0:00:16 > 0:00:20At dawn on an April morning in 1943,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23with the Second World War at its height,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27a young Spanish fisherman spotted a strange object
0:00:27 > 0:00:31floating in the water here, off the south coast of Spain.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39As he rowed closer, he saw it was the body of a dead man.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43The corpse was wearing a life jacket over a British uniform.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47A briefcase, attached to the wrist by a chain,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49was floating alongside him.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54The face had begun to rot, and the stench was overpowering.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00The fisherman hauled the body onto his boat,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03believing he had found a casualty of war.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08In fact, he had just set in train Operation Mincemeat,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13a deception plan that would change the course of the Second World War.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30We all were terrified by the Official Secrets Act
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and thought we'd end up in the Tower of London
0:01:33 > 0:01:34if we gave anything away.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40My father used to say that it brought out his natural bent
0:01:40 > 0:01:43towards criminality and deception.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Extraordinary story.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55My husband was always furious that he knew nothing about it.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Were you sworn to secrecy?
0:01:59 > 0:02:01Well, everything was sworn to secrecy.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03We were rather good secret-keepers.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24In 1943, the men and women in this subterranean room
0:02:24 > 0:02:27began work on an extraordinary plan
0:02:27 > 0:02:30inspired by none other than Ian Fleming,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34a young intelligence officer who would go on to create James Bond.
0:02:36 > 0:02:37Three years earlier,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Fleming had worked on a list of 51 suggestions for deceiving the enemy,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46including schemes too outlandish even for 007.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Number 28 on the list was headed
0:02:49 > 0:02:52"A suggestion (not a very nice one).
0:02:52 > 0:02:56"A corpse dressed as an airman with despatches in his pockets
0:02:56 > 0:02:58"could be dropped on the coast.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01"There is no difficulty in obtaining corpses,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05"but, of course, it would have to be a fresh one."
0:03:05 > 0:03:09This was the sort of idea that Winston Churchill loved.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12He deliberately encouraged spies with corkscrew minds
0:03:12 > 0:03:15because he knew that Hitler thought in straight lines.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19British spymasters had a low opinion of their German counterparts,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22regarding them as dull, humourless and predictable.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Early in 1943, that opinion would be put to the test.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33After three years of fierce fighting, the Nazis still
0:03:33 > 0:03:38occupied most of Europe and vast territories in the Soviet Union.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Hitler remained convinced that world domination
0:03:41 > 0:03:43still lay within his grasp.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49What the Allies now needed was a breakthrough.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53The first crucial step would be an invasion of Sicily.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Thousands of British and American troops were now massing
0:03:59 > 0:04:01in North Africa for the attack.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Victory in Sicily would punch
0:04:03 > 0:04:05into the enemy's soft underbelly
0:04:05 > 0:04:10in Europe. It might turn the tide of the war.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13But there was a problem.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14As Churchill put it,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17"Anyone but a bloody fool would know it was Sicily."
0:04:17 > 0:04:21The island was the obvious target,
0:04:21 > 0:04:23and the Germans knew it.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27It would a need deception of staggering daring
0:04:27 > 0:04:30to convince them otherwise.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33The job of British intelligence was to convince the Germans
0:04:33 > 0:04:36that instead of attacking Sicily, the target was Greece.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41Suddenly, Ian Fleming's mad idea seemed almost sane.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47There were two men who were perfect for this sort of scheme.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50They worked at the heart of British intelligence,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53one an RAF pilot who didn't fly,
0:04:53 > 0:04:57and the other a Royal Naval commander who didn't go to sea.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Together, they would assemble the plan
0:04:59 > 0:05:02of planting fake documents on a corpse
0:05:02 > 0:05:06and find a way of getting it to the Germans.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09Churchill had his corkscrew thinkers.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Charles Cholmondeley was a 25-year-old air-force officer
0:05:15 > 0:05:20with a magnificent waxed moustache and a very peculiar mind.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24In his spare time, he studied the mating habits of insects
0:05:24 > 0:05:27and hunted partridge with a revolver.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I'd spoken to him several times on the telephone in my work.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35I was working for MI6 and he was in MI5.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39And one day, by mistake, I sent him the wrong papers.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42They were top secret.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44And I had to get them back some way
0:05:44 > 0:05:46and I was terribly worried about this.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49And so I rang him up and said "I'm terribly sorry,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52"I've sent you these wrong papers, what shall I do?"
0:05:52 > 0:05:57And he suggested that I met him outside the Piccadilly Hotel
0:05:57 > 0:05:59and had dinner with him one evening.
0:06:01 > 0:06:02I was just standing there,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05waiting on the pavement outside the hotel for a minute or two
0:06:05 > 0:06:11and I saw this very tall man, who later described himself
0:06:11 > 0:06:15as "toothpaste squeezed out from the tube".
0:06:15 > 0:06:21He said, "My name is Cholmondeley, spelled C-H-O-L-M-O-N-D-E-L-E-Y."
0:06:21 > 0:06:22And he always said,
0:06:22 > 0:06:27"Charles Cholmondeley, C-H-O-L-M-O-N-D-E-L-E-Y."
0:06:27 > 0:06:31He just seemed happy, very pleased and happy with life
0:06:31 > 0:06:34as if life was one big adventure.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Cholmondeley was joined by Ewen Montagu,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42a bold and ambitious Naval intelligence officer.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45As a brilliant barrister before the war, Montagu could see
0:06:45 > 0:06:48inside the minds of his opponents
0:06:48 > 0:06:51and exploit their weaknesses ruthlessly.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56He wanted to go to sea because he joined a supplementary reserve.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59He wanted to go to sea
0:06:59 > 0:07:01and then they found out
0:07:01 > 0:07:05that he was a lawyer and an eminent barrister.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09And so they whipped him out of that and shot him up to Naval intelligence
0:07:09 > 0:07:15because that sort of mind is trained to cut through deception.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17But of course, that's part of the job.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21You deceive and you identify deception.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23He was delightful.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29He was enormously tall, had enormous feet and he used
0:07:29 > 0:07:32to lope around and you'd see the feet
0:07:32 > 0:07:34long before you saw his head.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36He wanted everything done at once,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40and of course, that was one of the secrets of his success.
0:07:42 > 0:07:47Montagu ran the counter-espionage unit in Naval intelligence.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Housed in a stuffy, smoky, underground room deep inside
0:07:51 > 0:07:55the Admiralty, the members of section 17M spent their days
0:07:55 > 0:07:59gathering and analysing enemy intelligence.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03It was really a small room.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06We were sometimes 12 people in that room
0:08:06 > 0:08:10and I should think there were air for six.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14And we had this fluorescent lighting which made everyone look blue.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17And people were allowed to smoke.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21It was just a sea of smoke at times.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24On Ewen's desk and on one or two of the other desks
0:08:24 > 0:08:27in the room, there was what's called scrambler telephones.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30So you get a call in and if you want to talk something secret,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33you'd say, "Shall we scramble?" press a button
0:08:33 > 0:08:36and the whole conversation would be scrambled up
0:08:36 > 0:08:39so no spy could hear it.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46they thought of absolutely everything.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50They could look around corners in the way that most people's minds
0:08:50 > 0:08:51don't go round corners.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59The invasion of Sicily was set for July 1943.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02That gave Montagu and Cholmondeley just three months
0:09:02 > 0:09:05to find a dead body, dress it up as a British officer,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07plant false documents on it
0:09:07 > 0:09:10and then leave it somewhere the Germans would find it.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16You might think that finding a dead body
0:09:16 > 0:09:20in the middle of the Second World War would be pretty easy.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25In fact, finding the right sort of body would prove extremely tricky.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29The most suitable sort of body would be somebody who'd perhaps drowned
0:09:29 > 0:09:31or who had died an accidental death,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34had the sort of injuries that would be in keeping with
0:09:34 > 0:09:36an aircraft that had ditched and then
0:09:36 > 0:09:38somebody had been injured and then drowned
0:09:38 > 0:09:40or succumbed to their injuries in the water.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44There was one man in wartime Britain
0:09:44 > 0:09:48with an almost inexhaustible supply of dead bodies.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51He went by the delightfully Dickensian name
0:09:51 > 0:09:54of Sir Bentley Purchase.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56As the coroner of St Pancras,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00he was in charge of the largest mortuary in the country.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Sir Bentley Purchase knew more about death than any man living
0:10:04 > 0:10:07and he found every aspect of death extremely amusing.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11When Montagu asked to come and see him,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15Purchase replied with complicated directions to the mortuary
0:10:15 > 0:10:18but then he added, "An alternative method of getting here
0:10:18 > 0:10:21"is, of course, to get run over."
0:10:31 > 0:10:36Montagu asked the coroner to keep an eye open for a suitable corpse.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Sir Bentley Purchase was only too happy to oblige.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Bentley Purchase would have a large number of people
0:10:45 > 0:10:47coming through his jurisdiction,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50much the same as it would be now.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55The problem would be finding a body which could be used for that purpose.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Perhaps the saddest chapter in Operation Mincemeat
0:11:04 > 0:11:07begins in a grim Welsh mining town.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Aberbargoed was built on coal.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13When the coal ran out, there was nothing left.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19It was here that a man called Glyndwr Michael was born.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21His father, an unemployed coal miner,
0:11:21 > 0:11:26stabbed himself in the throat when Glyn was 15 years old.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29The young boy signed his death certificate.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34It is the only example of his handwriting that exists.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36He was barely literate.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40His mother died in 1940.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Alone in the world, his mind beginning to disintegrate,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Glyndwr drifted to London.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53In January 1943, homeless, penniless and friendless,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Glyndwr Michael killed himself
0:11:56 > 0:12:00with rat poison in a disused warehouse near King's Cross.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02He was 34 years old.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06He died unloved and unlamented,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09but not unnoticed.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17Ah, here's the entry. Glyndwr Michael. 34.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20Male. Lunatic.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Phosphorous poisoning, taken orally.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Suicide.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Here was the perfect candidate.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Sir Bentley Purchase was waiting at the morgue.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Glyndwr Michael had no family.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38There were no physical marks on him.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Above all he had died in the right way.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Bentley Purchase was adamant
0:12:42 > 0:12:45the poison would never show up in an autopsy.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49The body could be made to look as if it had died at sea
0:12:49 > 0:12:51after an air crash.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02The team who were dealing with the operation had been informed
0:13:02 > 0:13:05that somebody who died of white phosphorus poisoning,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09of essentially rat poisoning, would be good for this sort of operation
0:13:09 > 0:13:14and that the state of pathology at that time was such
0:13:14 > 0:13:17that they wouldn't be able to detect any inconsistencies
0:13:17 > 0:13:20between the reality of this man's death
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and the story that was being spun about it.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29At last, Montagu and Cholmondeley had their body.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32But they still needed a code name.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34All this talk of corpses was having an effect.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37And so they settled on a name that reflected
0:13:37 > 0:13:40their black sense of humour - Operation Mincemeat.
0:13:41 > 0:13:47The two men now began to invent an entirely new personality.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49The more believable they could make him,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52the more likely the Germans were to swallow the bait.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57And so, over the next two months, with the body securely locked inside
0:13:57 > 0:14:00the refrigerator, they set their imaginations to work
0:14:00 > 0:14:03to create a fiction so dazzling
0:14:03 > 0:14:06that the Germans would accept it as truth...
0:14:11 > 0:14:15..almost as if they were putting on a show.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20From the tragic life of Glyndwr Michael,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23they decided to forge a doomed hero.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26First, their character needed a name.
0:14:26 > 0:14:32Glyndwr Michael was erased from history.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34In his place was William Martin,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36a major in the royal marines,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40an officer, a gentleman and the sort of chap who could be entrusted
0:14:40 > 0:14:45with top-secret documents, even if he died in the process.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47Which he would.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52Getting hold of the right uniform was easy.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Far more tricky was finding the right underwear.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Help came from an unexpected quarter.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05During the war, everything was rationed,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08including underwear.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Neither Montagu nor Cholmondeley nor anyone else
0:15:12 > 0:15:15was willing to surrender their own,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and so the underpants, vest and socks
0:15:18 > 0:15:20would come from the University of Oxford.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Two years earlier, the warden of New College,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28the immensely distinguished historian H A L Fisher,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30had been run over by a truck.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Fisher had left behind a library of scholarly works
0:15:33 > 0:15:36and an impressive collection of underwear.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42This would now be commandeered for the war effort.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48Now, I have in my hand a pair of ancient underpants
0:15:48 > 0:15:52and we are in the warden's lodgings in New College, Oxford,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54in the master bedroom that was once occupied
0:15:54 > 0:15:56by the great historian H A L Fisher.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Well, these pants belonged to H A L Fisher, who was the warden
0:16:00 > 0:16:04of New College, previously had been a cabinet member under Lloyd George.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07A very, very distinguished historian.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12And he died in 1940, so when the tramp was being carefully dressed
0:16:12 > 0:16:16as Major Martin, the very clever men who were working on this thought,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18"Well, any decent officer and a gentleman
0:16:18 > 0:16:22"would have a proper pair of underpants and what could be better
0:16:22 > 0:16:25"than the underpants of somebody who held the Order of Merit?"
0:16:25 > 0:16:29What do you think he would have made of the fact that his underwear
0:16:29 > 0:16:31was deployed in the war effort?
0:16:31 > 0:16:36I think he would be appalled, if that is what he is mainly remembered for.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40He was a man who was known to be rather proud
0:16:40 > 0:16:41of his record and his achievements.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45So I think he would have been mildly horrified that he should now be
0:16:45 > 0:16:49remembered, in the 21st century, for his underwear.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54There were no photographs of Glyndwr Michael
0:16:54 > 0:16:57but they needed one for his identity card.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59They tried photographing the corpse
0:16:59 > 0:17:04but found that a dead man's face never looks anything but dead.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15For weeks, Ewen Montagu scoured London looking for a lookalike.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Until he found one -
0:17:23 > 0:17:26a fellow intelligence officer who was the spitting image
0:17:26 > 0:17:30of the dead man right down to his spindly moustache.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39With their hero fully dressed as Major William Martin of
0:17:39 > 0:17:43the Royal Marines, the two men now set about filling his pockets.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50If you look inside my wallet, you'll find all sorts of things
0:17:50 > 0:17:53that tell you a little bit about who I am -
0:17:53 > 0:17:56train tickets, business cards,
0:17:56 > 0:18:01press card, unpaid parking fines.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05In spy jargon, this is known as wallet litter.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10Montagu and Cholmondeley now set about assembling the wallet litter
0:18:10 > 0:18:16for Bill Martin. Receipts, bills, bus tickets, letters -
0:18:16 > 0:18:18the small clues to his character.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24The man they had in mind would be brave and romantic,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27but disorganised and deeply in debt.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32Dear Sir, I am given to understand
0:18:32 > 0:18:35that in spite of repeated applications,
0:18:35 > 0:18:42your overdraft amounting to £79.19s.2d still outstands.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46Yours faithfully, Ernest Whitley Jones,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50Joint General Manager, Lloyds Bank.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54The bank manager's letter was added to the dead man's wallet.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58They must've had a whale of a time.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03The whole idea of fooling the Germans at the top of their bent.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Wouldn't you enjoy it?
0:19:11 > 0:19:13Bill Martin now had a bank manager,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16an overdraft and a clean set of underwear.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19What he needed next was a girlfriend.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25And so Montagu now invited the female staff of British intelligence
0:19:25 > 0:19:27to submit photographs of themselves,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31photographs that might be included in the dead man's wallet -
0:19:31 > 0:19:35a sort of top-secret beauty contest.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52From this fragrant line-up, Montagu chose the winner -
0:19:52 > 0:19:55a photograph of Jean Leslie,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58a young secretary in the MI5 typing pool.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07Someone said, "Anybody got any photographs
0:20:07 > 0:20:09"they can give us to use?"
0:20:09 > 0:20:12So being always frightfully enthusiastic,
0:20:12 > 0:20:17I leapt into my handbag where I found this one photograph taken,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21it was actually taken squelching in cow mud
0:20:21 > 0:20:24on the banks of the Thames.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27I said, "I can't believe this is any use to you, is it,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30"but you can have it if it is". And they took it.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37Now 88, Jean Leslie is returning to the Oxfordshire countryside
0:20:37 > 0:20:40where her photograph was taken.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43She has not been back for almost 70 years.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50So Jean, what happened on that day in 1942 when you came down here?
0:20:50 > 0:20:55We walked down and we always got into the river, had a good swim.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58And then your friend took a photograph?
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Yes, he took a very... Great snapper.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03He was a great snapper, was he? He was in the army, wasn't he?
0:21:03 > 0:21:04Yes. He was an army snapper.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Did you have any idea that the photograph
0:21:07 > 0:21:09might have any significance at all?
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Not the very remotest.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15What were you doing in those days, in 1942?
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I was working in the War Office.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20Which bit of the War Office?
0:21:20 > 0:21:23- MI5.- Are you allowed to tell us any more about that?
0:21:23 > 0:21:25No, we'll leave it at that.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27We'll leave it at that. Quite right too.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32There was one thing that we were all rather jealous of.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34We would have like to have been
0:21:34 > 0:21:38the girl whose photograph went on the body.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41We would have liked to have written the letter that
0:21:41 > 0:21:43came from the girlfriend.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47But that all went to the MI5 side, I'm afraid,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50and we felt that was slightly unjust.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Alongside the photograph in his wallet, Bill Martin
0:21:59 > 0:22:03would carry fake love letters from his fake girlfriend.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Her name was Pam.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12I do think, dearest, that seeing people off at railway stations
0:22:12 > 0:22:14is one of the poorer forms of sport.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19A train going out can leave a howling great gap in one's life.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23That lovely golden day we spent together...
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Oh, I know it has been said before, but if only time could...
0:22:26 > 0:22:29..stand still for just a minute...
0:22:29 > 0:22:33The letters were actually written by Hester Leggett,
0:22:33 > 0:22:34the head secretary of MI5.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37She was stern, elderly and unmarried,
0:22:37 > 0:22:42but she poured her heart into Pam's letters like a young woman in love.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Pull your socks up, Pam, and don't be a silly little fool.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51Bill, darling, do let me know when you get fixed and can make some more
0:22:51 > 0:22:54plans and don't please let them send you off into the blue
0:22:54 > 0:22:57in that horrible way they do nowadays.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Now that we've found each other out of the whole world,
0:23:00 > 0:23:01I don't think I could bear it.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04BOTH: All my love, Pam.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10We were all in on the plot.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Everyday, you know, we were told little bits and pieces
0:23:14 > 0:23:16and everyday we had our little discussions.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19We just were enthralled with the whole idea,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21we didn't question anything.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25If anything, we just wanted to elaborate it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30To complete this invented romance, Bill Martin would buy
0:23:30 > 0:23:34a diamond engagement ring from the exclusive jewellers
0:23:34 > 0:23:35Phillips of Bond Street.
0:23:35 > 0:23:41A grand romantic gesture to seal this doomed love affair.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Now, we've got here a receipt for a diamond ring from 1943
0:23:47 > 0:23:50for £53.10s.6d.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Which of these rings here would be equivalent to something like that?
0:23:54 > 0:24:00I think that is probably the nearest to the description on the receipt.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03What would the equivalent price of a ring like that be today?
0:24:03 > 0:24:07- Well, the ring you're holding is £13,000.- Wow.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12So that was some gesture that Major W Martin, RM, was making.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14It's a lot of money.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18So, Nicholas, who do you think in the firm was in on the plot?
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Well, I don't honestly know whether anybody in the firm
0:24:22 > 0:24:26was in on the plot, because if it was meant to be a secret,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29why would they have divulged any information to anybody
0:24:29 > 0:24:32who was not absolutely vital?
0:24:32 > 0:24:38Do you think they invested £53.10s.6d in buying a diamond ring?
0:24:38 > 0:24:42The answer is no, because we can't find any ring
0:24:42 > 0:24:47that was purchased by us that was sold for that amount of money.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Do you think this is a real invoice?
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Well, it's a real invoice. Whether it refers to anything,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57because if it does, we're still owed £53.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02The receipt would join the rest of Bill Martin's wallet litter.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Cholmondeley and Montagu were falling in love
0:25:08 > 0:25:09with their own creation.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Cholmondeley wore Bill Martin's uniform every day
0:25:12 > 0:25:14to give it the right wear and tear.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17But Montagu went one step further.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24He got more and more convinced that he was Martin, Royal Marines.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29He lived the part 100%.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32As he'd decided I was Pam, because there was this
0:25:32 > 0:25:36weird character called Pam, who was me,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41I think he slightly expected me to respond.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Montagu was married with two children, but his family had
0:25:45 > 0:25:50been evacuated to the United States at the beginning of the war.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54We were shipped off to America because Ewen believed in
0:25:54 > 0:25:58getting rid of useless mouths
0:25:58 > 0:26:00because I suppose he had at the back of his mind
0:26:00 > 0:26:02that he knew he was on the Gestapo list
0:26:02 > 0:26:05as an eminent member of the Jewish community.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09With his wife and children in America, Montagu now moved in
0:26:09 > 0:26:13with his mother, here in the family home in Kensington.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15He was now living a bachelor's life.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Jean Leslie was young, pretty and unattached.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27We went to the cinema and we went dancing around somewhere.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30He was a much, much older man,
0:26:30 > 0:26:35and I had other gentlemen around at that age. I was only about 18, 19.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39I suppose that I enjoyed the excitement of the whole thing.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43I lived the part of Pam, yes.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48Jean gave him a copy of the photograph.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53On it she wrote, "Till death do us part, your loving Pam."
0:26:53 > 0:26:56He placed it on his dressing table.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02Here was the strangest romance imaginable.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05Fiction was slipping into fact.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11Privately, Montagu began writing love letters to Jean,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14addressing her as Pam and signing himself Bill.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Pam, dearest, I just love the photograph.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23It sounds as if you have a foreboding.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26I have, and from your inscription on the photo
0:27:26 > 0:27:27I think you have the same fear.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30I hope you meet someone worthier than me.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Ever yours, Bill.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38PS, try the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve next time.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Ewen Montagu, needless to say,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46was in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51My grandmother, who Ewen was living with at the time,
0:27:51 > 0:27:56she must have got worried, because she wrote to my mother
0:27:56 > 0:27:59expressing some sort of worry about,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01"Perhaps you'd better come back soon,"
0:28:01 > 0:28:06and things like that. Because Ewen had stuck up this photograph of Pam
0:28:06 > 0:28:09with "love from Pam" or whatever it's got on it,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12and was wondering what the hell Ewen was up to.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17His poor wife came belting back from America, where she was evacuated to,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21to get back and get this woman, whose photograph he had,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23out of the way.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30Montagu and Cholmondeley were having fun - maybe a little too much fun -
0:28:30 > 0:28:33but their mission was deadly serious.
0:28:33 > 0:28:39By April 1943, the Allied invasion of Sicily was only weeks away.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Anticipating the attack, the Germans were heavily
0:28:44 > 0:28:48reinforcing the island, just as the Allies had feared.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Major William Martin must now play his part,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00because all the little lies in Bill Martin's wallet litter
0:29:00 > 0:29:03were there to underpin one big lie -
0:29:03 > 0:29:07a single official letter he'd be carrying, clearly hinting
0:29:07 > 0:29:11that the Allies were about to attack not Sicily, but Greece,
0:29:11 > 0:29:16a letter so secret that the Germans would think Bill Martin was
0:29:16 > 0:29:21a special courier and that his plane had crashed into the sea.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27The letter would be signed by General Sir Archibald Nye,
0:29:27 > 0:29:29and addressed to General Harold Alexander,
0:29:29 > 0:29:33the British Commander in North Africa.
0:29:35 > 0:29:36They went through draft,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38after draft,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40after draft,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45until finally, they hit upon a solution that was inspired
0:29:45 > 0:29:47and incredibly obvious.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49They got the General to write it himself.
0:29:52 > 0:29:53HE CLEARS HIS THROAT
0:29:55 > 0:29:57"My Dear Alex,
0:29:57 > 0:30:01"I am taking advantage of sending you this personal letter
0:30:01 > 0:30:04"by one of Mountbatten's officers..."
0:30:04 > 0:30:09'Carefully buried in General Nye's long and rambling letter was the bait -
0:30:09 > 0:30:13'a hint, but an unmissable hint,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16'that Sicily was not the real target at all,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20'but merely the cover for a full-scale invasion of Greece.'
0:30:20 > 0:30:25"..Best of luck. Yours ever, Archie Nye."
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Ewen came in one day and came straight up to my desk.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32I saw the feet first, of course, as one always did.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37And he handed me a big envelope and said "Pat, will you write
0:30:37 > 0:30:41"the address for General Alexander on this envelope?" which I did.
0:30:41 > 0:30:47So I was slightly one-up on some of the others on that.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51At least my handwriting went on the body, even if nothing else.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57After months of preparation, Bill Martin was almost ready.
0:30:57 > 0:31:03Pam's photograph, the love letters and all the rest of the wallet litter were placed in his pockets.
0:31:05 > 0:31:11A single eyelash was inserted in the fold of General Nye's letter.
0:31:11 > 0:31:17If it was returned to the British with the eyelash missing, that would prove the contents had been read.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22The letter was then put in a briefcase,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25which would later be chained to the dead man.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31At midnight, on April 19th, 1943,
0:31:31 > 0:31:33Montagu and Cholmondeley met at Hackney Mortuary
0:31:33 > 0:31:36and extracted the corpse from the refrigerator.
0:31:38 > 0:31:39But at the last moment
0:31:39 > 0:31:42they encountered an unexpected problem.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44The feet of the body had frozen stiff
0:31:44 > 0:31:46and they couldn't get the boots on.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51And so, in the most macabre moment of the entire saga,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53they obtained a two-bar electric heater
0:31:53 > 0:31:57and set about thawing the ankles of the dead man.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59At last the boots slipped on.
0:32:01 > 0:32:06Major William Martin of the Royal Marines was ready to go to war.
0:32:09 > 0:32:15The body was inserted into a specially designed canister labelled "Optical Instruments"
0:32:15 > 0:32:17and bolted shut.
0:32:19 > 0:32:26It was so exciting. It was just like having an adventure story in your own life.
0:32:28 > 0:32:34The first stop was Scotland where a submarine was waiting to take him to Spain.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37ENGINE STARTS
0:32:43 > 0:32:45To drive him there, they recruited
0:32:45 > 0:32:48St John 'Jock' Horsfall,
0:32:48 > 0:32:53an MI5 chauffeur who also happened to be the fastest racing driver in the country.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57Horsfall was short-sighted and refused to wear spectacles.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01He drove at terrifying speed through the blackout
0:33:01 > 0:33:06in his own souped-up van while Montagu, Cholmondeley and the canister
0:33:06 > 0:33:08rolled around in the back.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15The three men drove all night and into the next day,
0:33:15 > 0:33:21covering the 500 miles through villages and towns heading north.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26On the way, the myopic driver failed to see a roundabout until too late
0:33:26 > 0:33:28and shot over the grass circle.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33This was the closest Montagu and Cholmondeley came to death in action during the war.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38Once over the border, they stopped for a cup of tea
0:33:38 > 0:33:42and even took souvenir photos of each other sitting on the canister.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49On the west coast of Scotland, HMS Seraph was waiting for them.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57The crew of HMS Seraph had no inkling of what they were loading through the torpedo hatch.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02The only person who knew what the canister contained was the captain, Bill Jewell.
0:34:02 > 0:34:08Lieutenant Norman Limbury Auchinleck Jewell, known as Bill,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12was 30 years old with a cheerful grin and bright blue eyes.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17Understated and charming, he was also tough as teak.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Dive, dive, dive.
0:34:26 > 0:34:32The body was brought in a canister, right beside the torpedo,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34put down the torpedo hatch.
0:34:34 > 0:34:40No-one, except myself, knew that it was a body.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44And it stayed there for our journey out
0:34:44 > 0:34:47to put him down on the coast of Spain.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53The crew would be eating, working and sleeping around the corpse
0:34:53 > 0:35:00as HMS Seraph took its secret cargo on a four-day voyage to the southern coast of Spain.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10Spain was neutral, but its dictator General Franco
0:35:10 > 0:35:14turned a blind eye to Nazi spies operating throughout the country.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19If the fake documents could be got to the right spy
0:35:19 > 0:35:27there was every chance they'd end up on the desk of the only man who really mattered - Adolf Hitler.
0:35:29 > 0:35:34Ewen Montagu had already identified one Nazi spy who could be relied on to do the job.
0:35:34 > 0:35:40He lived here...in the port of Huelva on the south coast of Spain.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44Bill Martin would be floated right up to his doorstep.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49In his spare time, Adolf Clauss grew giant tomatoes
0:35:49 > 0:35:51and collected butterflies.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53He also collected secrets.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58Nicknamed the Shadow, he was the most effective German spy in Spain.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Clauss was a menace to British shipping.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09He and his network of spies spotted ships off the coast
0:36:09 > 0:36:14and passed this information on to the waiting U-boat wolf packs.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21His activities had cost the allies countless lives.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Collecting his intelligence like butterflies,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28he was systematic, meticulous
0:36:28 > 0:36:30and deeply unimaginative.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Montagu and Cholmondeley knew their man.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Adolph Clauss thought in straight lines.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38He was tailor-made to be duped.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48At dawn, on April 30th, 1943,
0:36:48 > 0:36:55HMS Seraph lay submerged, 500 metres off the coast of Huelva.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58We were just about to surface
0:36:58 > 0:37:00when a fishing fleet went over the top of us,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04going out to collect sardines.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11We surfaced behind them, close in-shore.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16We took the end off this canister, brought the body out,
0:37:16 > 0:37:20checked that he'd got his papers and everything on him.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27We then slid him over the side,
0:37:27 > 0:37:34went full astern on the motors so that he'd be pushed in the right direction.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40We said what I could remember of the funeral service over him.
0:37:43 > 0:37:49As Bill Martin floated to shore, Captain Jewell recited a passage from the psalms.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54"I will keep my mouth as if it were with a bridle.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58"Held my tongue and spake nothing.
0:37:58 > 0:37:59"I kept silence."
0:38:12 > 0:38:15TRANSLATION:
0:39:12 > 0:39:18In the midday heat, the body was brought to the cemetery at Huelva.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27In this tiny room, two Spanish doctors began to perform the autopsy.
0:39:29 > 0:39:35First they emptied the dead man's pockets, to find out who he might be
0:39:35 > 0:39:39and what he was doing floating in the sea, off the coast of Spain.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43The wallet and letters were then put to one side to dry out
0:39:43 > 0:39:46while the pathologist went to work on the body.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55One of the witnesses was the British Consul who was in on the plot.
0:39:55 > 0:40:01He knew that the longer the autopsy continued, the greater the risk that it would reveal the truth.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03The real danger in this case
0:40:03 > 0:40:07is that it would be identified immediately
0:40:07 > 0:40:11that the body was in a more advanced state of decomposition.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17Any experienced pathologist would be able to tell the difference between
0:40:17 > 0:40:21a body that had been lying in a fridge for two to three months
0:40:21 > 0:40:25and a body which had been in the Mediterranean for a matter of weeks.
0:40:25 > 0:40:31And the risks of discovery were quite significant.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36Operation Mincemeat was on a knife edge.
0:40:36 > 0:40:41Thousands of lives now depended on the thoroughness of the Spanish doctors.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47If the lie were exposed, it would prove beyond doubt
0:40:47 > 0:40:50that the real target was Sicily.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54The Allies could face catastrophe.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Montagu and Cholmondeley had foreseen this danger.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00The British Consul knew what to do.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04He now stepped in and suggested that with the heat and the stench,
0:41:04 > 0:41:07the Spanish doctors might like to call it a day.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10They readily agreed and signed a death certificate
0:41:10 > 0:41:14that was both definitive and completely wrong.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17Officially, Bill Martin had drowned.
0:41:18 > 0:41:26As for the briefcase, it was removed unopened and handed to the Spanish navy for safekeeping.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43That afternoon, a man who had never been recognised for anything during his lifetime
0:41:43 > 0:41:45was buried in this cemetery
0:41:45 > 0:41:47with full military honours.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59Glyndwr Michael had achieved little during his short and unhappy life.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01Now, in death,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04he might change the course of history.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08There was one other witness that day.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14Adolf Clauss had got wind that a British courier carrying a briefcase stuffed with documents
0:42:14 > 0:42:16had been washed up on the beach.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21From a corner of the cemetery, the Shadow was watching.
0:42:21 > 0:42:27And from room 13 in London, Montagu and Cholmondeley were watching the Shadow.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32They knew he was already curious,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35so they decided to give the pot a little stir.
0:42:37 > 0:42:43British telegrams were routinely intercepted by German spies operating in Spain.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Montagu and Cholmondeley began to send a series of messages
0:42:46 > 0:42:50demanding the British Consul find out what had happened to the missing documents.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56"Secret papers probably in black briefcase.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58"Earliest possible information required.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00"It should be recovered at once.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04"Care should be taken that it does not get into undesirable hands.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07"Message ends. Stop."
0:43:07 > 0:43:10The telegrams worked a treat.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15Clauss now mobilised his entire network of spies for one purpose -
0:43:15 > 0:43:18to get his "undesirable hands" on the briefcase.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21The briefcase, meanwhile, remained securely locked
0:43:21 > 0:43:24inside the safe of the Spanish naval authorities.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30At this point, the plan hit an unexpected snag
0:43:30 > 0:43:35because, instead of collaborating with the Nazis as they were supposed to,
0:43:35 > 0:43:40the Spanish authorities declined to surrender the briefcase to Clauss.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43The plot was swiftly descending into farce.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46The Germans were trying to get their hands on the briefcase.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49The British were trying to help them get their hands on the briefcase.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53But the Spanish flatly refused to hand the briefcase over to anyone.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57Instead, they sent it to Madrid,
0:43:57 > 0:44:02where the job of getting it now fell to the most feared German spy of all.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09The MI5 files describe a man of elegance and refinement,
0:44:09 > 0:44:14a champion tennis player with perfectly manicured nails.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17His name was Karl-Erich Kuhlenthal
0:44:17 > 0:44:21and he was Hitler's most trusted operative in Spain.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Kuhlenthal was the main operator in Spain.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31He was collecting information and forwarding it on to Berlin and acting as the focal point.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35We know about this because Bletchley was receiving messages
0:44:35 > 0:44:38from Kuhlenthal and to Kuhlenthal throughout that period.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47Bletchley Park, a country house in the heart of the Home Counties,
0:44:47 > 0:44:52was the centre of code-breaking operations during the Second World War.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57Here, some of the country's most brilliant academics and scientists
0:44:57 > 0:44:58worked around the clock
0:44:58 > 0:45:00deciphering the most secret messages
0:45:00 > 0:45:02of the German High Command.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12Bletchley was reading most of the signals from pretty near all of
0:45:12 > 0:45:16the military and the civilian elements of the German war machine.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18Primarily Germany, of course,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22but from countries such as Greece and neutral countries such as Spain.
0:45:26 > 0:45:27We'd been reading
0:45:27 > 0:45:31all these messages and so we knew how they were reacting.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33That was the important thing -
0:45:33 > 0:45:36to know exactly whether your bait was being swallowed.
0:45:40 > 0:45:46The codebreakers were on the alert for any enemy wireless traffic relating to Operation Mincemeat.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49But the days passed and nothing appeared.
0:45:49 > 0:45:55Montagu and Cholmondeley began to fear that the briefcase, along with its contents, had simply vanished.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Back in London, the tension mounted in room 13
0:46:01 > 0:46:04as Montagu and Cholmondeley waited for news.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Had the gamble backfired?
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Had the Germans rumbled the plot?
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Had they even got hold of the briefcase?
0:46:15 > 0:46:16Time was running out.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21160,000 allied troops were gathering in North Africa
0:46:21 > 0:46:26for the largest amphibious invasion the world had ever seen.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29Their fate might depend on a briefcase
0:46:29 > 0:46:35and no-one in room 13 had a clue what had happened to it.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37But the Germans were also under pressure.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39Clauss had missed his prey,
0:46:39 > 0:46:42but Karl-Erich Kuhlenthal was determined
0:46:42 > 0:46:45not to make the same mistake.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51Nine days after the body was fished out of the water,
0:46:51 > 0:46:55the fake letter landed in the lap of the Germans.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03One of Kuhlenthal's agents inside the Spanish navy extracted
0:47:03 > 0:47:07the official letters from their envelopes and handed them over.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11The Germans were given exactly one hour to photograph everything.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18Kuhlenthal realised at once that he'd stumbled on the scoop of his career.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23The love letters, the identity card, the photograph of Pam,
0:47:23 > 0:47:24the whole invented story
0:47:24 > 0:47:27of Bill Martin and the crucial letter he carried.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30Kuhlenthal believed it all.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37He flew at once to Berlin, carrying the photographs of the documents
0:47:37 > 0:47:40and handed them to his bosses in German intelligence,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43never once doubting their authenticity.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50Why?
0:47:50 > 0:47:55Why didn't he ask the questions that any good intelligence officer should have asked?
0:47:55 > 0:47:59Why didn't he authorise a second autopsy?
0:47:59 > 0:48:04Why, in the end, did he believe in Bill Martin without a second thought?
0:48:04 > 0:48:09The answer may lie in the MI5 surveillance files.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16HITLER SPEAKS IN GERMAN
0:48:19 > 0:48:21For Karl-Erich Kuhlenthal had a secret of his own -
0:48:21 > 0:48:24his grandmother was Jewish.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27As a German officer with Jewish blood,
0:48:27 > 0:48:33he was understandably paranoid and desperate to please his superiors.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36Perhaps, in the end, he believed the Mincemeat documents
0:48:36 > 0:48:39because he needed to believe them.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43But would his superiors believe them?
0:48:46 > 0:48:52Over the following days, the documents were minutely scrutinised by Germany's espionage experts.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Each element was examined and re-examined.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Everything appeared to fit.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01The intelligence was given the stamp of approval
0:49:01 > 0:49:06and the lie began to spread up the German chain of command,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11until it reached the minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Goebbels had a sensitive nose for a lie
0:49:16 > 0:49:19and the British letter smelled wrong.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Goebbels studied the British.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29He read The Times every day, harrumphing about the paper
0:49:29 > 0:49:33like a retired general living in the Home Counties.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35"The Times has once again sunk so low
0:49:35 > 0:49:38"as to publish an almost Bolshevik article.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40"It makes one blush with shame."
0:49:43 > 0:49:49In his private diary, Goebbels wondered whether the letter was an elaborate and very British hoax,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51but he kept his doubts to himself.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54If Hitler believed it, that was all that mattered.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Two weeks after Bill Martin was dropped off the coast of Spain,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05the fake letter finally landed on Hitler's desk.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Everything now rested on this moment.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Would Hitler take the bait so carefully laid by Montagu and Cholmondeley?
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Would their corkscrew thinking outwit the Fuhrer?
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Would Churchill's gamble finally pay off?
0:50:28 > 0:50:32On May 12th, 1943,
0:50:32 > 0:50:37the codebreakers at Bletchley Park picked up a signal from German High Command.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42Citing an absolutely reliable source,
0:50:42 > 0:50:47the message ordered Mediterranean commanders to prepare for an Allied attack...
0:50:47 > 0:50:49on Greece.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53Within hours, the intercepted message reached the Admiralty basement,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56where Montagu and Cholmondeley were waiting.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00Montagu was sitting at his desk leafing through the latest messages from Bletchley Park
0:51:00 > 0:51:05when he suddenly banged the table and let out a whoop of triumph.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09Here, at last, was the moment they had all been waiting for.
0:51:11 > 0:51:12Montagu was made aware,
0:51:12 > 0:51:17from decrypts received at Bletchley, that the German High Command
0:51:17 > 0:51:21had been hoodwinked into believing that the story was in fact a true story.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25We all simply jumped up and down
0:51:25 > 0:51:31and it was unbelievable that this had come to a happy conclusion.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35There wasn't such a lot of good news at that time
0:51:35 > 0:51:38and this was a real triumph as far as we were concerned.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44That evening, Churchill received a telegram from MI5.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48It read, quite simply, "Mincemeat swallowed rod, line and sinker."
0:51:50 > 0:51:52You know, we were just ecstatic.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56- Did you feel proud to know that? - Well, it was rather satisfactory.
0:51:56 > 0:51:57It really was...
0:52:00 > 0:52:05..I think, the most exciting moment that I've ever had in my life when that came through.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07Oh, well, of course it is, course it is.
0:52:07 > 0:52:14Hitler moved an entire panzer division - 19,000 men - from France all the way to Greece.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18The evidence came in fast and furious.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22Other troop movements followed in short order.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Panzer division being sent to Greece.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29Torpedo boats were redeployed to the Greek coast, along with
0:52:29 > 0:52:31fresh fighter squadrons.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Gun emplacements being moved in Sicily.
0:52:34 > 0:52:40The forces defending Greece jumped from one division to eight.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45Hitler's army lurched sideways to defend against this new threat.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50It showed that it was working.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54Effectively, parts of the German army in the Mediterranean
0:52:54 > 0:52:56were being controlled, not from Berlin,
0:52:56 > 0:53:01but from a basement room here, under the Admiralty, in London.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04It was the first chink of light, really,
0:53:04 > 0:53:09the fact that we could get rid of those Germans.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13On the night of July 9th, the field marshal in command of the German army
0:53:13 > 0:53:16transmitted a warning labelled "Most Immediate"
0:53:16 > 0:53:18that was picked up here at Bletchley.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21It predicted a major attack on Greece.
0:53:21 > 0:53:28The next morning, 160,000 Allied troops stormed ashore on the beaches of Sicily.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42The British expected 10,000 casualties in the first week of the invasion.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47In fact, just 1,400 were killed or wounded.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53The Navy had feared losing up to 300 ships in the first two days.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55Barely a dozen were sunk.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07And in Greece, thousands of German troops
0:54:07 > 0:54:10waited for an invasion that never happened.
0:54:16 > 0:54:21Operation Mincemeat was the most successful deception of the Second World War,
0:54:21 > 0:54:25perhaps the greatest military hoax since the Trojan Horse.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28Instead of the bloodbath the Allies had once feared,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31Sicily was conquered in just over a month.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34My husband, whom I didn't know in those days,
0:54:34 > 0:54:42landed three days before the main troops...er, landed.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45And he would have probably been dead,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47so I wouldn't have had a husband.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50So in a way, Mincemeat played a role in your family too?
0:54:50 > 0:54:52Yes, it did,
0:54:52 > 0:54:54I wouldn't have ever got to meet him.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02Thousands of lives had been saved.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Churchill's corkscrew thinkers had triumphed.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10And their triumph went far beyond Sicily.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16Mussolini was soon toppled from power,
0:55:16 > 0:55:21and forced to confront this Allied invasion from the south,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Hitler called off a huge offensive against the Soviets.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27The Germans were now on the back foot.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32The Red Army did not stop until it reached Berlin.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39But it had all hinged on one dead man,
0:55:39 > 0:55:44a man whose real name was intended to remain a secret forever.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48This is a true story...
0:55:48 > 0:55:54In the years after the war, the man who never was became the stuff of legend...
0:55:54 > 0:56:00It's the most outrageous, disgusting, preposterous, not to say barbaric idea!
0:56:00 > 0:56:02..spawning books, a Hollywood movie
0:56:02 > 0:56:04and countless myths.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08But his true identity remained hidden
0:56:08 > 0:56:10until, more than half a century later,
0:56:10 > 0:56:13one man stumbled upon the truth.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16I took to going to, as it was called then, the Public Records Office
0:56:16 > 0:56:20and looking at the newly released files.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28I became entranced with the idea of the British Government
0:56:28 > 0:56:32requisitioning a corpse and keeping the name secret forever.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38Eventually, I saw in one of these monthly binders,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41number 20, "Mincemeat".
0:56:41 > 0:56:44And really I didn't have any expectation
0:56:44 > 0:56:49because Montagu had always kept the whole thing so secret that...
0:56:50 > 0:56:52I mean, I believed, at that point,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55in the oath of eternal secrecy.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01And looking at the first page, scanning my eye down,
0:57:01 > 0:57:03I saw "Glyndwr Michael".
0:57:08 > 0:57:10It was an unbelievable feeling.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22In this Spanish cemetery, one grave is different from all the others.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25It tells of a double life.
0:57:25 > 0:57:32One brief, sad and real, the other entirely invented and oddly heroic.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46Grave number 1886 commemorates a gallant British officer
0:57:46 > 0:57:51who washed up with a love letter from a girl who never existed pressed to his heart.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54In reality, its occupant is a poor Welsh tramp
0:57:54 > 0:57:58who killed himself with rat poison in a disused warehouse in London.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07Finally, in 1998, the British Government gave him back his name.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:37 > 0:58:40E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk