Military history

Notes

Epigraph

1 “Who in war will not have”: Winston Churchill, Closing the Ring, p. 91.

Preface

1 “some memoranda which”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 14.

Chapter One: The Sardine Spotter

1 “lump”: Jesús Ramírez Copeiro del Vilar, Espías y Neutrales: Huelva en la Guerra Mundial (Huelva, Spain, 1996), p. 408.

2 “no-one wanted”: Ibid., p. 409.

Chapter Two: Corkscrew Minds

1 “The Trout Fisher”: National Archives (henceforth cited as “TNA”), Admiralty archives of the Naval Intelligence Department (henceforth cited as ADM) 223/478.

2 “marked flair”: Ben Macintyre, For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond (London, 2008), p. 42.

3 “romantic Red Indian daydreams”: Ibid., p. 43.

4 “deception, ruses de guerre”: TNA, ADM 223/478.

5 “At first sight”: Ibid.

6 “The business of deception”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 51.

7 “pushing quicksilver”: Ibid.

8 “introducing ideas”: TNA, ADM 223/478.

9 “treasure ship”: Ibid.

10 “an unimpeachable and immaculate”: Ibid.

11 “with instructions on the”: Ibid.

12 “A Suggestion (not a very nice one)”: Ibid.

13 “research”: “The Thomson Case,” Time, January 18, 1926.

14 “I know the stuff”: Basil Thomson, The Milliner’s Hat (London, 1937), p. 64.

15 “World War II offers”: Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 26.

16 “the target date”: David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (New York, 2000), p. 471.

17 “extremely worried”: After the Battle, no. 54, 1986.

18 “not been tampered with”: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 471.

19 “quite legible”: Ibid.

20 “It was highly unlikely”: Ibid.

21 “All the documents”: TNA, Cabinet Office Records (henceforth cited as CAB) 163/1.

22 “no greater importance”: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 471.

23 “documents had likely”: Frank J. Stech, “Outguessed and One-Behind: The Real Story of The Man Who Never Was” (paper presented to conference, University of Wolverhampton, UK, July 2004).

24 “This suggested that”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

25 “lifting his toes as he walked”: Jean Gerard Leigh (née Leslie), interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

26 “This was a terrible blow”: Tom Cholmondeley, interview with the author, October 1, 2007.

27 “ideas man”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 370.

28 “extraordinary and delightful”: Ibid., p. 370

29 “one of those subtle”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 116.

30 “a plan for introducing documents”: Imperial War Museum, papers of Ewen Montagu (henceforth cited as IWM) 97/45/1, folder #2.

31 A body is obtained: Ibid.

32 “the drop”: Ibid.

33 “double for an actual officer”: Ibid.

34 “and injuries inflicted after death”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 116.

35 “a full and capable post-mortem”: Charles Cholmondeley, Memo to XX Committee, February 4, 1938, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

36 “Of these, Spain was clearly”: Ibid.

37 “Meinertzhagen knew no half measures”: T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (London, 1991), p. 452.

38 “Good-bye, my darling!”: John Lord, Duty, Honour, Empire (London, 1971), p. 332.

39 “easy, reliable and inexpensive”: Meinertzhagen Army Diary, cited in ibid., p. 336.

40 “fair going”: Holt, The Decievers, p. 95.

41 “there was never any evidence”: Ibid., p. 297.

Chapter Three: Room 13

1 “The Germans, having cause to regret”: Jimmy Burns, Papa Spy: Love, Faith and Betrayal in Wartime Spain (London, 2009), p. 233.

2 “strongly supported”: Draft of report on Operation Mincemeat, May 29, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

3 “go into the question of obtaining”: Ibid.

4 “fertile brain”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 108.

5 “My memory is of”: Ewen Montagu, Untitled, unpublished autobiography in manuscript (henceforth cited as “Ewen Montagu Autobiography”), courtesy of Jeremy Montagu (collection henceforth cited as “Montagu Papers”).

6 “Montagu, first Baron Swaythling”: Ivor Montagu, The Youngest Son: Autobiographical Chapters (London, 1970), p. 18.

7 “small dining room” Ibid. p. 22.

8 “exquisite chandelier”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

9 “Statesmen (British and world)”: Ibid.

10 “like a very animated piece”: Ibid.

11 “It was a servants’ lift”: Montagu, Youngest Son, p. 14.

12 “Born as I was”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

13 “idiotic”: Ibid.

14 “the sort of American social life”: Ibid.

15 “I felt a great debt”: Ibid.

16 “The ‘spread’ among us three”: Ibid.

17 “already had a banker’s attitude”: Ibid.

18 “He and I were much”: Ibid.

19 “we had nothing to do”: Ibid.

20 “I advised [Ivor] to choose”: Ibid.

21 “Our great ambition was”: Ibid.

22 “to study something”: Ibid.

23 “I put it in my pocket”: Ibid.

24 “one of the best fly-fishermen”: Anthony Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, vol. I (London, 1975), p. 278.

25 “never better than a mediocre”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

26 “the thrill of the strike”: Ibid.

27 “an exceedingly primitive vole”: Montagu, Youngest Son, p. 283.

28 “Baron’s Son Weds Secretary”: Evening News, March 23, 1927.

29 “Dear Gladys, I feel for you”: Obituary of Lord Swaythling, Daily Telegraph, July 4, 1998.

30 “a certain sympathy with rogue characters”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 9.

31 “see the point of view”: Ibid.

32 “gentle manners”: M. R. D. Foot, entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

33 “If he could see a really artistic lie”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

34 “hard in the wind”: Ibid.

35 “This morning the British”: Radio Address by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, September 3, 1939.

36 “looking out to sea”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

37 “It is quite useless”: TNA, ADM 223/478.

38 “two stockbrokers, a schoolmaster”: Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 26.

39 “The permanent inhabitants”: Ibid.

40 “worked like ants”: Ibid.

41 “learning a new language”: Ewen Montagu, “History of Section 17M (Now Section 12Z),” October 26, 1942, Montagu Papers.

42 “the cream of all intelligence”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

43 “The Germans have a passion”: Ewen Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

44 “to do the detailed work”: Ibid.

45 “Auntie”: Pat Davies (née Trehearne), interview with the author, October 4, 2009.

46 “She is extraordinarily good”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, January 31, 1941, courtesy of Rachel Montagu, collection henceforth cited as “Montagu Letters.”

47 “watchkeepers”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

48 “far too small”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 51.

49 “which made everyone”: Pat Davies, interview with the author, October 5, 2009.

50 “were not supposed to listen”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

51 “a brilliant band of”: John Godfrey to Ewen Montagu, September 13, 1964, Montagu Papers.

52 “began to regard some almost as friends”: Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

53 “They were so kind to us unconsciously”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 52.

54 “in the racket”: Ewen Montagu to Vera Ruth Filby, February 3, 1979, Montagu Papers.

55 “If I am killed there are”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, August 17, 1941, Montagu Letters.

56 “The most fascinating job”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 50.

57 “very entertaining but useless”: Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

58 “a great number who”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 36.

59 “it might be an indication”: Naval Intelligence Department memo, July 13, 1947, TNA, ADM 223/794.

60 “Though I have kept”: Victor Rothschild to Ewen Montagu, November 13, 1941, TNA, ADM 223/794.

61 “had heard and believed the propaganda”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

62 “I thought you had realised”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 59.

63 “an out and out traitor”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

64 “a four-letter man”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, November 13, 1942, Montagu Letters.

65 “Fleming is charming”: Ibid.

66 “The bare idea of the dead airman”: John Godfrey to Ewen Montagu, September 13, 1964, Montagu Papers.

67 “I quite honestly don’t remember”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

Chapter Four: Target Sicily

1 “underbelly of the Axis”: Winston Churchill, speech to House of Commons, November 11, 1942.

2 “no major operation could be”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished critique of Constantine Fitzgibbon, Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (London, 1976), Montagu Papers.

3 “and might be the beginning”: Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 7.

4 “Everyone but a bloody fool would know it was Sicily”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 143.

5 “prepare deception plans”: Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (London, 2009), p. 284.

6 “When things were looking pretty bad”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 184.

7 “an ingenious imagination”: Nicholas Rankin, Churchill’s Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914–1945 (London 2008), p. 178.

8 “fourteen of the biggest Nigerians”: Ibid., p. 181.

9 “special section of intelligence”: Ibid., p. 253.

10 “The idea of knocking”: “Future Anglo Saxon Operative Possibilities,” FHW of OKW, February 8, 1943, cited in Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945 (London, 1989), p. 227.

11 “wishfulness” and “yesmanship”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 10.

12 “If the authorities were clamouring”: Ibid.

13 “inclined to believe the one”: Ibid., p. 12.

14 “He could achieve single-handed”: Colin Evans, The Father of Forensics: How Sir Bernard Spilsbury Invented Modern CSI (London, 2009), p. 122.

15 “He formed his opinion”: Ibid., p. 27.

16 “just carried on”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

17 “England’s modern Sherlock Holmes”: Washington Post, March 30, 1938, p. 3.

18 “haughty, aristocratic bearing”: Evans, Father of Forensics, p. 5.

19 “unlucky sixteen”: After the Battle, November 11, 2006.

20 “that extraordinary man”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 122.

21 “wanted the Germans and Spaniards”: Ibid.

22 “never once did he ask why”: Ibid.

23 “clear, resonant, without any trace”: Evans, Father of Forensics, p. 27.

24 “Many die from exposure”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 122.

25 “doing a Burke and Hare”: Ibid.

26 “A depressing job?”: Robert Jackson, Coroner: The Biography of Sir Bentley Purchase (London, 1963), p. 5.

27 “They were found in Auntie’s bag”: Ibid., p. 260.

28 “rugged in appearance and character”: Ibid., p. 15.

29 “an impish sense of humour”: Ibid.

30 “an old friend from my barrister days”: Ewen Montagu to Roger Morgan, April 19, 1982, Montagu Papers.

31 “An alternative means of getting”: Bentley Purchase to Ewen Montagu, August 25, 1953, Montagu Papers.

32 “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty”: Jackson, Coroner, p. 28.

33 “aching to get into the war”: Ibid., p. 104.

34 “distort the truth in the service of security”: Roger Morgan in After the Battle, no. 54, 1986.

35 “cursory in the extreme”: Ibid.

36 “a warlike operation”: Jackson, Coroner, p. 148.

37 “did not wish to disclose why a body”: Ibid.

38 “You can’t get bodies just”: Ibid.

39 “of national importance”: Ibid.

40 “public confidence in coroners”: Ibid.

41 “At what level has this scheme”: Ibid.

42 “The prime minister’s”: Ibid.

43 “well developed sense of comedy”: Ibid., p. 313.

44 “absolute discretion”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

45 “A coroner”: Ibid.

46 “remained unidentified”: Jackson, Coroner, p. 196.

47 “After one or two possible corpses”: Ibid., p. 148.

48 “the inevitable misery of separation”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 65.

49 “I miss you most frightfully”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, August 11, 1941, Montagu Letters.

50 “The interest and pressure of my work”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 61.

51 “It was lovely”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 11, 1941, Montagu Letters.

52 “The greatest fun”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

53 “super-secret papers”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 68.

54 “as long as I always wore”: Ibid.

55 “one of the best cooks in London”: Ibid., p. 28.

56 “Mother is too awful”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, August 11, 1941, Montagu Letters.

57 “crossword puzzles”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 61.

58 “who had been in the family”: Ewen Montagu Autobiography.

Chapter Five: The Man Who Was

1 “senile decay”: Medical records of Angelton Mental Hospital, Bridgend, December 12, 1924, Glamorgan Record Office.

2 “melancholic”: Ibid., December 12, 1924.

3 “confused and very depressed”: Ibid.

4 “deep mental depression”: Ibid.

5 “Hair is grey and thin”: Ibid.

6 “a hectic temperature”: Ibid., March 28, 1925.

7 “on condition that the scale”: Hansard Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 5th series, vol. 197, July 6, 1926.

8 “led men and women to London”: Robert Jackson, Coroner: The Biography of Sir Bentley Purchase (London, 1963), p. 196.

9 “It still surprised him”: Ibid.

10 “a common lodging house”: Draft of report on Operation Mincemeat, May 29, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

11 “kept in suitable cold storage”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 123.

12 “Lunatic”: Glyndwr Michael death certificate, After the Battle, November 11, 2006.

13 “labourer, no fixed abode”: Ibid.

14 “phosphorous poisoning”: Ibid.

15 “removed out of England”: Draft of report on Operation Mincemeat, May 29, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

16 “a minimal dose”: Ewen Montagu to J. Bevan, May 28, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

17 “This dose was not sufficient”: Ibid.

18 “phosphorous is not one of”: Ibid.

19 “except possibly faint”: Draft of report on Operation Mincemeat, May 29, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

20 “a highly skilled medico-criminal”: Ewen Montagu to J. Bevan, May 28, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

21 “bet heavily against anyone”: Ibid.

22 “You have nothing to fear”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 123.

23 “I am a martyr to Spilsburyism”: Andrew Rose, Lethal Witness: Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the Honorary Pathologist (London, 2008), p. 139.

24 “died from pneumonia after exposure”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 123.

25 “really worthwhile purpose”: Ibid.

26 “on condition that I should never”: Ibid.

27 “feverish enquiries into his past”: Ibid., p. 3

28 “a ne’er do well, and his relatives”: Ewen Montagu to Billy Bob Crim, December 26, 1981, Montagu Papers.

29 “extra-cold refrigerator”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 450.

30 “would have to be used within”: Minutes of XX Committee, February 4, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

31 “They ought not to be given names”: Winston Churchill to General “Pug” Ismay, minute, August 8, 1943.

32 “stupidity”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 52.

33 “no deductions could be”: Ibid.

34 “sense of humour”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 125.

35 “good omen”: Ibid.

36 “This Operation is proposed”: Memo to XX Committee, February 4, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

37 “a courier carrying important”: Ibid.

38 “the real target is omitted from”: Ibid.

39 “the Germans will be looking”: Ibid.

40 “The body must be dropped”: Ibid.

41 “find out a suitable position”: Minutes of XX Committee, February 4, 1943, IWM 97/45/1 folder #2.

42 “into the question of providing”: Ibid.

43 “so he will be able to cope”: Ibid.

44 “continue with preparations”: Memo to XX Committee, February 4, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

Chapter Six: A Novel Approach

1 “active and well-distributed team”: J. C. Masterman, The Double Cross System in the War 1939–1945 (London, 1972), p. 119.

2 “The one man band of Lisbon”: Ibid., p. 146.

3 “for deception, ‘notional’”: Ibid., p. 33.

4 “The Germans could seldom resist”: Ibid., p. 21.

5 “How difficult it was”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 43.

6 “must never step out of character”: Ibid.

7 “To work out the crime”: J. C. Masterman, The Case of the Four Friends (London, 1957), p. 23.

8 “The more real he appeared”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 149.

9 “Would the ink of the manuscript”: Ewen Montagu, manuscript “Post–script” to The Man Who Never Was, p. 4, Montagu Papers.

10 “give the game away”: Ibid.

11 “Many inks on a freshly written”: Ibid., p. 6.

12 “We talked about him until”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 149.

13 “He does not have to look like”: Ibid., p. 123.

14 “complete failure”: Ibid., p. 140.

15 “appearance that would have”: Ibid., p. 141.

16 “rudely staring at anyone”: Ibid.

17 “almost the same build”: Ibid., p. 146.

18 “The difficulty of obtaining”: J. C. Masterman, The Double Cross System in the War of 1939–1945 (London, 1972), p. 137.

19 “one enormous mausoleum”: Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life (London, 1998), p. 60.

20 “gift”: J. C. Masterman, The Double Cross System in the War of 1939–1945, p. 137.

21 “brilliant”: “Obituary” of William Martin, TNA, CAB 154/67.

22 “Keen for more active and dangerous”: Ibid.

23 “a thoroughly good chap”: Undated note, TNA, CAB 154/67.

24 “could sometimes come from head”: Ewen Montagu to Miss Winton of Lloyds Bank, February 29, 1978, Montagu Papers.

25 “a father of the old school”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 154.

26 “a brilliant tour de force”: Ibid.

27 “… at the last moment”: TNA, Records of the War Office (henceforth WO) 106–5921–15.

28 “effort to find a flaw in”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 149.

29 “We decided that a”: Ibid., p. 150.

Chapter Seven: Pam

1 “What on earth are we going to do”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

2 “glaring inconsistencies”: Ibid.

3 “I was frightfully willing”: Ibid.

4 “Don’t run, Miss Leslie!”: Ibid.

5 “In fact, he was trailing me”: Ibid.

6 “charming”: Ewen Montagu, Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p.152.

7 “very attractive”: Draft of Operation Mincemeat report EM and CC, April 27, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

8 “The more attractive girls in”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 152.

9 “I think he had every intention”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

10 “The swimming there was horrible”: Ibid.

11 “quite a collection”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 152.

12 “Uncle John gave specific orders”: Pat Davies (née Trehearne), interview with the author, October 4, 2009.

13 “We were all rather jealous”: Ibid.

14 “I knew it was going to be planted”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

15 “Has anybody else got that”: Ibid.

16 “I never realised how lonely”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, August 17, 1941, Montagu Letters.

17 “How ultra-happy our life was”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, December 30, 1940, Montagu Letters.

18 “You must have gone off”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, December 2, 1940, Montagu Letters.

19 “I am always the gooseberry”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, September 28, 1941, Montagu Letters.

20 “It was a question of whether”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, December 22, 1940, Montagu Letters.

21 “I took a girl from the office”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, April 4, 1942, Montagu Letters.

22 “skinny and embittered”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

23 “no German could resist the ‘Englishness’”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 152.

24 “achieved the thrill and pathos”: Ibid.

25 “P.L. from W.M. 14.4.43”: TNA, WO 106–5921–19.

26 “We will insert the legacy of £50”: Montagu, The Man Who Never Was, p. 156.

27 “since the wife’s family will not”: Ibid.

28 “The nearer the approach”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619.

29 “He is very old”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, November 13, 1942, Montagu Letters.

30 “He was the world’s prize shit”: Ewen Montagu to Captain A. N. Grey, June 24, 1980, Montagu Papers.

31 “the unhoped for benefit”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

32 “preparation and devising”: Ibid.

33 “was entirely unsupervised”: Ibid.

34 “‘How will that argument’”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 90.

35 “There was almost complete”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

36 “Masterman raised the question”: Ibid.

37 “execution subcommittee”: Ibid.

38 “the only deceptioneer”: Ibid.

39 “enthusiasm for all things Russian”: TNA, archives of the Security Service, MI5 (henceforth KV2) 598.

40 “We have had a request”: Ibid.

41 “the keenest players”: Ibid.

42 “Dear Comrade Trotsky”: Ivor Montagu to Leon Trotsky, July 1, 1929, Montagu Collection, Labour History Archive and Study Centre (People’s History Museum).

43 “like Edinburgh at its worst”: Ivor Montagu Autobiography.

44 “Two Turkish policemen”: Ibid.

45 “to put under my pillow”: Ibid.

46 “I did not know what precautions”: Ibid.

47 “The memory I shall always”: Ibid

48 “fascinating and commanding”: Ibid.

49 “repelled by his self-admiration”: Ibid.

50 “I felt I understood”: Ibid.

51 “Ivor Montagu has”: Leon Trotsky to Reg Groves, July 13, 1932, TNA, KV2/598.

52 “Montagu has for some time”: Security Service memo, May 10, 1926, TNA, KV2/598.

53 “Montagu has dark curly hair”: Ibid.

54 “What is the use of living”: Ivor Montagu Autobiography.

55 “Last night Ivor came to dinner”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 30, 1942, Montagu Letters.

56 “He is simply enormous”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, August 8, 1940, Montagu Letters.

57 “Ivor is really bad”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, December 12, 1940, Montagu Letters.

58 “He is busy working for the Russian”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 30, 1942, Montagu Letters.

59 “knew in advance practically”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 30.

60 “that particularly unpleasant”: Security Service memo, RHH to DP (unidentified), March 3, 1942, TNA, KV2/599.

61 “I have met representatives”: TNA, records of the Government Code and Cypher School (henceforth HW) 15/43.

62 “Intelligentsia considers there is”: Ibid.

63 “influential relatives”: TNA, Ibid.

64 “Intelligentsia has not yet found”: Ibid.

65 “Although one is somewhat deaf”: J. B. S. Haldane, What Is Life (London, 1949), p. 32.

66 “I think that Marxism”: J. B. S. Haldane, The Marxist Philosophy and the Sciences (New York, 1939), p. 4.

67 “Intelligentsia has handed over”: TNA, HW 15/43.

68 “three military sources”: Ibid.

69 “reported that a girl”: Ibid.

70 “that this was a matter”: Ibid.

71 “an officer of the air ministry”: Ibid.

72 “The coastal defence is”: Ibid.

73 “30 Sausage Dealer bombers”: Ibid.

74 “he still seems to be going on with”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 11, 1941, Montagu Letters.

75 “Intelligentsia has reported”: TNA, HW 15/43.

Chapter Eight: The Butterfly Collector

1 “We felt that we knew”: Ewen Montagu, Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 160.

2 “an incurable romantic”: Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (London, 2009), p. 285.

3 “joined up to go to sea”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 20.

4 “Ewen lived the part”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

5 “He wrote me endless letters”: Ibid.

6 “Till death us do part”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 168.

7 “Pam dearest”: Ewen Montagu to Jean Leslie, undated, courtesy of Jean Gerard Leigh.

8 “The girl from the Elms”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, January 9, 1943, Montagu Letters.

9 “One of her appealing virtues”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 29, 1943, Montagu Letters.

10 “She has been much connected”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, April 15, 1943, Montagu Letters.

11 “I took the girl from the Elms”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, March 15, 1943, Montagu Letters.

12 “I feel definitely that you ought”: Ibid.

13 “If Mother did touch my things”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 29, 1943, Montagu Letters.

14 “I told her truthfully that it was”: Ibid.

15 “writing in her letters”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 168.

16 “would not carry enough weight”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 442.

17 “to fake documents of a sufficiently”: Ewen Montagu to Thomas Thibeault, March 18, 1980, Montagu Papers.

18 “a crooked lawyer’s dream of heaven”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 150.

19 “bone from the neck up”: Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 130.

20 “as if he had just had a steam bath”: Ibid., pp. 130–131.

21 “Will Eisenhower go ahead”: Ewen Montagu, first draft of letter, February 16, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

22 “So and so—naming a general”: Ibid.

23 “personal and ‘off the record’”: Ibid.

24 “the contents of such a letter”: J. H. Bevan, report to T. A. Robertson, February 12, 1943, TNA, CO/43/66.

25 “almost completely ignorant”: Ewen Montagu, memo, March 5, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/794.

26 “is almost completely inexperienced”: Ewen Montagu, memo, March 5, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/794.

27 “From reports coming out”: German High Command to Command in Tunisia, February 26, 1943, MSS 2180/T.28, IWM 97/4/1, folder #1.

28 “Sicily has now been allowed”: Ewen Montagu, memo, March 5, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/794.

29 “It is much easier”: Ibid.

30 “He still has no deception”: Ibid.

31 “complete failure to”: Ibid.

32 “now in a highly dangerous situation”: Ibid.

33 “It would be a very great pity”: Ewen Montagu to T. A. Robertson, February 16, 1943.

34 “Spanish police records”: Tomas Harris, Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (London, 2004), p. 38.

35 “worked in military intelligence”: Jimmy Burns, Papa Spy: Love, Faith and Betrayal in Wartime Spain (London, 2009), p. 232.

36 “a Spaniard to Spaniards”: Ian Colvin, The Unknown Courier (London, 1953), pp. 98–99.

37 “because of his enormous”: Hector Lindi, Gibraltar Chronicle, August 1989.

38 “no more than a smattering of sea experience”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

39 “padding about Madrid”: Colvin, Unknown Courier, p. 98.

40 “exceptionally favoured by character”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

41 “He was invaluable”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

42 “privileges and facilities”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

43 “Spain contained a large”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

44 “Madrid was full of spies”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

45 “danger of the body”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 444.

46 “German influence in Huelva”: Ibid.

47 “a reliable and helpful man”: Ibid.

48 “very pro-German chief of police”: Cyril Mills to Ewen Montagu, November 11, 1983, Montagu Papers.

49 “active and influential”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 444.

50 “The Shadow”: Jesús Ramírez Copeiro del Villar, Huelva en la Guerra Mundial (Huelva, Spain), p. 306.

51 “the viceroys”: Jesús Copeiro del Villar, interview with the author, June 3, 2009.

52 “First the Romans”: Ibid.

53 “the black sheep”: Isabel Naylor, interview with the author, June 3, 2009.

54 “the only clever one in the family”: Ibid.

55 “He didn’t dispute”: Federico Clauss, interview with the author, June 2, 2009.

56 “cold, distant and silent”: Jesús Copeiro del Villar, interview with the author, June 3, 2009.

57 “He was an active and intelligent”: Copeiro del Villar, Huelva, p. 306.

58 “very efficient German agent”: Ewen Montagu to Lynne Gladstone-Miller, November 1, 1983, Montagu Papers.

59 “super-super efficient agent”: Ewen Montagu, “History of Section 17M (Now Section 12Z),” October 26, 1942, Montagu Papers.

60 “first rate”: Ewen Montagu to Lynne Gladstone-Miller, November 1, 1983, Montagu Papers.

61 “No ship can move without being”: Montagu, “History of Section 17M.”

62 “one of the most difficult”: J. C. Masterman, cited in David Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets (London, 1999), p. 94.

63 “the tiniest jewel in the imperial”: TNA, KV4/260.

64 “mercenary instincts were”: Ibid.

65 “increased and spread”: Ewen Montagu, “History of Section 17M,” October 26, 1942, Montagu Papers.

66 “in all Spanish and Spanish owned ports”: Ibid.

67 “one of the most important”: Copeiro del Villar, Huelva, p. 306.

68 “sufficient evidence can be obtained”: Draft of Operation Mincemeat Report, EM and CC, 27 April 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

69 “They would have to”: Ibid.

70 “washing ashore of any”: Ibid.

71 “was to be told the outline of the plan”: Ibid.

Chapter Nine: My Dear Alex

1 “owing to the need for placing”: Charles Cholmondeley, Memo 6a, TNA, W0 106/5921.

2 “if the body were dropped in this way”: Ibid.

3 “come in from out at sea”: Ibid.

4 “After the body has been”: Ibid.

5 “technical difficulties in keeping”: Ibid.

6 “Of these methods”: Ibid.

7 “unswerving logic of the German”: Ben Macintyre, For Your Eyes Only, p. 108.

8 “if most of the oxygen had previously”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 446.

9 “keep perfectly satisfactorily”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, March 26, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

10 “an enormous thermos flask”: Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 126.

11 “HANDLE WITH CARE”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

12 “the Spaniards and Portuguese”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

13 “the tides in that area”: Ibid.

14 “wind between S and W”: Hydrographer’s Report, March 22, 1943, TNA, W0 106/5921.

15 “if it did not strand”: Ibid.

16 “The currents on the coast”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, March 23, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

17 “I am not quite clear as to who”: J. H. Bevan to Ewen Montagu, March 1, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

18 “thinking it couldn’t come off”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

19 “Mincemeat will be taken out”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, March 26, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

20 “All the details are now ‘buttoned up’”: Ibid.

21 “alteration and improvement”: Ibid.

22 “more personal”: J. H. Bevan to A. Nye, April 8, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

23 “a letter in answer to one from”: Ewen Montagu draft of letter, April 6, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

24 “should not be undertaken”: Admiralty amendment to official report, June 3, 1945, TNA, CAB 154/67.

25 “rather too official”: J. H. Bevan to A. Nye, April 10, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

26 “we must get Dudley Clarke’s”: J. H. Bevan, memo TNA, CAB 154/67.

27 “danger of overloading”: Dudley Clarke to J. H. Bevan, April 2, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

28 “a mistake to play for high”: Admiralty amendment to official report, June 3, 1945, TNA, CAB 154/67.

29 “If anything miscarries”: J. H. Bevan, memo, April 12, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

30 “merely a lowish grade innuendo”: Excised paragraph 13 in “Draft History of Operation Mincemeat,” May 29, 1943, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #2.

31 “Mincemeat should be capable”: Admiralty amendment to official report, June 3, 1945, TNA, CAB 154/67.

32 “of a type which could have”: Excised paragraph 14 in “Draft History of Operation Mincemeat,” May 29, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

33 “If it isn’t too much trouble”: Ewen Montagu, undated draft letter, TNA, CAB 154/67.

34 “How are you getting on”: Ibid.

35 “Do you still take the same size”: Ibid.

36 “What is wrong with Monty?”: Ibid.

37 “the best way of giving it”: Ewen Montagu, draft letter, April 6, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

38 “ideally suited to the purpose”: Ibid.

39 “not blatantly mentioned”: Ewen Montagu, memo, April 4, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

40 “Your signature in ink might”: J. H. Bevan to A. Nye, April 8, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

41 “General Wilson is referred to”: Ibid.

42 “I referred to him variously”: A. Nye to J. H. Bevan, April 14, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

43 “I would never have written”: A. Nye to Ewen Montagu, April 26, 1954, Montagu Papers.

44 “P.S. We saw you on the cinema”: Ibid.

45 “might help to strike”: Ibid.

46 “Now I hope your friends”: A. Nye to J. H. Bevan, April 14, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

47 “a truly magnificent letter”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 135.

48 “It’s too velvety-arsed and Rolls Royce”: Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 52.

49 “laboured”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 143.

50 “I thought that that sort of joke”: Ibid.

51 “Papers actually on the body”: Charles Cholmondeley, memo, February 10, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67, p. 229.

52 “the Chiefs of Staff have approved”: TNA, CAB 154/67.

53 “To my surprise I was ushered”: J. H. Bevan, handwritten account, undated [April 15, 1943], TNA, CAB 154/67.

54 “In the higher ranges of Secret Service”: Ben Macintyre, For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond (London, 2008), p. 58.

55 “Of course there’s a possibility”: Conversation recalled by Randolph Churchill in conversation with J. H. Bevan, recorded in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory (London, 1981), p. 389.

56 “Weed-killer goes into the lungs”: Ibid.

57 “took much interest”: J. H. Bevan, handwritten account, undated [April 15, 1943], TNA, CAB 154/67.

58 “I pointed out that there”: Ibid.

59 “In that case, we shall”: Ibid.

60 “General Eisenhower gives full”: Telegram IZ 1416, Received 1620, April 17, 1943, Freedom Algiers to Air Ministry, TNA, CAB 154/67.

Chapter Ten: Table-Tennis Traitor

1 “I get more and more optimistic”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, January 24, 1943, Montagu Letters.

2 “We ought by the time”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, November 13, 1942, Montagu Letters.

3 “Mincemeat is in the making”: Guy Liddell, The Guy Liddell Diaries, 1939–1945, vol. 2, ed. Nigel West (London, 2005), p. 45.

4 “Plan Mincemeat has been approved”: Ibid., p. 67.

5 “in close touch with many Russians”: TNA, KV2/599.

6 “an incurable anti-nationalist”: Ibid.

7 “facilities for sport were far greater”: Ibid.

8 “men of decidedly foreign”: Ibid.

9 “did not think Montagu would get”: Ibid.

10 “his association with the Russians”: Ibid.

11 “an active Fifth Columnist”: Ibid.

12 “he is always very keen”: Ibid.

13 “has a wooden hut”: Ibid.

14 “It does not seem desirable”: Ibid.

15 “whether this refusal is”: Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 357, no. 23, March 14, 1940.

16 “I myself have registered”: TNA, KV2/599.

17 “most undesirable that he should”: Ibid.

18 “Intelligentsia lives in the”: TNA, HW 15/43.

19 “as a criminal conspiracy”: Ibid.

20 “known to be queer in any other way”: Ibid.

21 “The reason for our tentative interest”: Ibid.

22 “Bulgarian police authorities”: Ibid.

23 “Hanno-ball”: Ibid.

24 “certain net-stretchers”: Ibid.

25 “suspected of running an illegal”: Ibid.

26 “be using the channel of international”: Ibid.

27 “I know this all seems very trivial”: Ibid.

28 “I had no great faith in the records”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 48.

29 “How is the table tennis going?”: Ibid., p. 49.

30 “That’s my communist”: Ibid.

31 “special examiners”: History of Operation Mincemeat, April 10, 1945, TNA, CAB 154/67.

32 “if the lash was gone”: Jesús Ramírez Copeiro dell Villar, Huelva en la Guerra Mundial (Huelva, Spain, 1996), p. 426.

33 “Mine were used for Major Martin’s”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 149.

34 “an ordinary black Government”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 449.

35 “horribly phoney”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 145.

36 “the use of a chain to the bag”: Charles Cholmondeley, memo, February 10, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67, p. 229.

37 “little or no wreckage floated”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

38 “for simplification and for security”: Ibid.

39 “might have been the twin brother”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p.141.

40 “far more like”: Draft manuscript, Man, IWM 97/45/2.

41 “heartily disliked”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 160.

42 “odd psychological reaction”: Ibid.

43 “told to report to the intelligence”: N. L. A. Jewell, audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

44 “normal final training”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

45 “Mincemeat sails 19th April”: TNA, CAB 154/67.

46 “enable the operation to be carried”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

47 “In wartime, any plan that saved”: N. L. A. Jewell, audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

48 “the vital need for secrecy”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 450.

49 “packed, fully clothed and ready”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

50 “as the steel is made of light gauge”: Memo, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

51 “held a super-secret automatic”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 450.

52 “we suspected the Germans”: Ibid.

53 “Lt Jewell was to impress”: Ibid.

54 “between Portil Pillar and Punta Umbria”: Ibid., p. 445.

55 “Every effort should be made”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1942, TNA, ADM 223/464.

56 “the submarine could probably”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

57 “the proposed use of a flare was dropped”: Ibid.

58 “on specially prepared slides”: Ibid.

59 “The container should then be opened”: Ibid.

60 “When the body is removed”: Ibid.

61 “near the body but not too near”: Ibid.

62 “the body and container”: Ibid.

63 “care must be taken that”: Ibid.

64 “Cancel Mincemeat”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

65 “Mincemeat completed”: Ibid.

66 “a pleasant time building up”: N. L. A. Jewell, audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

67 “making a life for the Major of Marines”: Ibid.

68 “I had the enjoyment”: Ibid.

69 “Mincemeat sails”: Chaucer to Goldbranson, April 15, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

Chapter Eleven: Gold Prospector

1 “Adventure was once a noble”: Alan Hillgarth, Men of War (London, 1926), p. 34.

2 “a young man called Alan Hillgarth”: Evelyn Waugh, Diaries (London, 1995), July 1, 1927.

3 “steep hill all covered”: Daniel Buck, “Tales of Glitter or Dust,” Americas, vol. 52, May 2000.

4 “a large stone shaped like an egg”: Ibid.

5 “that took five hundred men”: Ibid.

6 “enough strong poison to kill”: Ibid.

7 “reputed by the local Indians”: J. B. S. Meadows, “Sacambaya,” St. Barts Journal, January 1929, p. 58.

8 “squarish man with conspicuously”: Buck, “Tales of Glitter or Dust,” Americas.

9 “record themselves on a photographic”: Report of Sacambaya Company, April 23, 1929, courtesy of Tristan Hillgarth.

10 “the definite location of a strong”: Ibid.

11 “men who had had considerable”: Ibid.

12 “Sacambaya is a poisonous place”: Ibid.

13 “protection against the often”: Ibid.

14 “across 20 miles of pretty”: Ibid.

15 “This is the furthest outpost”: Ibid.

16 “This was quite an undertaking”: Ibid.

17 “one case containing 200 lbs”: Ibid.

18 “100 feet into the hillside”: Ibid.

19 “A complete absence of fresh fruit”: J. B. S. Meadows, “Sacambaya,” St. Barts Journal, January 1929, p. 59.

20 “One of our party awakened”: Ibid.

21 “Claustrophobia brought on by”: Ibid.

22 “He has fallen seriously in love”: Edgar Sanders to Alan Hillgarth, January 5, 1929, courtesy of Tristan Hillgarth.

23 “either by the hotel people or the police”: Ibid.

24 “No body of men could have”: Report of Sacambaya Company.

25 “he doubled up as spy”: Jimmy Burns, Papa Spy: Love, Faith and Betrayal in Wartime Spain (London, 2009), p. 22.

26 “an intense bombardment which”: Captain Alan Hillgarth (then British consul in Palma), note on the surrender of Menorca, translated from Catalan by Tristan Hillgarth.

27 “a decisive German victory over Russia”: Alan Hillgarth, memo, July 13, 1942, TNA, ADM 223/478.

28 “very good”: Denis Smyth, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

29 “equipped with a profound knowledge”: Ibid.

30 “privately about anything interesting”: Alan Hillgarth, memo, TNA, ADM 223/490.

31 “useful petard and a good war-winner”: Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming (London, 1996), p. 158.

32 “the embodiment of drive”: David Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets (London, 1999), p. 110.

33 “secret funds that were made available”: Kim Philby, My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy (London, 1968), p. 54.

34 “helped to feed the gallant”: Ibid.

35 “local police, dock watchmen and stevedores”: Alan Hillgarth Report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

36 “expendable parts of Hitler’s war machine”: Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 92.

37 “took corruption for granted”: John Brooks, “Annals of Finance,” New Yorker, May 21, 1979.

38 “the last pirate of the Mediterranean”: Ibid.

39 “It would be a mistake to trust him an inch”: Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 90.

40 “He has already had two German agents shot”: Ibid.

41 “an amphibious car”: “Spanish Help to the Germans,” records of NID12, TNA, ADM 223/490.

42 “There was not a Spaniard who would not”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

43 “The Cavalry of St George”: Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 93.

44 “We must not lose them now”: Ibid., p. 96.

45 “his approval can safely be assumed”: Ibid., p. 100.

46 “German victory would mean servitude”: Donald McLachlan, Room 39: Naval Intelligence in Action 1939–45 (London, 1968), p. 194.

47 “the Spaniard is xenophobic and suspicious”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

48 “I am finding Hillgarth a great prop”: Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 96.

49 “a natural sympathy”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

50 “Handling Spaniards is a special”: Ibid.

51 “will be at a very definite”: Ibid.

52 “Even during the worst of the war”: Ibid.

53 “very reliable and well placed”: Ewen Montagu, report, August 21, 1945, TNA, ADM 223/794.

54 “to supply intelligence which”: Ibid.

55 “might compromise a very”: Ibid.

56 “The items were so chosen”: Ibid.

57 “Messig swallowed the stories”: Ibid.

58 “It was a delicate job”: Ibid.

59 “copies of all our telegrams”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p.121.

60 “It seemed that the listening”: Ibid.

61 “Only by naval ciphers”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

62 “suborned by a woman in German pay”: Ibid.

63 “kept lists of everyone”: Burns, Papa Spy, p. 190.

64 “The Germans would have someone”: Tristan Hillgarth, interview with the author, January 13, 2009.

65 “very amateurish and inefficient”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

66 “Our deportment towards the German”: Ibid.

67 “The circumstances of his release”: Rankin, Churchill’s Wizards, p. 346.

68 “Wrangal Craker”: Deceiving Hitler: Double Cross and Deception in World War II (London 2008), p. 142.

69 “Herewith some photographs”: Rankin, Churchill’s Wizards, p. 349.

70 “sound in mind”: Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler, p. 143.

71 “he is just the type who imagines”: Ibid.

72 “It is time to pass from the defensive”: Alan Hillgarth to Edmund Rushbrooke, TNA, ADM 223/490.

73 “more or less any naval intelligence”: Ibid.

74 “the Axis was allowed with little”: Ibid.

75 “I have found a good man”: Ibid.

76 “All operations are, if I may say so”: Ibid.

77 “You and your staff have shown”: Edmund Rushbrooke to Alan Hillgarth, TNA, ADM 223/490.

78 “undesirable and unnecessary”: Ibid.

Chapter Twelve: The Spy Who Baked Cakes

1 “ubiquitous”: Tomas Harris, Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (London, 2004), p. 18.

2 “All classes were represented”: “Spanish Help to the Germans,” records of NID12, TNA, ADM 223/490.

3 “In the higher ranks there”: Ibid.

4 “Indeed, the reports went”: TNA, ADM 223/490.

5 “particulars on each”: Kim Philby, My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy (London, 1968), pp. 54–55.

6 “for a very large sum”: Ibid.

7 “precious source”: Ibid.

8 “very high indeed”: Ibid.

9 “I had to fight to get an extra £5”: Ibid.

10 “the cause of death”: Ian Colvin, The Unknown Courier (London, 1953), p. 42.

11 “examined hundreds of corpses”: Ibid., p. 41.

12 “Nothing happened in the Abwehr station”: MI5 interrogation of captured Abwehr officer Hans Joachim Rudolph, in Kühlenthal MI5 files, TNA, KV2/102.

13 “fleshy, boneless cheeks”: Ibid.

14 “curved hawk-like”: Ibid.

15 “blue piercing eyes”: Ibid.

16 “a dark brown French four-seater”: Ibid.

17 “carefully manicured”: Ibid.

18 “a very efficient, ambitious”: Harris, Garbo, p. 69

19 “contrived to push Leissner”: TNA, KV2/102.

20 “became a mere figurehead.: Ibid.

21 “He was an extremely able man”: Ibid.

22 “the esteem and reputation”: Ibid.

23 “by far the best man in Group I”: Ibid.

24 “sent a personal message”: Ibid.

25 “extremely busy and that his visit”: Harris, Garbo, p. 46.

26 “careful not to underestimate”: Ibid., p. 50.

27 “would be a very long war”: Ibid., p. Ibid.

28 “There are people in Glasgow”: Ibid., p. 58.

29 “We have absolute trust in you”: Ibid., p. 250.

30 “My dear friend and comrade”: Ibid., p. 257.

31 “the democratic-Jewish-Masonic”: Ibid.

32 “England must be taken by arms”: Ibid., p. 237.

33 “With a raised arm I end this letter”: Ibid.

34 “His characteristic German lack”: Ibid., p. 70.

35 “the star turn”: Ibid., p. 128.

36 “With good wishes to Odette”: Ibid.

37 “I did the lettering myself”: Ibid.

38 “made cakes which were unpleasant”: Ibid.

39 “vast information” Ibid.

40 “As a keen and efficient officer”: Ibid., p. 69.

41 “We had the satisfaction of knowing”: Ibid.

42 “the many incredible things we ask”: Ibid., p. 95.

43 “the more sensational the reports”: Ibid., p. 146.

44 “In some cases where messages”: Ibid.

45 “Felipe had become our mouthpiece”: Ibid., p. 72.

46 “an invaluable channel”: Ibid.

47 “conviction that the Isle of Man”: Most Secret Source report, TNA, KV2/102.

48 “invented by Felipe himself”: TNA, KV2/102.

49 “The information provided”: TNA, KV2/102.

50 “one of the people who make up”: Guy Liddell, The Guy Liddell Diaries, 1939–1945, ed. Nigel West (London, 2005), March 10, 1944, p. 179.

51 “There are officers in Spain”: Statement of Josef Ledebur-Wichelin at Camp 020, November 25, 1944, TNA, KV2/102.

52 “leaving a good job as manager”: TNA, KV2/102

53 “he could not serve in the Army”: TNA, KV2/102.

54 “Aryanised”: TNA, KV2/102.

55 “He has been created an Aryan”: Telegram Berlin to Madrid, July 18, 1941, TNA, KV2/102.

56 “since there appeared to be no”: Telegram Berlin to Madrid, May 4, 1941, TNA, KV2/102.

57 “to let the matter drop”: Most Secret Source report, November 5, 1941, TNA, KV2/102.

58 “in the pay of the British Secret Service”: TNA, KV2/102.

59 “refused to take the report seriously”: TNA, KV2/102.

60 “cold and reserved”: TNA, KV2/102.

61 “Appearance: nervous, uncertain”: TNA, KV2/102.

62 “Kühlenthal is trembling to keep”: Statement of Josef Ledebur-Wichelin at Camp 020, November 25, 1944, TNA, KV2/102.

Chapter Thirteen: Mincemeat Sets Sail

1 “national importance”: Basil Leverton, interview with the author, September 8, 2009.

2 “I was not to divulge”: Ivor Leverton, unpublished diary, courtesy of Andrew Leverton.

3 “phone call from St. Pancras”: Ibid.

4 “I was still in fairly good shape”: Ibid.

5 “removal coffins”: Andrew Leverton, interview with the author, January 27, 2009.

6 “must have stood 6′4″ inches tall”: Ivor Leverton, letters to Daily Telegraph, August 13, 2002.

7 “left our passenger”: Ivor Leverton, unpublished diary.

8 “a mortuary-keeper on whom”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

9 “made it as easy as possible”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 450.

10 “I’ve got it”: Robert Jackson, Coroner: The Biography of Sir Bentley Purchase (London, 1963), p. 149.

11 “the least pleasant part of our work”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 160.

12 “We decided Bill Martin and Pam”: Ibid., p. 162.

13 “Get an army blanket”: Jackson, Coroner, p. 149.

14 “lightly tied with tape”: Ibid.

15 “reverently”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 162.

16 “a shirt and tie”: Ian Girling, “The Horsfall Story: A Tribute,” Aston Martin Magazine, vol. 33, no. 142, Spring 1999.

17 “went berserk”: Ibid.

18 “potentially lethal pieces of metal”: Ibid.

19 “The scream that Kath gave”: Ibid.

20 “I gave her time to start her piddle”: Ibid.

21 “he claimed to have done 100 mph”: John Otter, letter to Daily Telegraph, August 15, 2002.

22 “one of us sitting”: Draft manuscript of The Man Who Never Was, IWM 97/45/2.

23 “had supper with a corpse parked”: Ibid.

24 “much better story”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 163.

25 “partially ‘in the know’”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 450.

26 “being accepted as merely being”: Ibid.

27 “By this time Major Martin”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 160.

28 “We had come to feel”: Ibid.

29 “news such as can be written”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, April 24, 1943, Montagu Letters.

30 “I had to go up to Scotland”: Ibid.

31 “I was to see that this package”: David Scott, “The Man That Never Was: Operation Mincemeat,” Reminiscences of Sir David Scott, Churchill Archives, DKNS II, p. 2.

32 “It was a real thrill”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished account, October 7, 1976, Montagu Papers.

33 “Spring was on the way”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 3.

34 “trim dive”: Ibid.

35 “A final exchange of ‘Good Luck’”: Ibid.

36 “Monotony never really set in”: Ibid.

37 “We were never short of meat”: Ibid.

38 “John Brown’s Body”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 169.

39 “our pal Charlie”: Terence Robertson, The Ship with Two Captains: The Story of the “Secret Mission Submarine” (London, 1957), p. 124.

40 “epitome of what a submarine captain”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 4.

41 “At that time, the chances of returning”: Ibid.

42 “I realised with a bit of a shock”: Ibid.

43 “bashed-in sort of face”: John Parker, SBS: The Story of the Special Boat Service (London, 1997), p. 19.

44 “Your American gum”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 92.

45 “a happy augury for the future”: Terence Robertson, The Ship with Two Captains: The Story of the “Secret Mission Submarine” (London, 1957), p. 92.

46 “a two-fisted fighting man”: N. L. A. Jewell, as told to Cecil Carnes, Secret Mission Submarine: Action Report of the HMS Seraph (London, 1944), p. 101.

47 “We’ll fight an army on a dare”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 82.

48 “always conspicuously”: Citation for Distinguished Service Cross.

49 “I think we can do it”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 106.

50 “sink on sight any vessel”: Ibid.

51 “Put me ashore, give me a gun”: Ibid., p. 110.

52 “constant strain”: Ibid., p. 112.

53 “one grabbed a large”: Ibid.

54 “broken nose”: Ibid.

55 “a lithe, graceful look”: Ibid., p. 124.

56 “We were told that we were not”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

57 “unmistakable sounds”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 5.

58 “We knew that at least”: Ibid.

Chapter Fourteen: Bill’s Farewell

1 “I rushed home”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

2 “absurd”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 167.

3 Bill Martin’s death: TNA, CAB 154/67.

4 “We were terribly agitated”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

5 “as a joke”: Montagu, The Man Who Never Was, p. 167.

6 “gathered from every part”: John Fisher, What a Performance: A Life of Sid Field (London, 1975), p. 85.

7 “definitely ‘a find’”: Ibid., p. 99.

8 “the loudest laughter we”: Ibid., p. 100.

9 “all his jokes are clean”: Ibid.

10 “I’m going to get pickled”: Ibid., p. 96.

11 “an adequate ration of gin”: Ibid., p. 85.

12 “If an Air Raid Warning”: Ibid.

13 “When you feel unhappy”: Ibid., p. 103.

14 “The laughs came like the waves”: Ibid., p. 88.

15 “The weather was warm at last”: David Scott, “The Man That Never Was: Operation Mincemeat,” Reminiscences of Sir David Scott, Churchill Archives, DKNS II, p. 3.

16 “were such that strangers”: Obituary of Michael Luke, Independent, April 19, 2005.

17 “mystery suffused with a tender”: Ibid.

18 “very cheerful evening”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 167.

19 “Considering Bill and Pam are engaged”: Ibid.

20 “It would be different”: Ibid.

21 “They kept looking at their watches”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

22 “I had to go and take”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, April 23, 1943, Montagu Letters.

23 “smitten”: Jean Gerard Leigh, interview with the author, March 5, 2008.

24 “I am glad that Verel”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, June 29, 1943, Montagu Letters.

25 “We were all very excited”: Pat Davies, interview with the author, October 4, 2009.

26 “One patriotic Greek managed”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 368.

27 “hygiene in the Balkans”: Ibid.

28 “no major operation could be”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished critique of Constantine Fitzgibbon, Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (London, 1976), Montagu Papers.

29 “the peak of the Deception effort”: Holt, Deceivers, p. 366.

30 “if they should suspect”: Ewen Montagu, memo, March 31, 1943, TNA, W0 106/5921.

31 “I had to take the can”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

32 “Intelligence, like food”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 91.

33 “with instructions to burn”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

34 “Operation known as Mincemeat”: Telegram from T. A. Robertson, MI5, to DSO Gibraltar, April 22, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

35 “something of a shock”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 4.

36 “sailors had been sleeping”: Ibid.

37 “the vital need for absolute secrecy”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 451.

38 “Isn’t it pretty unlucky”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 170.

39 “a close range reconnaissance”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 4.

40 “easy, even enjoyable”: Ibid.

41 “The operation had to be carried”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

42 “an onshore wind”: Ibid.

43 “The next day turned out to be ideal”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 4.

44 “arrange total bombing restrictions”: Memo, April 15, 1943, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #1.

45 “no known defensive dangers”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

46 “We were just about to surface”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

47 “A large number of small fishing boats”: N. L. A. Jewell report, April 30, 1943, cited in Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 168.

48 “landing some pseudo-secret instruments”: N. L. A. Jewell, operational orders, March 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/464.

49 “crept in a little closer”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 4.

50 “some little stink”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

51 “I doubt if any of them”: Ibid.

52 “I had seen bodies before”: Ibid.

53 “The blanket was opened up”: TNA 223/794.

54 “We seemed to be practically”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 5.

55 “what I could remember”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

56 “With some relief”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 5.

57 “He virtually assured success”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 453.

58 “Because it had been designed”: Ibid.

59 “riddled by fire”: Ibid.

60 “He did this with his usual skill”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 5.

61 “a hell of a time”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

62 “Daylight was fast approaching”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 5.

63 “It then disappeared, finally”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

64 “it was seen to sink”: N. L. A. Jewell Report, April 30, 1943, cited in Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 168.

65 “We dived and set course for Gibraltar”: Scott, “Man That Never Was,” p. 5.

66 “Mincemeat Completed”: TNA, ADM 223/794.

67 “Parcel delivered safely”: Terence Robertson, The Ship with Two Captains: The Story of the “Secret Mission Submarine” (London, 1957), p. 117.

Chapter Fifteen: Dulce et Decorum

1 “G VI R and the royal crown”: IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

2 “which had penetrated the muscles”: Ibid.

3 “should telephone to him at Madrid”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

4 “would say that he could not talk”: Ibid.

5 “a separate series in his personal cipher”: Ewen Montagu to Fitzroy McLean, March 30, 1977, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

6 “energetically”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 445.

7 “Soup Bowl”: Jesús Ramírez Copeiro del Villar, Huelva en la Guerra Mundial (Huelva, Spain, 1996), p. 411.

8 “examined the names on the envelopes”: IWM, 97/45/1, folder #2, Appendix III.

9 “react swiftly”: Copeiro del Villar, Huelva, p. 422.

10 “Well, your superior might not like”: Ibid.

11 “attitude, in refusing the briefcase”: Ibid.

12 “of an English pattern”: Telegram to von Roenne from FHW, May 22, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 207.

13 “There are clearly two”: Ibid.

14 “On the first incision being made”: Edward Smith (former head of Reporting Organisation Section, NID) to Ewen Montagu, June 5, 1969, IWM.

15 “remarkable presence of mind”: Ibid.

16 “Since it was obvious the heat”: Ibid.

17 “On receiving this assurance”: Ibid.

18 “The young British officer fell in the water”: Copeiro del Villar, Huelva, p. 414.

19 “nibbling and bites by fish”: Ibid.

20 “The shininess of the hair”: Ibid.

21 “doubt over the nature of the liquid”: Ibid.

22 “He seemed very well dressed”: Isabel Naylor, interview with the author, June 3, 2009.

23 “identical”: Telegram to von Roenne from FHW, May 22, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 207.

24 “that a bald patch on the temples”: Ibid.

25 “either the photograph was taken”: Ibid.

26 “With reference to my phone message”: Unsigned telegram 012210 sent at 20.30 on May 1, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/794.

27 “so that the action for suppressing”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 457.

28 “the suppression of the signal”: Ibid.

29 “taken into naval custody”: Ewen Montagu to Cyril Mills, November 11, 1983, Montagu Papers.

30 “The Spanish navy is not in German”: Ewen Montagu to “C,” June 21, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

31 “a rigid disciplinarian”: Copeiro del Villar, Huelva, p. 422.

32 “suffocating heat”: Ibid., p. 414.

33 “as a mark of respect”: Federico Clauss, interview with the author, June 2, 2009.

34 “W. Martin, aged between 35 and 40”: Copeiro del Villar, Huelva, p. 420.

35 “Class Five”: Ibid.

Chapter Sixteen: Spanish Trails

1 “do everything necessary”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

2 “Notwithstanding his great desire”: Ibid.

3 “These three persons are in command”: Ibid.

4 “intimate friend”: Ibid.

5 “nursed a profound antipathy”: Jesús Ramírez Copeiro del Villar, Huelva en la Guerra Mundial (Huelva, Spain, 1996), p. 286.

6 “did not dare to ask the naval judge”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

7 “In Huelva, Don Adolfo”: Federico Clauss, interview with the author, June 2, 2009.

8 “neither copied nor photographed”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

9 “I am glad to say the naval”: Alan Hillgarth to Ewen Montagu, June 9, 1943, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #1.

10 “Some of papers Major Martin”: Department of Naval Intelligence to NA, telegram 04132, May 4, 1943, TNA, W0 106/5921, p. 32.

11 “Carry out instructions”: Telegram 869, May 4, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

12 “kept on such a plane”: Ewen Montagu, “Draft Proposal for Compiler of MI5 History,” July 24, 1945, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #1.

13 “searching but discreet”: Ibid.

14 “Rumours are extremely easy”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/478.

15 “select from among his acquaintance”: Ibid.

16 “sincerely anti-war”: TNA, ADM 223/876.

17 “I managed to make the Minister”: Alan Hillgarth, report, TNA, ADM 223/490.

18 “that the Minister of Marine”: Alan Hillgarth, May 5, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

19 “Vice Consul Huelva saw body”: NA [naval attaché] to Department of Naval Intelligence, May 5, 1943, 1823, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

20 “Secret papers probably in black”: Department of Naval Intelligence to NA [naval attaché], telegram 071216, May 7, 1943, TNA, W0 106/5921, p. 33.

21 “Normally you would be getting”: Ewen Montagu to NA [naval attaché] Madrid, telegram 870, May 6, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

22 “Understood and acted on throughout”: IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

23 “promised to obtain copies”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

24 “discreet inquiries whether any”: Alan Hillgarth memo, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

25 “As the local Germans were not able”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

26 “summoned to Villarreal de San Antonio”: Ibid.

27 “very pro-German and in German pay”: Ibid.

28 “This individual”: Ibid.

29 “to do everything possible to obtain”: Ibid.

30 “Urging him to use the utmost”: Ibid.

31 “accurate information regarding”: Ibid.

32 “either because they were afraid”: Ibid.

33 “Either because of the junior rank”: Ibid.

34 “forwarded, unopened”: ABW 2282/43 CAB 154/101.

35 “only scanty information”: J. H. Bevan, memo, May 3, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

36 “Mincemeat was found by”: Ibid.

37 “We sweat away, 11 of us”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

38 “It is requested that I may”: Undated note, Montagu Papers.

39 “I always was a selfish shit”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

40 “I have never been able”: Ibid.

41 “If I had made a slip in the preparation”: Ibid.

42 “Official procedure is always”: NA [naval attaché] to Department of Naval Intelligence, May 5, 1943, 1823, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

43 “informed that they had not”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

44 “Again they failed”: Ibid.

45 “an official of the [Cádiz] Marine”: ABW 2282/43, CAB 154/101.

46 “did not dare approach”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

47 “an assiduous worker for the Germans”: Ibid.

48 “that he had heard about the body”: Ibid.

49 “many privileges and facilities”: Ibid.

50 “unable to obtain any fresh”: Ibid.

51 “certain high officials in the police”: Ibid.

52 “Great interest was aroused”: Ibid.

53 “Groizar fostered this interest”: Ibid.

54 “One can’t imagine”: Stanley G. Payne, Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II (London, 2008), p. 150.

55 “in the hope that he will come to Spain”: Andros report, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

56 “approaches were made by the Germans”: Ibid.

Chapter Seventeen: Kühlenthal’s Coup

1 “Red Indians”: Macintyre, For Your Eyes Only, p. 32.

2 “a Spanish Staff Officer”: Abw Telegram Nr 2282/43, Spain to FHW, May 15, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/101, p. 203.

3 “with whom we have been in contact”: “Appendix to Operation Mincemeat,” TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 459.

4 “my Spanish agent in the General Staff”: Ian Colvin, The Unknown Courier (London, 1953), p. 95.

5 “case officer”: Abw Telegram Nr 2282/43, Spain to FHW, May 15, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/101, p. 203.

6 “Those seals held the envelopes”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 453.

7 “It was possible to extract”: Report of Special Examiners, May 21, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

8 “The Spaniards had, very intelligently”: “Appendix to Operation Mincemeat,” TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 459.

9 “They seemed to me to be”: Colvin, Unknown Courier, p. 95.

10 “A short white-haired man”: Ibid., p. 34.

11 “These letters mentioned”: Ibid., p. 95.

12 “the strategic considerations”: Ibid.

13 “I took them to the basement”: Ibid.

14 “there was no trace whatever”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 453.

15 “the importance attached to them”: Colvin, Unknown Courier, p. 96.

16 “left Madrid hurriedly for Berlin”: Most Secret Source message, April 7, 1943, TNA, KV2/102.

17 “all the effects and papers”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 453.

18 “They are all there”: NA [naval attaché] Madrid to Department of Naval Intelligence, Telegram 111925, May 12, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

19 “From his manner it was obvious”: Ibid.

20 “It is obvious [that the] contents of [the] bag”: Ibid.

21 “While I do not believe”: Ibid.

22 “If you concur I will ask”: Ibid.

23 “the genuineness of the report”: Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 6.

24 “He is absolutely sick of the generals”: Ibid.

25 “Behind his rimless spectacles”: David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (New York, 2000), p. 424.

26 “The Germans studied each phrase”: Ewen Montagu, “Draft Proposal for Compiler of MI5 History,” July 24, 1945, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

27 “Discovery of the English Courier”: TNA, CAB 154/101, p. 200.

28 “On the corpse of an English courier”: Ibid.

29 “an experienced specialist”: Ibid.

30 “Large scale amphibious operations”: Ibid.

31 “A jocular remark in this letter”: Ibid.

32 “The proposed cover operation”: Ibid.

33 “operation could be mounted”: Ibid.

34 “still in action”: Ibid.

35 “must first be rested”: Ibid.

36 “at least two or three weeks”: Ibid.

37 “It is known to the British Staff”: Ibid.

38 “It is, therefore, to be hoped”: Ibid.

39 “initiate a misleading plan”: Ibid.

40 “News of this discovery will”: Ibid.

41 “The circumstances of the discovery”: Ibid.

42 “unless these were clearly”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 102.

43 “wishfulness”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 10.

Chapter Eighteen: Mincemeat Digested

1 “Hitler had implicit faith”: David Alan Johnson, Righteous Deception: German Officers Against Hitler (Westport, Conn., 2001), p. 77.

2 “the Western allies would protest”: Ibid.

3 “exactly what Hitler wanted to hear”: Ibid.

4 “Hitler was greatly impressed”: Ibid.

5 “It was his mission to produce”: Ibid. p. 78.

6 “an intellectual but”: David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (New York, 2000), p. 426.

7 “because of their origins”: Ibid.

8 “if Germany should give in to”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 101.

9 “his way of fighting the Nazi war”: Johnson, Righteous Deception, p.

10 “In a moment now I shall be going”: Cited in Albert Edward Day, Dialogue and Destiny (New York, 1981), p. 91.

11 “absolutely convincing proof”: TNA, CAB 154/101, p. 200.

12 “resounding Abwehr success”: Ibid.

13 “frousty, peevish and petulant”: John Godfrey, “Afterthoughts,” TNA, ADM 223/619, p. 63.

14 “he had to duck each time he had”: TNA, ADM 223/792.

15 “surprising that we only have five”: Ibid.

16 “an enemy landing on a large scale”: Most Secret Source report 2571/ T4, TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 456.

17 “a source which may be regarded”: Ibid.

18 “It is very unusual for an intelligence”: Naval Intelligence Department 12 report, September 2, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

19 “So far as I can recollect”: Ibid.

20 “Everyone jumped up and down”: Pat Davies, interview with the author, October 4, 2009.

21 “almost certain”: Most Secret Source report 2571/T4, TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 456.

22 “similar details from the letter”: Ibid.

23 “the Germans were reinforcing”: Unpublished note in Montagu Papers, October 7, 1976, IWM 97/45/1, folder #4.

24 “wonderful days”: Ibid.

25 “the right people and from best”: Michael Howard, Grand Strategy (London, 1972), p. 370.

26 “You will be pleased to learn”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 176.

27 “Friday was almost too good”: Ewen Montagu to Iris Montagu, May 16, 1943, Montagu Letters.

28 “proved that we had convinced them”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished, undated account, October 7, 1976, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

29 “According to information”: F. W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism (London, 1962), p. 376.

30 “in strict confidence”: Ibid., p. 377.

31 “Jordana begged me not to”: Ibid.

32 “especially as he wanted”: Ibid.

33 “Christian, couldn’t this be a corpse”: David Irving, Hitler’s War (London, 1977), p. 586.

34 “It is to be expected that”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, p. 377.

35 “the original German appreciation”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 457.

36 “all German commands”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, p. 377.

37 “Where do we go from Sicily?”: Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 14.

38 “The main task which lies before us”: Ibid., p. 15.

39 “War is full of mysteries and surprises”: Ibid., p. 22.

40 “What you think is going”: Ibid., p. 25.

41 “Appetite unbridled”: Ibid.

42 “to a document that had been”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 457.

43 “security flap”: Ibid.

44 “Arrangements could then be made”: Ibid.

45 “We earnestly debated”: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945 (London, 1989), p. 227.

46 “The evaluation office attach special”: TNA, CAB 154/67.

47 “The latter immediately despatched”: Most Secret Source report, May 13, 1943, 1837, Berlin to Madrid Telegram No. 117 for “Samoza,” headed: “Ref your Most secret of 9/5/43,” CAB 154/67.

48 “Oberst Lt. Pardo on the 10th May”: ABW 2282/43, TNA, CAB 154/101.

49 “The result of his investigations”: Ibid.

50 “In contrast to the first statement”: Ibid.

51 “He (the Minister for Marine)”: Ibid.

52 “A search for the remains”: Ibid.

53 “The fishermen state”: Ibid.

54 “A medical examination”: Ibid.

55 “Bag not yet arrived”: Ewen Montagu to Alan Hilgarth, Telegram 877, May 18, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

56 “a small, sealed bag”: Ibid.

57 “Evidence that operation successful”: Ibid.

58 “reported that there was great excitement”: Alan Hillgarth Memo, undated, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

59 “I naturally asked him to find out”: Ibid.

60 “said that immediately he heard”: Alan Hillgarth to DNI, Telegram 171914, part I, TNA, CAB 154/67.

61 “Why did you go to so much trouble?”: Ibid.

62 “I was anxious no one should have”: Ibid.

63 “He obviously did not know”: Alan Hillgarth to DNI, Telegram 171914, part I, TNA, CAB 154/67.

64 “It can be taken as a certainty”: Ibid.

65 “He told me that all his information”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, pp. 377–78.

66 “The operation has given conclusive”: Ewen Montagu, report, May 29, 1943, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #2.

67 “The seals were photographed”: Report of Special Examiners, May 21, 1943, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #5.

68 “Although we can say that there”: Ibid.

69 “sharper than one made in it when”: Ibid.

70 “once symmetrically and secondly”: Ibid.

71 “it was not done on exactly”: Ewen Montagu to producer of The Secret War, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

72 “as the letter began to dry”: Report of Special Examiners, May 21, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

73 “when the letter is folded up”: Ibid.

74 “Inform Minister of Marine as soon”: Department of Naval Intelligence to Naval Attaché Madrid, undated notes, TNA, CAB 154/67 (possibly not sent).

75 “letters [were] in fact opened”: TNA, CAB 154/67.

76 “likely to pass it on”: Ibid

77 “Important there should be no”: Ibid.

Chapter Nineteen: Hitler Loses Sleep

1 “consisted of comments”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 459

2 “No further doubts remain”: Telegram SSDMBBZ 725, TNA, CAB 154/101.

3 “whether the enemy”: Ibid.

4 “urgent”: Ibid.

5 “reply immediately ‘since we’”: Ibid.

6 “It is the opinion”: Ibid.

7 “since only in this case”: Ibid.

8 “absurd”: Ibid.

9 “This shows how wrong a staff”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 459.

10 “comprise the whole of”: Ibid.

11 “be continued after the”: Ibid.

12 “It must be especially”: Ibid.

13 “personal squiggle”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 184.

14 “The Führer does not agree”: F. W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism (London, 1962), p. 379.

15 “It is also clear from documents”: Ibid., p. 383.

16 “Within the next few days”: Ibid. p. 383.

17 “It is very unusual and very difficult”: Michael I. Handel, War Strategy and Intelligence (London, 1989), p. 436.

18 “targets of enemy operation”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, p. 378.

19 “the Allies wanted to advance”: Ibid., p. 379.

20 “You can forget Sicily”: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945 (London, 1989), p. 227.

21 “that the Allied attack”: TNA, CAB 154/67, p. 64.

22 “Allied submarines had received”: Ibid.

23 “forwarded it to Belgrade and Sofia”: Ibid.

24 “The reports coming from”: Ibid., p. 64.

25 “congenital obsession about the Balkans”: Michael Howard, Grand Strategy (London, 1972), p. 92.

26 “In the last few days”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, p. 379.

27 “the danger is that they will establish”: Ibid., p. 380.

28 “as a precaution to take a further”: Ibid.

29 “natural”: Ibid., p. 381.

30 “If a landing takes place”: Ibid.

31 “I have therefore decided”: Ibid.

32 “Sardinia is particularly threatened”: Ibid.

33 “In the event of the loss”: Ibid.

34 “He foresaw that from Sardinia”: Ibid., p. 375.

35 “through the Spaniards and not directly”: IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

36 “The Italian High Command”: IWM, 97/45/1, folder #2.

37 “information from an absolutely”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, p. 386.

38 “There would be troop and transport”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, et al., June 8, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67, p. 64.

39 “German circles here have a story”: NA to Department of Naval Intelligence, June 1, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

40 “The degree of Spanish complicity”: Ewen Montagu, undated draft letter, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

41 “adding to our knowledge of German”: Ewen Montagu to “C,” June 21, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

42 “simultaneous landings in Sardinia”: Crichton to J. H. Bevan, August 4, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

43 “our refrigerated friend”: Ibid.

44 “had come round to the same view”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 378.

45 “camouflage”: Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries (London, 1948), June 25, 1943.

46 “The truth is whatever helps bring victory”: David Irving, Goebbels, p. 437.

47 “Despite all the assertions”: Ibid., p. 433.

48 “resounding”: TNA, CAB 154/101, p. 200.

49 “The Times has once again sunk”: David Irving, Goebbels, p. 421.

50 “velvety-arsed and Rolls Royce”: Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 52.

51 “I had a long discussion with”: The Goebbels Diaries, May 25, 1943.

52 “The general outline of English plans”: Ibid.

53 “Try to find out if Greek troops”: Most Secret Source report, received June 7, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

54 “to investigate the presence”: Tomas Harris, Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (London, 2004), p. 135.

55 “the only serious danger”: “Dowager” (Dudley Clarke) to “Chaucer,” May 20, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

56 “legal or illegal exhumation”: Ibid.

57 “By the time that he had been”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, May 28, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

58 “Although no one in this world”: Ibid.

59 “Suggest unless unusual”: Ewen Montagu to Alan Hillgarth, Telegram 878, May 21, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

60 “This to be done unless restrictions”: Ewen Montagu to Alan Hillgarth, Telegram 879, TNA, CAB 154/67.

61 “Please send me ordinary cipher”: Alan Hillgarth to Ewen Montagu, Telegram, May 23, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

62 “suggest Consul place wreath”: Ewen Montagu to Alan Hillgarth, Telegram 878, May 21, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

63 “as fast as possible”: Ibid.

64 “The purpose of this was not only”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 452.

65 “Sir, In accordance with instructions”: Alan Hillgarth to Ewen Montagu, June 6, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

66 “I have been asked”: Ewen Montagu to Alan Hillgarth, May 26, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

67 “Could you possibly procure”: Ibid.

68 “A reasonable reward of not more”: Ewen Montagu to Alan Hillgarth, Telegram 880, May 23, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

69 “No action is to be taken”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 457.

70 “Insert the following entry”: Note to casualty section, May 20, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

71 “and, if so, where was it?”: Montagu, Man Who Never Was, p. 178.

72 “distinguished film and stage actor”: Times, June 4, 1943.

73 “severe loss to the British theatre”: Ibid.

74 “The only decent thing they can do”: Ben Macintyre, Times, Dec. 30, 2008.

75 “the first German Panzer Division”: Director of Naval Intelligence notes, May 31, 1943, TNA, ADM 223/353.

76 “arrangements for the passage”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, et al., June 8, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67, p. 64.

77 “strategic position well suited”: Ibid.

78 “completely reequipped”: Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, p. 224.

79 “It is now about half way between”: Ewen Montagu to J. H. Bevan, et al., June 8, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67, p. 64.

80 “The present situation is summed”: Ibid.

81 “They raised (but did not pursue)”: Ibid.

82 “Mincemeat has already resulted”: Ewen Montagu, report, May 29, 1943, IWM 97/45/1, folder #2.

83 “I think that at this half way stage”: Ewen Montagu, “Draft Proposal for Compiler of MI5 History,” July 24, 1945, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

Chapter Twenty: Seraph and Husky

1 “moderately vile”: Terence Robertson, The Ship with Two Captains: The Story of the “Secret Mission Submarine” (London, 1957), p. 125.

2 “You are to act as guide and beacon”: Ibid., p. 124.

3 “for the first waves”: Ibid.

4 “had delivered his false information”: Ibid., p. 126.

5 “His force was to land in three parts”: Ibid., p. 124.

6 “He was really very short with us”: N. L. A. Jewell, Audiotape 12278, 1991, IWM.

7 “Do as good a job for us”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 125.

8 “Discovery”: Ibid., p. 127.

9 “If substantial German ground troops”: Dwight Eisenhower to Winston Churchill, March 28, 1943, cited in Michael I. Handel, War Strategy and Intelligence (London, 1989), p. 437.

10 “The submarines would be less”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p 125.

11 “The American High Command”: Lt. N. L. A. Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine: Action Report of the HMS Seraph (London, 1944), p. 106.

12 “a really de luxe experience”: Ibid.

13 “most exclusive spot”: Ibid

14 “The Wren Trap”: Ibid.

15 “None of the doors opened”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 139.

16 “Bloody heap ain’t got no springs”: Ibid.

17 “could turn out a meal”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 100.

18 “E-boat on port quarter, Sir”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 126.

19 “a clearly visible silhouette”: Ibid., p. 127.

20 “It was a ticklish moment”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 111.

21 “the fat would have been”: Ibid.

22 “undecided about her identity”: Ibid.

23 “I knew that would be a recognition”: Ibid.

24 “Down she went in a few seconds”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 127.

25 “The captain of the E-boat”: Ibid.

26 “wonderfully conceited”: John Follain, Mussolini’s Island: The Untold Story of the Invasion of Italy (London, 2005), p. 14.

27 “an exceptionally small head”: Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 (London, 2007), p. 131.

28 “His knowledge of how to”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 13.

29 “military disaster”: Atkinson, The Day of Battle, p. 53.

30 “You cannot, you must not, be interesting”: Ibid., p. 34.

31 “the availability of aircraft and gliders”: Wilson to CIGS, May 16, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

32 “gross breach of security”: Ibid.

33 “Colonel Knox may well have assisted”: “Chaucer” to “Dowager,” May 19, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

34 “athletic, middle-aged, of medium height”: Terry Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler: Double Cross and Deception in World War II (London, 2008), p. 196.

35 “an agent of very high class”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 360.

36 “who had promised him”: Tomas Harris, Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (London, 2004), p. 316.

37 “on account of his linguistic abilities”: Ibid., p. 130.

38 “delighted with their new agent”: Ibid., p. 130.

39 “speculated that on account”: Ibid.

40 “steal some documents relating”: Ibid., p. 131.

41 “unmarried wife”: Ibid.

42 “officer who had been”: Ibid.

43 “pretend that the agent”: Ibid.

44 “would give the game away altogether”: Michael Howard, Grand Strategy (London, 1972), p. 91.

45 “not to be alarmed as the attack”: Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler, p. 206.

46 “received increasing reports”: Interrogation of Joachim Canaris, Kühlenthal file, TNA, KV2/102.

47 “was still regarded as the favourite”: Howard, Grand Strategy, p. 92.

48 “no measures were taken to reinforce the island”: Ibid.

49 “it was never possible for the Germans”: TNA, ADM 223/794, p. 455.

50 “Compared with the forces employed”: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945 (London, 1989), p. 225.

51 “only half the supplies they needed”: Ibid., p. 231.

52 “well armed and fully organised”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 53.

53 “an almost unbelievably”: G2 Intell notes, no. 18, August 1, 1943, TNA, WO 204/983.

54 “hot mustard”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 54.

55 “It will be a hard and very bloody”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 37.

56 “If casualties are high”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 71.

57 “May God be with you”: Ibid.

Chapter Twenty-one: A Nice Cup of Tea

1 “We are about to embark”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 69.

2 “all the winds of heaven”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 67.

3 “The die was cast”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 69.

4 “It doesn’t look too good”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 67.

5 “breakers and boiling surf”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 112.

6 “lay in their hammocks, green and groaning”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 65.

7 “We are now getting Cadbury’s filled blocks”: Derrick Leverton, letter to mother and father, November 29, 1943, courtesy of Andrew Leverton.

8 “It was a most excellent cruise”: Ibid.

9 “He was excellent”: Ibid.

10 “I went up on deck”: Ibid.

11 “The sea had been wickedly rough”: Ibid.

12 “Day Trips to the Continent”: Ibid.

13 “See Naples and Die”: Ibid.

14 “I was standing up on deck”: Ibid.

15 “rather a nice small slam”: Ibid.

16 “There could be no more diving”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 127.

17 “three times as difficult as should have been”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 112.

18 “Unseen planes, hundreds of them”: Ibid.

19 “The invasion of Sicily would be”: Ibid., p. 109.

20 “Many of the men on this ship”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 36.

21 “great fires springing up in every direction”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 112.

22 “the faint throb of approaching engines”: Ibid.

23 “Their blindingly brilliant beams”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 128.

24 “a nerve-tightening, shell-packed eternity”: Ibid.

25 “as much to avoid the cascading water”: Ibid.

26 “throbbing beat”: Ibid., p. 129.

27 “a flicker of light from”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 113.

28 “dark shapes emerged slowly”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 129.

29 “The English language needs a new descriptive”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 114.

30 “like footlights on a stage”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 129.

31 “Shells whistled high overhead”: Ibid., p. 128.

32 “with different coloured tracer”: Ibid.

33 “With flares, searchlights and blazing fires”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 114.

34 “cheering the stubborn little submarine”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 129.

35 “Ahoy Seraph”: Ibid.

36 “a slightly astonished salute”: Ibid.

37 “You know those boys”: Ibid.

38 “slide warily back into the protective darkness”: Ibid.

39 “tiny, darting flashes marked the progress”: Ibid.

40 “hoped the friendly, ever-joking colonel”: Ibid.

41 “Darby is really a great soldier”: Carlo D’Este, Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily 1943 (London 1988), p. 275.

42 “wished my chaps good luck”: Derrick Leverton, letter to parents, November 29, 1943, courtesy of Andrew Leverton.

43 “As there was still a bit of time in hand”: Ibid.

44 “quite a bit of banging about”: Ibid

45 “It was getting close to dawn”: Ibid.

46 “slightly premature landings”: Ibid

47 “The first thing I was conscious”: Ibid.

48 “Occasional mines went off”: Ibid.

49 “tea-sugar-and-milk powder”: Ibid.

50 “Most nourishing, appetising and intelligent”: Ibid.

51 “added zest to the party”: Ibid.

52 “As the bombs came down”: Ibid.

53 “Another bomb fell in the sea”: Ibid.

54 “little graves about three feet deep”: Ibid.

55 “I had rather an awful sort of dream”: Ibid.

56 “the concussion in my grave”: Ibid.

57 “plus quite a lot of ‘possibles’”: Ibid.

58 “I didn’t feel I was suitably dressed”: Ibid.

59 “I therefore designed myself”: Ibid.

60 “Throw them back into the sea”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 85.

61 “I’m convinced our men will resist”: Ibid., p. 84.

62 “We must be confident”: Ibid.

63 “I could see his heart beating”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 36.

64 “Stop, you bastards”: Ibid., p. 40.

65 “Most important. Have learned”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers (London, 2004), p. 381.

66 “complete failure of coastal defence”: Intercepted Message 2124 Rome to Berlin, July 11, 1943, ADM 223/147.

67 “on enemy penetration many”: Ibid.

68 “half-clothed Italian soldiers”: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945 (London, 1989), p. 225.

69 “At once and with all forces attack”: TNA, ADM 223/147.

70 “The counterattack against hostile”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 103.

71 “the shortest Blitzkrieg”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 310.

72 “The German in Sicily”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 123.

Chapter Twenty-one: A Nice Cup of Tea

1 “We are about to embark”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 69.

2 “all the winds of heaven”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 67.

3 “The die was cast”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 69.

4 “It doesn’t look too good”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 67.

5 “breakers and boiling surf”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 112.

6 “lay in their hammocks, green and groaning”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 65.

7 “We are now getting Cadbury’s filled blocks”: Derrick Leverton, letter to mother and father, November 29, 1943, courtesy of Andrew Leverton.

8 “It was a most excellent cruise”: Ibid.

9 “He was excellent”: Ibid.

10 “I went up on deck”: Ibid.

11 “The sea had been wickedly rough”: Ibid.

12 “Day Trips to the Continent”: Ibid.

13 “See Naples and Die”: Ibid.

14 “I was standing up on deck”: Ibid.

15 “rather a nice small slam”: Ibid.

16 “There could be no more diving”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 127.

17 “three times as difficult as should have been”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 112.

18 “Unseen planes, hundreds of them”: Ibid.

19 “The invasion of Sicily would be”: Ibid., p. 109.

20 “Many of the men on this ship”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 36.

21 “great fires springing up in every direction”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 112.

22 “the faint throb of approaching engines”: Ibid.

23 “Their blindingly brilliant beams”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 128.

24 “a nerve-tightening, shell-packed eternity”: Ibid.

25 “as much to avoid the cascading water”: Ibid.

26 “throbbing beat”: Ibid., p. 129.

27 “a flicker of light from”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 113.

28 “dark shapes emerged slowly”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 129.

29 “The English language needs a new descriptive”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 114.

30 “like footlights on a stage”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 129.

31 “Shells whistled high overhead”: Ibid., p. 128.

32 “with different coloured tracer”: Ibid.

33 “With flares, searchlights and blazing fires”: Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine, p. 114.

34 “cheering the stubborn little submarine”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 129.

35 “Ahoy Seraph”: Ibid.

36 “a slightly astonished salute”: Ibid.

37 “You know those boys”: Ibid.

38 “slide warily back into the protective darkness”: Ibid.

39 “tiny, darting flashes marked the progress”: Ibid.

40 “hoped the friendly, ever-joking colonel”: Ibid.

41 “Darby is really a great soldier”: Carlo D’Este, Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily 1943 (London 1988), p. 275.

42 “wished my chaps good luck”: Derrick Leverton, letter to parents, November 29, 1943, courtesy of Andrew Leverton.

43 “As there was still a bit of time in hand”: Ibid.

44 “quite a bit of banging about”: Ibid

45 “It was getting close to dawn”: Ibid.

46 “slightly premature landings”: Ibid

47 “The first thing I was conscious”: Ibid.

48 “Occasional mines went off”: Ibid.

49 “tea-sugar-and-milk powder”: Ibid.

50 “Most nourishing, appetising and intelligent”: Ibid.

51 “added zest to the party”: Ibid.

52 “As the bombs came down”: Ibid.

53 “Another bomb fell in the sea”: Ibid.

54 “little graves about three feet deep”: Ibid.

55 “I had rather an awful sort of dream”: Ibid.

56 “the concussion in my grave”: Ibid.

57 “plus quite a lot of ‘possibles’”: Ibid.

58 “I didn’t feel I was suitably dressed”: Ibid.

59 “I therefore designed myself”: Ibid.

60 “Throw them back into the sea”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 85.

61 “I’m convinced our men will resist”: Ibid., p. 84.

62 “We must be confident”: Ibid.

63 “I could see his heart beating”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 36.

64 “Stop, you bastards”: Ibid., p. 40.

65 “Most important. Have learned”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers (London, 2004), p. 381.

66 “complete failure of coastal defence”: Intercepted Message 2124 Rome to Berlin, July 11, 1943, ADM 223/147.

67 “on enemy penetration many”: Ibid.

68 “half-clothed Italian soldiers”: Ralph Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy 1941–1945 (London, 1989), p. 225.

69 “At once and with all forces attack”: TNA, ADM 223/147.

70 “The counterattack against hostile”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 103.

71 “the shortest Blitzkrieg”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 310.

72 “The German in Sicily”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 123.

Chapter Twenty-two: Hook, Line, and Sinker

1 “Even if I have once brought off”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

2 “too keyed-up to read”: Ibid.

3 “It is really impossible”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished note, October 7, 1976, IWM 97/45/1, folder #4.

4 “Joy of joys to anyone”: Ibid.

5 “We fooled those of the Spaniards”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. 196.

6 “One specially made canister”: Ewen Montagu, unpublished critique of Constantine Fitzgibbon, Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (London, 1976), IWM, 97/45/1, folder #4.

7 “The most I could do”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 166.

8 “I do congratulate you”: Dudley Clarke, Note to Ewen Montagu, May 14, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

9 “It is a most interesting story”: A. Nye to J. H. Bevan, July 20, 1945, TNA, CAB 154/67.

10 “the greatest achievement”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

11 “Mincemeat has been an outstanding success”: Guy Liddell, Diaries, May 20, 1931.

12 “From evidence at present available” J. H. Bevan to Inglis, October 10, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

13 “was the originator of this ingenious”: J. H. Bevan to Lamplough, August 21, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

14 “papers from Sikorski’s aircraft”: Ewen Montagu to JB, July 10, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

15 “to show that Mincemeat was genuine”: Ibid.

16 “Not worth trying”: Initials illegible, note attached to Ewen Montagu to JB, July 10, 1943, TNA, CAB 154/67.

17 “mousetrap for all German”: John Follain, Mussolini’s Island: The Untold Story of the Invasion of Italy (London, 2005), p. 311.

18 “Most Immediate”: Signal General Keitel to Commander in Chief Med, July 9, 1943, translation accompanying Rushbrooke report, July 19, 1943, IWM, 97/45/1, folder #2.

19 “Western assault forces appear”: Ibid.

20 “A subsequent landing”: Ibid.

21 “stating that the High Command”: ADM 223/794, p. 456.

22 “entirely consistent with the Mincemeat story”: Ibid.

23 “the departure of the 1st R-Boat”: ADM 223/794, pp. 460–61.

24 “macaroni-eaters”: David Irving, Hitler’s War (London, 1977), p. 437.

25 “Hitler’s own reaction”: Michael Howard, Grand Strategy (London, 1972), p. 368.

26 “This report has been proved”: F. W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism (London, 1962), p. 417.

27 “Undertake a most careful”: Ribbentrop to Hans-Heinrich Dieckhoff in Madrid, July 29, 1943, in Deakin, The Brutal Friendship, p. 417.

28 “The documents had been found”: Deakin, Brutal Friendship, p. 417.

29 “The English and Americans had”: Ibid., p. 419.

30 “The British Secret Service is quite”: Ibid.

31 “that we should not adopt”: Ibid., p. 418.

32 “It is practically certain”: Ibid.

33 “Who originally circulated”: Ibid.

34 “after the invasion of Italy”: MI5 interrogation of Joachim Canaris, Kühlenthal MI5 file, TNA, KV2/102.

35 “at present at any rate”: IWM, MI 14/522/2 Kurze Feind Beurteilung West, 982 of July 25, 1943, cited in Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, p. 227.

36 “The only thing certain”: Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries (London, 1948), p. 437.

37 “The sacrifice of my country”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 139.

38 “inept and cowardly”: Ibid.

39 “We are fighting for a common”: Ibid., p. 140.

40 “It can’t go on any longer”: Follain, Mussolini’s Island, p. 240.

41 “Fascism fell, as was fitting”: Atkinson, Day of Battle, p. 142.

42 “It is well known that under”: OKW/KTB iv. 1797, quoted in Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, p. 227.

43 “On no account should we”: Alan Clark, Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict 1941–45 (London, 1966), p. 337.

44 “Inescapably faced with the dilemma”: Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, p. 222.

45 “With the failure of Zitadelle”: Christer Bergström, Kursk: The Air Battle of July 1943 (London, 2007), p. 58.

46 “a small classic of deception”: ADM 223/794, p. 442.

47 “as widely and thinly as possible”: Bennett, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy, p. 227.

48 “There can be no doubt”: ADM 223/794, p. 455.

49 “Special intelligence enabled us”: ADM 223/794, p. 442.

50 “Sicily has impressed”: David Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets (London, 1999), p. 107.

51 “really affected the outcome”: Robertson, Ship with Two Captains, p. 132.

52 “impossible to estimate”: Ibid.

53 “the most spectacular single episode”: Hugh Trevor-Roper, Foreword to Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 10.

54 “perhaps the most successful single”: Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War, Vol. V: Strategic Deception, p. 89.

55 “Mincemeat swallowed rod, line and sinker”: Howard, Grand Strategy, vol. 4, p. 370.

Chapter Twenty-three: Mincemeat Revealed

1 “I am a prejudiced party”: Ewen Montagu to Colonel Patavel of War Cabinet Office, July 9, 1945, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

2 “It would pay to release Mincemeat”: Ibid.

3 “The Foreign Office”: Ewen Montagu to John Drew, November 7, 1950, IWM 97/45/2.

4 “in case the embargo”: Ibid.

5 “Our intelligence [agents] obtained”: radio monitoring report, August 6, 1944, IWM 97/45/1, folder #1.

6 “I believe this story”: Ibid.

7 “Unless some action is taken”: T. A. Robertson to J. H. Bevan, August 31, 1944, TNA, CAB 154/67.

8 “there was in fact some truth”: Ibid.

9 “leave the American authorities”: Ibid.

10 “We should do our utmost”: Note to T. A. Robertson, August 21, 1944, TNA, CAB 154/67.

11 “Dawn had not broken”: Alfred Duff Cooper, Operation Heartbreak (London, 2007), p. 103.

12 “Duff Cooper learned of Mincemeat”: Ewen Montagu to Roger Morgan, April 19, 1982, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

13 “Sir W always wanted to hear”: After the Battle, 54, 1986.

14 “considered the objections”: John Julius Norwich, in introduction to Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Oxford, 1996), p. xi.

15 “direct from Churchill”: R. V. Jones, Most Secret War (London, 1978), p. 217.

16 “consternation in security quarters”: Ewen Montagu “Postscript,” Montagu Papers.

17 “there could not be one law”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

18 “wholly contrary to”: Sir Harold Parker to EM, December 20, 1950, IWM 97/45/2.

19 “Any true account”: Ibid.

20 “there is no longer any”: Ibid.

21 “One would not think”: Ewen Montagu to Sir Harold Parker, November 7, 1950, IWM 97/45/2.

22 “I see no reason why”: Ibid.

23 “I forced Shinwell to agree”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

24 “sympathetically consider advice”: Ewen Montagu to Sir Harold Parker, April 2, 1951, IWN 97/45/2.

25 “it would be wrong to publish”: Ewen Montagu “Postscript,” Montagu Papers.

26 “shot off to Spain.” Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

27 “cabled back in a frenzy”: Ibid.

28 “The Foreign Office’s chief worry”: Ibid.

29 “using diplomats to lie”: Ibid.

30 “Further pressure was applied”: Ibid.

31 “the true means”: Roger Morgan, Beyond the Battle, 146, November 2009.

32 “rushed round to the Sunday Express”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

33 “wholly unexpected”: Ewen Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra (London, 1977), p. 12.

34 “The request not to publish”: Ewen Montagu “Postscript,” Montagu Papers.

35 “so wildly inaccurate”: Ibid.

36 “controlled version”: Roger Morgan, Beyond the Battle, 146, November 2009.

37 “someone not under any control or influence”: Ewen Montagu to N. L. A. Jewell, January 11, 1953, EM collection.

38 “The return that the country”: Ewen Montagu to John Godfrey, September 19, 1964, Montagu Papers.

39 “The Express will submit”: Ewen Montagu to N. L. A. Jewell, January 11, 1953, Montagu Papers.

40 “with much black coffee”: Ewen Montagu “Postscript,” Montagu Papers.

41 “or should it be ‘Pam’”: Ewen Montagu to Jean Gerard Leigh, January 8, 1953, Montagu Papers.

42 “The powers that be”: Ibid.

43 “We don’t want to alter”: Ibid.

44 “a girl working in my section”: Ibid.

45 “Mincemeat is soon going”: Ewen Montagu to N. L. A. Jewell, January 11, 1953, Montagu Papers.

46 “My account has been vetted”: Ibid

47 “I felt that you ought not”: Ibid.

48 “I was most interested”: Jean Gerard Leigh to Ewen Montagu, January 14, 1954, Montagu Papers.

49 “merely say that you were”: Ewen Montagu to Jean Gerard Leigh, January 21, 1953.

50 “book, film rights, or other uses”: Charles Cholmondeley to Ewen Montagu, March 3, 1954, Montagu Papers.

51 “As you will recall”: Charles Cholmondeley to Ewen Montagu, March 3, 1954, Montagu Papers.

52 “Whilst the general situation”: Ibid.

53 “I do not feel that my own”: Ibid.

54 “the war’s most fantastic secret”: Sunday Express, February 1, 1953.

55 “I shall look forward”: Charles Cholmondeley to Ewen Montagu, March 3, 1954, Montagu Papers.

56 “Although I heartily disapproved”: Lord Louis Mountbatten, August 31, 1953.

57 “a good deal of persuasion”: A. Nye to Ewen Montagu, April 26, 1954, Montagu Papers.

58 “You and I don’t agree”: JCM to Ewen Montagu, August 31, 1954, EM collection.

59 “Uncle John blitzed me”: Ewen Montagu to Margery Boxall, October 30, 1950, courtesy of Fiona Mason.

60 “Your admirable Man Who Never Was”: John Godfrey to Ewen Montagu, September 13, 1964, Montagu Papers.

61 “an exploit more astonishing”: Sunday Express, February 1, 1953.

62 “managed to give the impression”: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (London, 2004), p. 370.

63 “an only son”: First draft of manuscript, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

64 “His parents were then”: Ibid.

65 “without saying what we proposed”: Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was, p. 123.

66 “I gave a solemn promise”: Montagu, Beyond Top Secret Ultra, p. 145.

67 “My work is such that”: Ewen Montagu to “Ginger,” July 6, 1943, Montagu Papers.

68 “thrilling incidents which”: Ewen Montagu “Postscript,” Montagu Papers.

69 “appear to be grudging”: Mountbatten to Ronald Neame, April 29, 1955, IWM 97/45/1, folder # 4.

70 “I would like to make it clear”: Ibid.

71 “I would have no objection”: Ibid.

72 “There’s nothing true in it”: Federico Clauss, interview with the author, June 2, 2009.

73 “a derelict alcoholic”: Anthony Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, vol. I (London, 1975), p. 282.

74 “the wastrel brother”: Ibid. I have not explored the theory that the body was a victim of the HMS Daster explosion, since this is most effectively demolished by Roger Morgan in his essay “Mincemeat Revisited,” Beyond the Battle, 146, November 2009.

Chapter Twenty-four: Aftermath

1 “absolutely devoted to one another”: Nicholas Jewell, interview with the author, June 24, 2008.

2 “General Mark Wayne Clark”: Terence Robertson, The Ship with Two Captains (London, 1957), p. 175.

3 “played a tiny part”: Ivor Leverton, letter to Daily Telegraph, August 13, 2002.

4 “redeemed”: Basil Leverton, interview with the author, September 8, 2009.

5 “developed an intelligence organisation”: Denis Smyth, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

6 “He walked several miles a day”: Ibid.

7 “the most unscrupulous”: Stafford, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 109.

8 “quiet, cold-blooded war”: Ibid., p. 373.

9 “The Russians are cleverer than the Germans” Ibid., p. 378.

10 “Thus ends the story”: Ernest Sanders to Alan Hillgarth, June 28, 1948, collection of Tristan Hillgarth.

11 “Crazy Nolte is rich”: Ibid.

12 “I am sorry, but I am not”: Ian Colvin, The Unknown Courier (London, 1953), p. 101.

13 “His mind was not as it used to be”: Robert Jackson, Coroner (London, 1963), p. 192.

14 “Every time I tell a story”: Ibid., p. 201.

15 “His wife was the daughter”: Federico Clauss, interview with the author, June 2, 2009.

16 “He was always suspicious”: Ibid.

17 “admitted the possibility”: Colvin, Unknown Courier, p. 96.

18 “I take off my hat”: Ian Colvin, Sunday Express, March 8, 1953.

19 “extraordinary services”: Ibid., p. 261.

20 “the heroic death”: Tomas Harris, Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (London, 2004).

21 “News of the death”: Ibid., p. 280.

22 “If you find yourself in any danger”: Ibid., p. 277.

23 “Kühlenthal was overcome”: Ibid., p. 285.

24 “Kühlenthal made it abundantly clear”: Ibid., p. 285

25 “personally ordered”: Ibid., p. 286.

26 “remain patiently in his hideout”: Ibid., p. 287.

27 “he should obey instructions”: Ibid.

28 “Clandestinely”: Ibid., p. 288.

29 “a melting pot”: Dienz website, http://www.dienz.de/Inhalt/karl-erichkuhlen.html.

30 “he always tried to dress correctly:” Ibid.

31 “bold man to hounds”: Obituary, Telegraph, October 1, 2008.

32 “fought through Italy”: Ibid.

33 “washing up, pottering about”: cited in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

34 “somewhat complicated by the fact”: Nigel West and Oleg Tsarev, Triplex: Secrets from the Cambridge Five (New Haven, Conn., 2009), p. 288.

35 “Captain [sic] Montagu is in charge”: Ibid., pp. 277–78.

36 “The German General Staff apparently”: Ibid., p. 288.

37 “When the [invasion] was launched”: Ibid.

38 “intelligent and agreeable, and an expert”: HAR Philby to unnamed recipient MI5, November 26, 1946, TNA KV2/598.

39 “information from secret sources”: TNA KV2/600.

40 “Middle East Anti-Locust Unit”: Tom Cholmondeley, interview with the author, October 1, 2007.

41 “His objective was the destruction”: G. F. Walford, Arabian Locust Hunter (London, 1963), p. 32.

42 International Council for the Control: Tom Cholmondeley, interview with the author, October 1, 2007.

43 “They are loathsome insects”: Walford, Arabian Locust Hunter, p. 11.

44 “intelligence duties”: Tom Cholmondeley, interview with the author, October 1, 2007.

45 “wide experience of deception work”: Ibid.

46 “He would not give information to anyone”: Alison Cholmondeley, letter to the author.

47 “He would take a revolver”: John Otter, letter to Daily Telegraph, August 15, 2002.

48 “invaluable work during the war”: Ewen Montagu to the Times, June 23, 1982, p. 12.

49 “The Turbulent Judge”: Sunday Mirror, July 5, 1964.

50 “Half the scum of England”: Daily Telegraph, February 1, 1957.

51 “A boy crook should have”: Sunday Mirror, July 5, 1964.

52 “discourtesy, even gross discourtesy”: Times, October 24, 1967.

53 “If a man can’t have a stroke of luck”: Sun, August 2, 1969.

54 “The public needs protecting”: Times, September 26, 1962.

55 “Few judges have trodden”: Sun, August 2, 1969.

56 “Perhaps I should have been more”: Henry Stenhope, The Times, August 2, 1969.

57 “extreme caution and extreme daring”: M. R. D. Foot, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

58 “Dear ‘Pam’”: Ewen Montagu to Jean Gerard Leslie, December 31, 1980, Jean Gerard Leslie collection.

59 “one of the buttons I wore”: Ewen Montagu to John F. Meek, undated, IWM 97/45/1, folder #5.

60 “Keep a real sense of humour”: Ibid.

61 “There, at the end”: Beyond the Battle, 94, 1995.

62 “On 28th January there had died”: TNA ADM 223/794, p. 442.

63 “Glyndwr Michael”: Inscription on gravestone, Huelva cemetery.

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