Ben Macintyre - Operation Mincemeat

I am hugely indebted to the scores of people in five countries who have helped me in the writing of this book. In Britain, Germany and Spain, the families of the participants in Operation Mincemeat have been extraordinarily generous with their time, memories and documentary material: Jeremy Montagu, Jennifer Montagu, Rachel Montagu, Sarah Montagu, Tom Cholmondeley, Alison Cholmondeley, Jean Gerard Leigh, John Gerard Leigh, Carolyn Benson, John Michael, Paul Jewell, Nicholas Jewell, Tristan Hillgarth, Jocelyn Hillgarth, Juliette Kuhlenthal, Federico Clauss, Andrew Leverton, Basil Leverton, Yvette Bourguignon and Sir Alan Urwick. Many others, either directly or indirectly involved, willingly contributed additional material: the late Joan Bright-Astley, Gill Drake, Lady Victoire Ridsdale, Peggy Harmer, Patricia Davies, John Julius Norwich, Eve Streatfeild, Nicholas Reed, Isabelle Naylor and Selina Fraser-Smith. Still others offered useful advice and contacts: Annabel Merullo, Sam Merullo, Emma Crichton, Guy Liardet, Jack Baer, James Owen, Jan Dalley, John Scarlett, Ian Brunskill, Robert Hands, Fiona and Peter Mason, Stephen Walker, Sally George, Phil Reed and Robin Hunt. To the other individuals who have asked not to be named: my covert but heartfelt gratitude.

I am grateful to numerous experts in various fields for their advice and guidance: Dr Sacha Kolar on forensic pathology; Neil Cooke on Whitehall geography; Mary Teviot for her genealogical sleuthing; Pedro J. Ramrez, Julio Martn Alarcn and the staff of El Mundo in Spain; Jess Copeiro for sharing his local knowledge and for a fascinating guided tour of Huelva and Punta Umbria; Paul Bryant; Graham Keeley for his work in Spain and Jo Carlill and Paul Bellshaw for their help with pictures.

Numerous historians and writers have also helped me to shape the book: Christopher Andrew, Michael Foot, Frank Stech, Andrew Rose, Roger Morgan, Tim Cottingham, John Follain, Sarah Street, Thomas Boghardt, Andrew Lycett, and Martin Gilbert. I am particularly grateful to Peter Martland, Mark Seaman and Terry Charman for reading the manuscript, and saving me from some toe-curling errors. The remaining mistakes are all my own.

This book has involved many hours of archive research, and I have been helped immeasurably by a number of brilliant and dedicated archivists: Rod Suddaby of the Imperial War Museum; Howard Davies, Hugh Alexander and the staff of the National Archives; James Beckett of the Formula One Archives; Neil F. Murray of the Aston Martin Club; Lesley Hall of the Wellcome Trust; Darren Treadwell of the Peoples History Museum, and Caroline Herbert of the Churchill Archives Centre.

My friends and colleagues on The Times have been, as always, unstinting in their help and advice. I have Duncan Stewart to thank, once again, for the fine maps.

My thanks to Michael Fishwick, Kate Johnson and the team at Bloomsbury for all their enthusiasm, professionalism and patience. Ed Victor has been my rock for each of my last seven books. My thanks and apologies to the friends and family who have put up with me banging on about Operation Mincemeat for three years. And to Kate, as ever, all my love.

Figures in bold refer to illustrations.

A Force

Aberbargoed

Abwehr, the

attempts to obtain documents

codenames

failings

and fictional agents

Gibraltar operations

Huelva operations

obtains copies of documents

pathologists

report on documents

Rhodes station

rivalry with SD

Spanish agents

Spanish operations

Spanish organisation

Adlon Hotel, Berlin

Admiralty, the

Room

Room

Air Ministry

Alam Halfa, Battle of (1942)

Alexander, General Sir Harold

Alexandria

Algiers

Allason, Rupert

Allenby, General Sir Edmund

Ana (fishing boat)

Andros (agent)

Ankara

Anti-War Congress

Arabia

Aranda Mata, General Antonio

Arran, Isle of

Arriago Adam, Admiral Alfonso

Arzew

Asensio, Carlos

Asprin

assessment

Attlee, Clement

autopsy

vila

Badoglio, Marshal Pietro

Balchin, Nigel

Bankhead, Tallulah

Baron (Soviet agent)

Barrn Cerruti, Colonel Jos Lpez

Barry, Admiral Sir Claude

Baumann, Major Fritz

Bedell Smith, Major General Walter

Belloc, Hilaire

Berlin

Bevan, Lieutenant Colonel John H.

Beyond Top Secret Ultra (Montagu)

Black Mountain, The (Hillgarth)

Bletchley Park

Blondeau (Abwehr agent)

Blunt, Anthony

Blyth

Bob (Soviet agent)

Bodanszky, Igor

body, the. see also

boots

cause of death

condition

decomposition

delivery

deployment instructions

discovery

disinterment fear

final preparations

identified

identity. see

identity hidden

loading

Montagu on

obtaining

preservation

release planning

search for

searched

transported to Scotland

Bolivia

Bond, James

Boxall, Margery

Brest

Brides in the Bath case (1915)

briefcase

Bristol, air raid, 1940

British Army forces

First Canadian Division

5th Infantry Division

8th Army

12th Army

56th Infantry Division

Greek recruits

British Communist Party

British Security Coordination

British Socialist Party

Brooke, General Sir Alan

Brown, Montagu

Buchan, John

Bucks Hill

Bulgaria

Burgess, Guy

Burke, William

Cabinet War Rooms

Cadiz

Cairncross, John

Cairo

Cambridge University, Trinity College

camouflage

Camp 020 internment centre

Camp David

Campos, Martnez

Canaris, Admiral Wilhelm

cancellation preparations

Candela, Emilio Morales

Canis, Major Luis

Cape Araxos

Cape St Vincent

Cartagena

Casablanca conference, 1943

Case of the Four Friends, The (Masterman)

Casement, Sir Roger

casualty lists

Catalina FP119, crash

Censors Department

censorship

Chadwick, Sarah Ann

Chamberlain, Neville

champagne de mousse

Chaplin, Charles

Chapman, Eddie (Zigzag)

character creation

bank account

clothing

engagement ring

family background

fictitious agents

girlfriend

identity card

letters

limitations

love letters

mistakes

Montagu as Bill

name

personal documents and articles

personality

photograph

religion

service

wallet litter

Chaucer telegram

Chiefs of Staff

chocolate, garlic-flavoured

Cholmondeley, Alison

Cholmondeley, Charles Christopher

background

briefs Jewell

character creation

on Duff Cooper

on film set

final preparations

frustration

and Jean Leslie

journey to Scotland

later career

leaves the body

and The Man Who Never Was

MBE

meeting with Gmez-Beare

Montagu assigned to help

and Most Secret Source message 2571

obituary

operational proposal

recognition

requisitions dinghy

search for body

search for documents

transport planning

Trojan Horse plan

Christian, General Eckhardt

Church of Nuestra Seora de Lourdes

Churchill, Clementine

Churchill, Winston

CIA

Clark, General Mark

Clarke, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Wrangel

Clauss, Adolf

Clauss, Ludwig

Clauss, Luis

clothing

Clyde, River

codenames

codewords

Colditz

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Colvin, Ian

Communist International, the

Communist Party of Great Britain