10 Most Outrageous Deceptions In History

2. Operation Mincemeat... And How A Dead Tramp Helped Win World War II

During the latter part of World War II the British wanted to launch an offensive to attack the Axis Powers from the south of Italy, with the island of Sicily as a starting point. However, the problem was the Germans knew this - strategically the only logical place from which to launch such a huge assault was by first establishing a base in Sicily. In order to achieve this deception, the British set about constructing a widespread disinformation plan to convince the German high command that rather than attack Sicily, the Allies would first invade Greece and Sardinia in 1943. To push the Germans away from the actual intended objective, the British dressed-up dead Welsh tramp Glyndwr Michael as "Major William Martin" of the Royal Marines and dropped his body off the Spanish shore. The corpse was collected by the Spanish and, after eventually being examined by German spies, (forged) "top-secret" documents that the Marine was carrying seemed to show that Sicily was not the target for the British at all, and it was instead Greece and Sardinia. Ultra decrypts of secret German messages were translated at Bletchley Park - and highlighted to the British that "Operation Mincemeat had been swallowed whole". Such was the success of Mincemeat, in fact, that the Germans pulled forces from Sicily and placed them in Greece and Sardinia. In addition, Hitler became so sceptical about future "intelligence coups" that he ignored vital information gathered two days after the D-Day landings in 1944, as well as documents outlining how the Allies intended to drive through Holland during "Operation Market-Garden". One piece of deception ensured that Hitler did not trust two vital intelligence finds which could have dramatically altered the course of the war in Nazi Germany's favour. Now that is impressive.