly suppressed by the German army, and in order to further attack the European continent and alleviate the pressure on the Soviet front, the Allied Joint Planning Staff planned to capture Sicily, a strategic point in the Mediterranean. Sicily is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Italy to the north, and the Allied occupation of Sicily can be used as a springboard to attack Italy and then threaten the German Third Reich mainland, which is an important strategic point.
Sicily
However, the German and Italian armies were of course also very aware of the extremely important strategic position of Sicily, and set up a heavy garrison here, and the Allies would have suffered heavy casualties if they wanted to attack. In order to avoid large-scale casualties, the senior staff of the Allied Joint Planning Staff showed superb war wisdom and formulated a shocking strategic deception that turned a strong attack into a smart one.
Because Sicily's strategic position was too important, the Allied General Staff took advantage of this to make the German and Italian operational high-level believe that it was no secret that the Allies had captured this area, but that this intention was too obvious and lost its practical significance, further creating the illusion that the Allies were going to land from Sardinia as a springboard to attack France, rather than landing on Sicily to attack Italy. The Allied target was indeed Sicily. So, how can Hitler and the German-Italian war top brass be fooled? After careful design and discussion, a seamless plan was born.
The specific plan is quite dramatic, and it can even be said that the film blockbuster cannot produce this effect.
First of all, the body of a patient who had just died of lung disease that the Allies found in the hospital, because the person who died of lung disease had almost the same symptoms as the person who drowned, which is very critical, and we will talk about it later. The Allies then devised a full set of false identities for the corpse that were enough to mess with the real thing. The next military hoax code-named "Minced Meat Project" was officially launched.
Here's when the performance will be performed. On 30 April 1943, a British Navy submarine carrying the redesigned body appeared off the coast of Spain and threw him into the sea, where it was slowly pushed by waves onto the Spanish coastline.
As for why the Allies chose to leave the body off the coast of Spain? This brings us to a brief introduction to the relationship between Spain and Germany at that time. At this time, Spain was in power through a military coup d'état, General Francisco Franco, who came to power and imposed dictatorship in Spain. During World War II, although franco's government ostensibly declared itself neutral, neither taking the allies nor joining the Axis powers, secretly, the Spanish government supported the Axis powers. Therefore, in wartime, Spain intercepted allied intelligence and would immediately inform the German intelligence services.
Soon, not surprisingly, the body drifted to a small town in Spain and was found by local fishermen and reported to the Spanish Navy. The Spanish Navy examined the body of the drowning man and "accidentally" found that it was not an ordinary drowned body. They examined the body's clothing, as well as the briefcase that was handcuffed and bound firmly to the arm. Got the following important information:
The deceased's name was William Martin, and he was a Captain (Acting Major) of the Royal Navy and a staff officer at the Allied Joint Planning Command, service number 09560. The Spanish Navy found in Major Martin's pocket an overdraft slip from the British Bank of Lloyds and a dunning letter sent to him by the bank, as if Major Martin was not wealthy and owed a considerable amount of money to the bank. At the same time, they also found that the Major Martin seemed to be preparing to propose to a certain lady before he died, because he also found a receipt for the purchase of an engagement ring, and it seemed that there were two love letters, which were blistered and could only faintly recognize "Love Your Nisha" and other small numbers. At this time, the Spanish Navy still did not have much interest in the Major Martin, after all, in the war-torn era, it was not unusual for a British officer's body to rush from the sea. But when the Spanish Navy opened the briefcase that was handcuffed to Martin's wrist, it discovered a shocking secret. A top-secret document in the briefcase shows that Sicily is heavily guarded by German and Italian troops, easy to defend and difficult to attack, forced landing in Sicily will bring huge losses to the Allies, the recent allied military action near Sicily is just an illusion, is a military feint made by the Allies, the real allied attack site is actually Sardinia, and Sardinia is a springboard to counterattack the French mainland.
Major Martin's ID
The Spanish Navy immediately reported this major discovery to German intelligence, and German spies immediately took over Major Martin's body and further verified it. They photographed almost all of The Information on Major Martin's body and instructed the Spanish to return Major Martin's body to the British authorities.
This was followed by a comprehensive verification of Major Martin. German spies also found a letter from General Mountbatten of the British general to Eisenhower of the United States in Major Martin's briefcase. This letter is accurately a letter of recommendation from Major Martin, saying that Major Martin is an expert in landing craft, and also introduces some of Major Martin's other military mechanical talents, and finally does not forget to joke with Eisenhower that he must return Major Martin as soon as the landing battle is over. The letter of introduction explained why an acting rear admiral officer in the Royal Navy carried with him a letter between the Supreme Commanders of the Allied forces and knew such top-secret information as the location of the landing. This further dispelled the suspicions of German spies about Major Martin's identity.
At this point, German intelligence did not fully believe in The identity of Major Martin. When the British army claimed Major Martin's body and belongings and transported them back to China, german spies lurking in Britain also took action, and they obtained a list of British soldiers who had fallen, and the name of Major Martin was prominently listed on the list. Information about identity, family circumstances, and recent bank and jewelry store spending is exactly the same as on Major Martin's body. German spies also filmed the British funeral for Major Martin and the tears of Martin's parents and fiancée.
At the same time, the Allies also concocted the body of an Allied soldier near Sardinia, mistaking the Germans for allied scouts reconnoitring Sardinia.
At this point, the German intelligence services finally fully believed in The identity of Major Martin, and more importantly, they obtained a valuable "top secret intelligence", that is, the main direction of the Allied attack was Sardinia, not Sicily.
The Allies landed in Sicily
In this way, an earth-shattering scam was declared a success. In fact, there is no Major Martin at all, all this is a forged illusion by the Allied side, the identity is fake, the letters, bills, receipts and love letters are all fake, along with Major Martin's funeral and the family and fiancée who cried at the funeral are all performed by actors hired by the British military. As for why the body of a person who died of lung disease was chosen, it was because the symptoms of a person who died of lung disease were exactly the same as those of a person who died of drowning. So all this served only one purpose, and that was to convince the Germans that the Allied attack was in Sardinia. As it turned out, the Germans were fooled! This is the famous "Minced Meat Plan"
Shortly after german intelligence reported this top-secret information to the German high command, Hitler gave the order to give priority to massing troops in Sardinia and reinforcing the defensive line.
On 9 July 1943, the Allies attacked Xicily, while the main German forces were concentrated in Sardinia. The Allies occupied Sicily at a very small cost, laying the groundwork for a full-scale Allied invasion of the European continent in the future.