All language subtitles for Forgotten.Frontlines.S01E01.Operation.Mincemeat.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

[soft dramatic music]

- [Narrator] In the
midst of World War II,

the Allies have successfully
defeated the German Army

in North Africa.

- North Africa was
the proving ground

for the Allied war effort,
going against Hitler's machine.

- [Narrator] From here,
the Allies plan to launch

a second European front.

- The question is, "Where in
southern Europe do we attack?"

- [Narrator] The Allies
have to deceive the Germans

of their true invasion plans,

as German defenses
are too strong.

- We're not in the position
to match the enemy yet

on continental Europe in a
conventional military fashion.

- [Narrator] Two young British
intelligence agents in MI5

propose one of
the most secretive

and daring missions of
the Second World War.

- Espionage was a
major part of World War II.

The British perfected
this to a science.

- Those were desperate times

and they called for
desperate measures.

- [Narrator] If the Allies
don't convince the Germans

to maximize their
defenses in the wrong place,

it will be a disaster.

- If the Germans figure
this out, it is mass casualties

for thousands and
thousands of Allied soldiers.

- It's like a chess game.

It's not the person whose
queen wins the game,

it's using every piece
to its best advantage.

- [Narrator] Just one wrong
move and this mission would fail

and many lives would be lost.

[reverent music]

In April 1943, a decomposing
body in a Royal Marines uniform

is discovered off the coast
of Huelva, southern Spain.

A black attache is
chained to the body's wrist

containing top-secret documents

about an impending
Allied invasion.

- Everyone knows
what's going to happen,

just where is the invasion of
Europe going to come from?

- [Narrator] But this is no
ordinary body lost at sea.

This is part of one of the
most ambitious missions

ever conducted by British
intelligence, Operation Mincemeat.

- Operation Mincemeat
becomes the great Trojan horse

of World War II.

It's an absolutely
essential mission

that ends up saving
thousands of Allied lives.

- [Narrator] Devised
and put into motion

by Charles Cholmondeley
and Ewen Montagu,

British intelligence agents
working for MI5 in London.

Their unparalleled
attention to detail

would be a major catalyst
to the Allied victory.

- The German war machine
was so overwhelming

to anyone who witnessed it

that the Allies would
have to depend

on any means that they could

to get an advantage
over the Germans.

- [Narrator] Espionage
is a major part

of the British war effort.

They run a huge
disinformation campaign,

feeding fake leads about
the military plans to the Nazis

using double-agents.

- This is part of the war

that we don't talk
about very much.

We focus on the
battles and the invasions,

but the war of the
mind we don't talk about,

the idea of, "How do
we fool the other side,

creating false information

that they think they are
getting through espionage?"

So, it's the double-cross of it.

- [Narrator]
British intelligence

had already cracked
the Enigma code

that the Germans
used to send messages,

deciphered by a team
based in Bletchley Park,

just northwest of London.

- Interestingly, Bletchley
Park isn't so much a place

that respects or
promotes military stripes,

but much more,
in fact, great minds.

- Intelligence in this case

is meant to give the
people on the ground

who are running the operation

as much forewarning and
foreknowledge as possible.

- [Narrator]
British intelligence

uses the intercepted information

to tailor upcoming
espionage missions,

which are discussed
in MI5 committees.

In 1942, 25-year-old Charles
Christopher Cholmondeley

is the secretary for the
top-secret Twenty Committee,

the group in charge of
overseeing double-agents.

- And the Twenty is
this incredibly fascinating

interdepartmental committee

that is responsible for managing

one of the most essential
programs of World War II,

which is called
the Double-Cross.

And they are responsible
for managing at the top level

this program that has
turned German agents

working in the United Kingdom,

keeping the Germans
totally unaware

that they're now
working for the Allies.

- [Narrator] They meet
every Thursday in MI5 offices

at 58 James Street in London

to discuss the
double-agent system

and explore new deception plans.

- Okay, there's a big
emphasis from the get-go

in British thinking on
deceiving the enemy,

that this is gonna
be a long war,

it's gonna be a war
that is going to require

thinking outta the box,
ungentlemanly warfare, deception,

unconventional methods.

- So, in many ways,
it's like a chess game.

It's not the person whose
queen wins the game,

it's using every piece
to its best advantage.

And the only way
you do that in chess

is because you get to
look down from above

and see how all the pieces
on both sides are playing

to plan ahead.

When you can get to that level

with your intelligence
information in warfare,

it provides you with a
significant advantage,

especially if your opponent

doesn't have that
same advantage.

- [Narrator] Cholmondeley
was a flight lieutenant

in the Royal Air Force seconded
to the MI5 security service.

- He was very shortsighted,

so if you'd caught sight of
him, very thick spectacles.

Weirdly shy, almost secretive.

He was your quintessential
English eccentric.

His shortsightedness a personal
tragedy for him, obviously,

he wants to be out
there in a flying machine,

didn't all the boys
back in the day,

is actually a great
boon, of course,

for British intelligence

'cause instead they acquire
his alternative secretive mind.

- [Narrator] At the
beginning of the war,

Rear Admiral John Godfrey,

the Director of
Naval Intelligence,

circulated the Trout Memo.

Although published
under Godfrey's name,

it bore all the hallmarks
of his assistant.

His name: Lieutenant
Commander Ian Fleming,

who would after the war
become the famous novelist

immortalizing British
intelligence operations

through the adventures
of James Bond.

He knows his commander
is a keen angler,

so he compares the deception
of an enemy in wartime

to fly-fishing.

- One of his sort of famous
analogies is, he says,

"The fly-fisherman
must outsmart the trout,

"outsmart the fish,"
and makes the point,

"If you've been
fishing in one place,

"you need to leave it a while

"because the trout's gonna
know you're there. [laughing]

"Let's strip this back
to basic human nature.

"What can we make
the enemy believe?"

- What the Trout Memo is, it's
exploring types of espionage.

They develop,
literally, a laundry list

of ways of duping the Nazis.

- [Narrator] October 31st, 1942.

Charles Cholmondeley
presents the idea

of a Trojan horse to
the Twenty Committee,

a plan to place
falsified documents

of a highly-secret nature
in the hands of the enemy

using a decoy: a dead body.

- There's two aspects
to this mission.

On the first point,

what you need to do
is trick the Germans.

And the other
very important thing

is we know that the
Germans have been tricked.

- This idea that you could
plant evidence on a body

is totally new, and
it's actually something

that Ian Fleming says
can be seen as drastic.

But in war, anything is drastic.

- [Narrator] Cholmondeley's
audacious idea

lands on the desk of
intelligence officer Ewan Montagu.

At this time, Montagu
has been briefed

that this plan could
be used by the Allies

to deceive the Germans

in a forthcoming operation
in the Mediterranean.

- And he was an
intellect, he was a judge.

He had a keen passion for
yachting, which is how he ends up

in this sort of
volunteer naval division

and then is promoted
into Naval Intelligence.

- [Narrator] Montagu is
teamed with Cholmondeley

to develop the Trojan
horse plan further.

- For me, one of the things
that I've found most interesting

was that they were
able to sell this,

and not to the Germans
but to their own side

to move forward with it.

I mean, it's a crazy idea.

- Cholmondeley and Montagu
are a really interesting duo

because they both
love to read spy novels,

they both love fiction.

This is the opportunity
to do something

which would only
be seen in a novel,

and they'll go to tremendous
lengths to make this work.

- [Narrator] Where Cholmondeley
was awkward but charming,

Montagu was smooth and refined.

He was highly organized
and attentive to details,

the perfect complement
to Cholmondeley's

unusually imaginative brain.

At this time, the British Army

is also in the heat of action.

Beginning October 23rd, 1942,

the British Army
attacks German forces

at El Alamein in North Africa.

- North Africa was
the proving ground

for the Allied war effort,
going against Hitler's machine.

It was a way for
allies to work together

in that part of the world in
a way they hadn't before.

- [Narrator] The
British 8th Army,

under General Bernard
Montgomery, is pushing for a victory.

On November 4th, the Germans
suffer a comprehensive defeat,

which sparks the Allied
invasion of North Africa,

Operation Torch.

- But very famously, Churchill
says, "This ain't the end.

"This isn't the beginning
of the end even.

"This is the end
of the beginning,

"but it's still a pivot point.

"We've got the upper hand now."

- [Narrator] Troops begin
to land near Casablanca,

Oran, and Algiers and
form a large Allied army.

- After losing North Africa, the
Germans become highly aware

that the invasion may
come from North Africa

to one of two locations.

It's either gonna be Italy
or it's gonna be Greece.

- [Narrator] For the Allies,
the best option is Sicily,

the island situated
just off the coast of Italy,

which will give them a stepping
stone into mainland Europe.

Even Churchill remarked,

"Anybody but a damned
fool would know it was Sicily."

In January of 1943,

US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt

and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill

meet in the Anfa Hotel in
Casablanca, French Morocco,

to plan the next phase
of the Allied attacks

in World War II.

- At the Casablanca Conference,

Franklin Roosevelt and Churchill

start planning beyond
North Africa, what's next.

The question is, "Where in
southern Europe do we attack?"

Churchill and
Roosevelt are working on

a southern invasion of Europe

and the Allies wanna hit Sicily.

They're worried
about casualties,

so Operation Mincemeat is
designed to make the Germans think

that we're not going
to attack in Sicily.

The Allies are gonna
attack somewhere else;

in this particular case, Greece.

- [Narrator] The key to
success to capturing Sicily

is to convince the Germans

that Greece is
the intended target,

hoping that troop numbers
are then reduced on the island.

- There is this kind of
recognition in mid-1942

that we're not fighting the war

in the same committed
way that our enemy is.

By this stage, by
1942-43, it's about winning.

We're not in the position
to match the enemy yet

on continental Europe in a
conventional military fashion.

So, we've got to
think outta the box

and that might not be very nice.

- [Narrator] With
Operation Mincemeat

now given a green light,

Cholmondeley and
Montagu need to act fast,

as Cholmondeley's idea has
gone from being theoretical

to a full-blown mission.

The first order of business

is to find a fresh male
body of military age

with no obvious
injuries or ailments.

- The plot ultimately
calls for a body at sea

that's supposedly to have
been there through a plane crash.

So, now you need a
body which is going to look

in a particular stage
of decomposition

consistent with
somebody who died

in a fairly recent air
crash, and that's tricky.

- And this guy
needs to be intact,

for want of a better expression,

so that we can
therefore fake the death,

make it look like he's drowned,
and that creates problems.

- In times of war, scruples
are somewhat useless

because the aim of the
people who are raging the war

is to win it.

And when we are
speaking about a war

with Hitler and his Nazis,
we're speaking about an enemy

who would not stop at anything.

And so, I think scruples
were entirely unnecessary.

- [Narrator] On
January 28th, 1943,

coroner Bentley Purchase
alerts Ewan Montagu

about a potential candidate
for Operation Mincemeat

in the St. Pancras
Hospital morgue.

- When you are
alerted by the coroner,

"Hey, we've got
the guy for you,"

you are onto it
pretty damn quickly.

There's another
reason, of course,

why you've gotta be
onto it pretty damn quickly,

because dead bodies deteriorate

and they deteriorate
at the rate of naught,

and we need our
man floating in the sea

to look like he's
recently been drowned.

- [Narrator] The body is
identified as Glyndwr Michael,

a homeless Welshman
whose body was found

in an abandoned
warehouse two days earlier.

Cause of death is believed
to be suicide by rat poison.

- If this person died a certain
way that doesn't coincide

with how we want the body
to be presented as dying,

then it's not going to work.

- [Narrator] The toxicology
report performed by Purchase

suggests that the rat
poison will not be detected

in a body that was in the water.

To be sure the body
won't betray the mission,

Montagu consults with
Sir Bernard Spilsbury,

a world-leading forensic
pathologist at that time.

Spilsbury took a look at
the body of Glyndwr Michael

and confirms this
is a good selection.

But it's not all good news.

He tells Montagu that a
body that has drowned

will have telltale signs.

Fine white froth would be found

in the lungs and on the
lips, water in the stomach,

and foreign material like
sand and vomit in the lungs,

hemorrhages in the ear.

This body has none
of those markings,

making this mission a risk.

- And this was one
of the biggest ways

that the whole procedure
may have failed.

If you go through the autopsy,

you could clearly tell
that the body didn't drown.

Then the rest of the story,

like a house of
cards, falls apart.

- [Narrator] But
time is against them,

so Cholmondeley and
Montagu take the risk.

- Purchase cautions them

that you're gonna have
to use the body quickly

because, of course,
decomposition sets in.

And so, they decide
to keep the body on ice,

and that buys them time.

- You've gotta work
with what you've got.

That's war.

It's all about compromise.

- [Narrator] On
February 4th, 1943,

one week after the
death of Glyndwr Michael,

Cholmondeley and
Montagu present a draft

of Operation Mincemeat
to the Twenty Committee,

which passes.

- What's at stake is massive,

and that's where I can imagine
if I was a senior commander

hearing these two
relatively unknown guys

come up with a
plan of this nature,

I'd probably be hesitant too

'cause there's nothing
short of the invasion plans

of southern Europe on the table.

- The big guns have put
their cross, their name

by this operation.

That immediately,
incidentally, raises the stakes.

This isn't just
some little hobby

that a couple of eccentrics
are having a go with

in the Double-Cross Committee.

No, by now, there's big
guns engaged in this idea,

and it needs to succeed.

- [Narrator] With official
approval of their Trojan horse,

Cholmondeley and
Montagu have to change

the story and character
of Glyndwr Michael.

- Because the Germans
are so thorough,

you have to create a
life from birth to death.

So, you have to think about
where was this person born,

what was his family
like, did he have siblings,

who were his parents, what
did his parents do for a living?

You have to create this
very elaborate life story

for this person and
create enough crumbs

that the Germans
are going to find

that it is believable and it
seems like a legitimate person.

- [Narrator] Cholmondeley
and Montagu

decide to make
their Trojan horse

a member of the Royal Marines,

since Operation
Mincemeat originated

in the naval military
operations department.

Naval officers always wear
their uniforms when they travel

and carry ID cards.

This means that he needs
to be outfitted properly

and a legitimate-looking
ID card must be fabricated.

But first things first:
He needs a new name.

- They are conscious of the fact

that the Germans may have
lists of senior commanders

in various British departments,
including the Royal Marines,

which is ultimately the
agency they decide upon.

So, anticipating that,
they can't make up

somebody that
nobody's ever heard of.

They have to take the
identity of an existing officer,

a real-life guy.

- [Narrator] Searching
through personnel files,

they come across nine
high-ranking Marines

with the surname Martin.

And after careful research,

they choose Major
William Norrie Martin.

At this time, the real
Major Martin is in America,

training army personnel,
so he is unlikely to find out

what is being
done with his name.

- He didn't need to know
about Operation Mincemeat.

If you wanna keep a
secret, don't tell anyone.

- [Narrator] With the real
Major Martin across the Atlantic,

Glyndwr Michael is
confidently renamed.

- You can imagine William
Martin's shock and surprise

to find out that his identity
had been usurped by a corpse,

but that's the plan.

- [Narrator] He's issued
ID card number 148228

by the British Admiralty,
directed by Louis Mountbatten.

In order to cover their tracks,

they mark the new identity
card as a replacement

to justify its fresh appearance.

- You know the Germans
are going to ask questions.

You're covering that.

- If they had been sloppy

in organizing this
person's character,

the Nazis would've
caught on right away.

- [Narrator] To
maintain authenticity,

the ID card needs a photo,

which poses another challenge
to Cholmondeley and Montagu.

- There's no actual photograph
of this guy for them to use,

and the only time
that they could take

a photograph of him, he's dead.

So, that is a very
significant logistical problem

that you have to overcome.

- [Narrator] After a while
of staring at their friends

and acquaintances
for a suitable lookalike,

in March of 1943, Ronnie Reed,

a former BBC technician
and expert, is selected

as the man to pose for
Major Martin's photo ID card.

Montagu thinks the
resemblance is so strong

that they could be twins.

In the St. Pancras mortuary,

Cholmondeley
measures Major Martin

to get the right-size
battledress and boots.

He goes to the military
tailors to get a full uniform,

complete with
boots, braces, gaiters,

trench coats, badges
of rank, and a beret.

- You can't have a
pristine uniform on the body

because then it
looks like it's a plant,

so this uniform has to be
worn around for a while.

- [Narrator] Being of
similar height and build,

Cholmondeley wear's
Major Martin's uniform

every day for three
months to break it in.

Now that Major
Martin has an ID card

and military garb
to look the part,

he needs a plaussible backstory.

Cholmondeley and Montagu
decide that Major William Martin

is the adored son of an
upper-middle-class Welsh family

who is brilliant but forgetful.

To establish this, Montagu
approaches Ernest Whitley Jones,

the joint general
manager of Lloyds Bank,

to write an angry letter
about an overdraft.

The letter is addressed to the
Pall Mall Army and Navy Club,

Martin's address when in town.

- And the material on
him was meant to be found

and made accessible
to the Germans.

This person would have to have

everything that a person
normally has, which is a backstory.

And it's the little details
of the personal life

which balance out the fact
that there are clandestine

or secret confidential
documents with this person.

- [Narrator] Cholmondeley
and Montagu

decide Major Martin is
engaged to a vivacious woman

working in a government office.

William had met Pam
just five weeks earlier

and proposed with an
expensive diamond ring.

His fictional father,
John C. Martin,

did not approve of the match.

- And the story of his life,

that's what you're
kinda going for

is trying to get people
to see him as a person

instead of looking too
closely as a body or as a ploy.

Every detail that was used
confirmed an earlier detail

so that you built
up this long chain

that at this point was
almost unbreakable,

that everything here
should be believed;

therefore, the papers
must be real too.

- [Narrator] A receipt for
Pam's engagement ring

is added to William
Martin's wallet,

along with a
flirtatious photograph.

This photograph was
actually of Jean Leslie,

a 20-year-old working
in the War Office

to help intercept enemy spies.

Love letters from Pam to Bill

are also planted in the wallet,

written by Jean Leslie's
boss, Hester Leggett.

- They even put eyelashes
in some of the letters

that are dropped in there

to look like he hasn't
opened the letter yet.

It's almost like a mad
scientist's way of doing spycraft.

They're building
someone up from nothing.

- Because of their positions

of relative power
and intelligence,

they can call in on very
specific levels of assistance.

- [Narrator] To ensure
William Martin's backstory

is consistent, Cholmondeley
carefully gathers

supporting items
that a wartime officer

might carry in his pockets,

what could be referred
to as 'wallet litter'.

Contained within is a booklet
of stamps, a pencil stub,

keys, a pack of Player's Navy
Cut cigarettes and matches,

and a used two penny bus ticket.

But there's still the problem
that if there's a postmortem,

it will clearly show
Martin never drowned,

but Montagu and
Cholmondeley have a plan

to hopefully prevent a full
autopsy from happening.

- So, they made
Major Martin a Catholic

and put a cross on the body

so when it was discovered,
to respect the Catholic faith,

they didn't do the type
of intensive autopsy

that they otherwise would have.

- [Narrator] With Major
Martin's personality fleshed out,

it is time to develop his
role in military operations.

It is decided that
Martin is a courier,

carrying an attache containing
confidential personal letters

between high-ranking
Allied officials.

Building on the Allied
Army's success in North Africa,

it is decided that
the first fake letter

from Major Martin's briefcase

will be sent from General
Sir Archibald Nye in Britain

to General Sir Harold
Alexander in Tunisia.

These two generals are privy

to highly-classified
battle plans

and the Germans
will know who they are.

For authenticity's sake,

General Nye drafts
the letter himself.

- If you're the British, there
is a very high probability

that the Germans
have seen letters

written by General Nye before.

So, they know how he writes,
they know the voice he uses,

so it's a really smart decision

to have him write
the letter himself

so that whatever those
little unconscious tendencies

that you have when
you're writing come through.

- [Narrator] The
letter indicates

there are two assaults planned:

the bombing of
airfields in Sardinia,

codename Operation Brimstone,

and an Allied invasion of
Greece, Operation Husky.

In fact, Brimstone
only existed on paper

and Operation
Husky's true objective

was the island of Sicily.

The hope is that if Germans
find anything else called Husky,

they'll believe it is about
an attack on Greece.

- Nobody other than a very
small group knew all the details

or would see how all
the pieces fit together,

and you'd only do that
if you're really afraid

that there were
double-agents or German spies

that had infiltrated
British command.

- [Narrator] Information
about military attacks

is typically shared over
wireless using coded messages.

But for Operation
Mincemeat to work,

the body needs to have
written documents planted on it

for the enemy to discover.

To dispel any questions
about why a courier

is carrying such
confidential information

about upcoming military attacks,

the letters in Major
Martin's briefcase

need to be considered personal,

written with just
enough informality.

- It has to be believable
for the Nazis to respond to it.

Everything has to look right.

If something is off, then
the whole mission fails.

- [Narrator] With Major
Martin's meticulous backstory

and falsified military
plans complete,

Cholmondeley and
Montagu now need to choose

the best spot to drop the body,

where it is sure to
land in the right hands

and make its way up
to Hitler in Germany.

British intelligence
decide on neutral Spain,

where the country was led

by right-wing dictator
General Franco.

- Spain depended
on the United States

and to some extent did not
want to anger the United Kingdom,

so it was ostensibly neutral.

Franco's neutrality cannot
be really taken at face value

because we know that
the Nazis and Mussolini

fought on Franco's side
during the Spanish Civil War.

So, we know that
Franco was a sympathizer

to a limited extent with what
was going on in Germany.

- [Narrator] But to
pinpoint an exact location,

they need someone
well-connected on the ground.

- It's gotta be tough.

Who do you know who to trust?

- [Narrator] Montagu
and Cholmondeley

meet with Don Gomez-Beare,
a British Navy captain

who has a large Spanish network.

He advises that the best
place to launch a dead body

into German hands is Huelva,

a fishing port off
the Spanish coast.

It is home to a large
German community

where the chief of
police is very pro-German,

but it has one very
important German resident.

- They were targeting
a very specific member

of the German spy network,

somebody who was
highly trusted, highly ranked,

and who had a lot of connections

in the area that they
were dropping off the body.

- [Narrator] This
is Adolf Clauss

a Nazi spy that's
made Huelva his home.

Supposedly there under the guise

as an agricultural technician,

he was an efficient and
effective operative for the Abwehr,

a German equivalent
of Britain's MI5.

- If you can convince him

that this is a real
lucky opportunity,

then anything he passes
back towards Germany

is going to be taken
from a trusted source.

- [Narrator] In 1943,
Clauss is running the largest

and most efficient
spy ring in Spain.

If anything of importance
washes up near Huelva,

Clauss will surely
hear about it.

- The Abwehr was everywhere.

I mean, agents were
spanning the globe

because Germany
was very invested

in maintaining the
support of the nations

which had not joined the Allies.

They needed some
kind of neutral powers

where they could collect
information about Allied activity,

and they would stop at
nothing to get what they needed.

- [Narrator] After choosing
Huelva as the target location,

British intelligence decides

that rather than being
dropped from an airplane,

it's best to release the
body of Major William Martin

into the ocean by submarine.

- This body just has to appear,

and what's a great way to
do that along a coastline?

Utilize a submarine,

because a submarine
can be silent,

it can come to the
surface at night,

drop off whatever
needs dropped off,

and then go back
underwater and escape.

Because if you're spotted
dropping it, it's game over.

Everything is for nothing.

- [Narrator] At this moment,
the HMS Seraph is docked

in the port of
Greenock, Scotland.

This submarine was
specifically designed

to patrol the restricted
waters of the North Sea

and the Mediterranean Sea.

It is captained
by Richard Jewell,

who can be relied
upon for discretion.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you can't underestimate

the importance of secrecy.

I mean, there's
double-agents everywhere,

and nobody knows that
more than Cholmondeley.

Why, because he
is an integral part

of the Double-Cross committee.

It's all about controlling
double-agents,

in some cases triple-agents.

Who do you trust in war?

- [Narrator] But
there's a problem.

The body of General
Martin is in London

and the submarine
is in Scotland,

so they need to come up with
a way to covertly move the body

and avoid further decomposition
during transportation.

However, they know
just the man for the job.

Charles Fraser-Smith
is the master

of disguising ordinary objects.

After working in
different positions abroad,

he returns to the
UK to design clothing,

props, and gadgetry
for British intelligence.

He is Ian Fleming's
inspiration for 'Q',

the gadget expert in
the "James Bond" series.

Fraser-Smith is tasked
with creating a canister

to transport the body,

the world's first
underwater corpse transfer.

- So, how do they keep
the body from decomposing?

If it's completely decomposed,

the Germans wouldn't
believe it was real or credible.

- And they devise a plan:
Put this body on dry ice

in a large steel container
and take the oxygen out of it

'cause you need
oxygen to decompose.

- [Narrator] Fraser-Smith
works with Charles Cholmondeley

to draw up blueprints for
a tubular canister 6'6" long.

One end will be welded closed

and the other has
an airtight steel lid

and a box wrench
is clipped to the lid

to make for easy removal.

Throughout design
and construction,

Fraser Smith isn't told
what the canister is for.

And when requested to
add a Mae West life jacket,

he's told it's for a
floating weather station,

though the life
jacket makes it clear

this isn't the real reason.

- Information on a
need-to-know basis.

The more you know, the
more potential you have

to compromise the mission.

- [Narrator] Secrecy is key.

But before the body
has left London,

there is one more
hurdle to be faced

and the chance for the
operation to be exposed,

as all MI5 secret activities

need approval from
British Parliament

before being put into action.

On April 13th, 1943,

the British Parliament's
Chief of Staff Committee

gathered to approve
the falsified military letters

for Operation Mincemeat.

- You don't have a lot of time.

The Nazis continue to
build their fortifications

along the coast and
even further inland.

At some point, it's going to be

perhaps impossible to do this.

- [Narrator] Churchill
needs to give final approval.

- Churchill knows that we
can't have a conventional war,

not until the enemy's
been really weakened,

so there's got to be
thinking out of the box.

- [Narrator] April
15th, at 10:15,

Churchill officially signs off.

- Now, many people in
Parliament know what is going on,

and that could be a
significant hindrance

to the secrecy of this.

That's probably one of
the most nerveracking parts

for the intelligence operation.

- [Narrator] A few hours later,
General Dwight Eisenhower

also gives his approval
for the operation.

After all, it's going
to be his troops

leading the landing on Sicily

and will need Operation
Mincemeat to be a success.

With all the necessary
approvals in tow,

the body of Major Martin is
ready for final preparations.

After Cholmondeley
and Montagu dress him,

Martin is transferred
to Hackney Mortuary,

where Fraser-Smith's
canister is waiting.

Next stop is the
port of Greenock.

But to get the canister there,

Cholmondeley and
Montagu enlist the help

of an intelligence officer
who is a former racing driver.

- To make the story
all the more fascinating,

the person selected
to transport the body

is a famous race car driver

with the unusual
name of Jock Horsfall.

And to make that
more interesting

is he's basically legally blind.

- [Narrator] He
lives life on the edge,

often refusing to wear a
helmet or protective clothing,

preferring to drive
in stylish suits.

It is widely speculated
that Ian Fleming

borrowed many of Horsfall's
traits for James Bond.

His reputation as a
tightlipped daredevil

grabs the attention
of British intelligence,

who recruit him as a special
agent during World War II.

- This is a piece of evidence

showing how this was a total war

and everybody
wanted to get onboard

and do whatever they could.

So, being told,
"You are helping us

"fight the Nazis doing
this," that an easy sell.

- [Narrator] For
Operation Mincemeat,

he needs to drive
420 miles from London

to the Greenock
Scottish Naval Yard

with a specially-constructed
canister

full of dry ice in tow.

- Time is not on our side, and
we have thousands of people

who wanna open
up a second front.

He's already
encased, ready to go,

but now we have to understand

that this has to get
to the dock quickly.

- [Narrator] But Operation
Mincemeat's importance

goes beyond Sicily.

At this time on
the Eastern Front,

Russia's Red Army are
fighting the Nazis tooth-and-nail

to hold on to the
Ukrainian city of Kharkov.

In March of 1943,

the Red Army loses
control of the city to the Nazis

and are then pushed
back over 160 kilometers.

After the Red Army
loses this battle,

they begin to
rebuild their forces

to prepare for a
major offensive.

All Russian males,
even male children,

are called to fortify
the Russian forces.

- The Red Army is a massive
nightmare for the Nazis.

- [Narrator] If the Allies
are to be successful

on the Eastern Front, it will
require Operation Mincemeat

to convince Germany to
divert forces to Greece.

- The more troops that are
moving around on the German side,

the more that they
have to reposition people,

the better it is for you as
you're making these plans.

- [Narrator] Back in London,
with time running out,

Jock Horsfall knows
the perfect vehicle

to drive the canister to Greenock:
a large 1937 Fordson van

that he uses to transport
his racing vehicles.

On April 19th, 1943,

the canister is loaded
into Horsfall's Fordson

just after midnight.

Around 2 a.m., Cholmondeley
and Montagu buckle up tight

as Horsfall races against time.

- Pray to the big man you're
gonna get up to Greenock

in one piece 'cause,
I'm telling you what,

that was not guaranteed
with Horsfall at the helm.

- [Narrator] Horsfall
comes within inches

of totalling his 3,400-pound
Fordson several times.

- At this point, they just
want the body to get there.

- [Narrator] That morning,
after their harrowing ride,

Horsfall, Cholmondeley, and
Montagu arrive at Greenock Dock.

Here, the crew of the submarine

help them load the
canister onto the vessel,

but are not told what's in it.

On April 19th at 1600
hours, after three full months

of crafting their
fictional character,

Cholmondeley and Montagu

bid the fictional
Major Martin goodbye,

hoping to fool the
Germans against all odds.

- Everything is in motion now.

- For two people
who have controlled

every little detail of this,
this has gotta be stressful.

It's outta your hands,
you gotta hope for the best,

and you hope you get a
message back at some point.

- [Narrator] The HMS Seraph
slips out of the moorings

and sails out from
the port of Greenock.

- They've served off
the coast of North Africa,

they've been in the
Battle of the Atlantic.

They know what combat is like.

They understand
their previous missions

and understand the
importance of every mission,

even though most of the
crew don't know what's going on

with this canister that's
now showed up onboard.

- [Narrator] On April 30th,

the HMS Seraph
stealthily approaches

the shores of Huelva
in southern Spain.

- So, there are
U-boats everywhere,

so the decision to launch
this body underwater,

there's a lot of risk in that.

- [Narrator] Two hours later,

they reach the drop
spot off the Poril Pillar,

but where the body should
be released are fishing boats.

It's a tense wait
for them to leave.

Once the coast is clear,
three men onboard the Seraph

hold the canister up
through the torpedo hatch.

The body of Major Martin
is lifted out of the steel tube.

- After a 10-day
journey under the ocean,

the body is gonna be
relinquished to the seven seas

in the hope that
it washes ashore

in suitably German-sympathetic
southwest Spain

and is handed on
up the food chain,

arriving, of course, at
German intelligence,

but there's lots that
could possibly go wrong.

- [Narrator] At 4:30,

when the HMS Seraph
is practically aground,

the body is dropped
off the coast of Huelva

before the submarine
disappears out of sight.

Now, back in London,
Cholmondeley and Montagu

are nervously waiting for news.

- That must've been an
excruciating time for them

as they waited for
word of what happened.

- [Narrator] Just a few
hours after being jettisoned

from the submarine, the body
of Major Martin washes ashore.

A local fisherman discovers it

just 14 kilometers from Huelva.

- What's going to
happen to the documents?

Are they gonna end up
in the right place or not?

- That's the hope,
that one cadaver,

one extraordinary
cleverly-laid trap

will reel in a whole shoal
of fish for the Allied forces.

- [Narrator] Based
on the uniform,

the fisherman knows this is
a man of military importance.

The body, along with
the chained attache,

are rushed to the morgue
cemetery in Huelva.

- The next day, the autopsy
of Major William Martin

by Dr. Fernandez is scheduled.

Since this was the
body of a British soldier,

the Spanish authorities
contacted Francis Haselden,

the British vice-consul, to
oversee the proceedings.

Haselden knew that this body

was a crucial part of a
larger British strategy.

Dr. Fernandez goes
through the pockets

and puts everything on the table

beside the locked attache case,

all of the items
Cholmondeley and Montagu

have painstakingly chosen
for the fictional Major Martin.

Then the briefcase is opened.

The contents are soaked,

but the writing on the
envelopes is still legible.

Haselden examines
the names and the letters

and registers their importance.

The Spaniards offered the
case and its contents to Haselden,

but Haselden declined,

requesting that the handover
go through formal channels,

possibly a suspicious move
on his part, but essential.

The letters from the briefcase

are then passed on
to the Spanish Navy.

Though most of
Spain is pro-German,

the Spanish Navy is
actually fairly pro-British,

the most out of all of neutral
Spain's military divisions.

However, the top German
spy in Spain, Adolf Clauss,

has heard about the
dead British officer's body

being washed up with potentially
important documents on him.

- People who are
working in the spy network

are trying to show their worth.

And if you provide information
that ends up being used,

then often there are
rewards for you in the system.

And then, lo and behold,

here's some of the
best key intelligence.

Everybody's going
to want to pass it on

and want to believe it.

- [Narrator] But with the
letters in the Navy's possession,

it becomes increasingly
more challenging

for him to get his
hands on them,

putting Operation
Mincemeat in jeopardy.

The Abwehr, of course,
is very, very impatient,

but the Spaniards have
to follow the procedures.

They cannot allow it to be seen

as if their sovereignty's being
challenged by the Germans

or as if they are
not, in fact, neutral

but have some kind of
back channel to the Abwehr.

That would have exposed
that neutrality to be false.

- [Narrator] Cholmondeley
and Montagu's plan

to avoid a full autopsy

by making Major Martin
Catholic has failed,

as the Spanish doctor
decides to conduct a full one.

But Haselden has hung around

to try to stop this
from happening.

Haselden knows a few details
about Operation Mincemeat,

but understands that the
more rigorous the autopsy,

the likelihood the doctor will
find the real cause of death,

which is not drowning.

Dr. Fernandez is competent
and familiar with drowning,

since Huelva is a coastal city.

He examines the lungs,
which have fluid in them,

but he is unsure
if this is water.

Haselden takes matters
into his own hands,

saying that the
extremely hot day

has done enough
damage to the body

and he is satisfied
with the autopsy.

Dr. Fernandez relents and
issues the death certificate.

- With a typical military
operation, you know the results

almost in real time
of what is happening.

With this, you don't.

They have a long
wait before they know

if their plan has
been successful.

That wait time must
have been excruciating.

- [Narrator] On May 2nd,
1943, the official military burial

for Major William
Martin is held.

Many esteemed guests attend,

including the British
vice-consul, Haselden,

along with the British Navy
captain Don Gomez-Beare.

- So, Glyndwr
Michael dies twice.

A homeless Welshman
ends up getting

a full military
funeral and honors

and a burial in Spain
as a Royal Marine.

- [Narrator] Haselden
and Captain Gomez-Beare

notice Adolf Clauss watching
the funeral processions

in the shadows.

- We know that Adolf
Clauss has been tipped off

and is across what's going on.

- Clauss is very interested
in figuring out who this is,

what's the importance
of these documents,

and notifying the
proper channels

because that ensure
that he has a job,

that he stays safe, and that
he has status in this system.

Someone has taken the bait.

- [Narrator] Now
that the briefcase

is in the hands of
the Spanish Navy,

London and the British
Embassy in Madrid

need to become
increasingly agitated

about the top-secret
documents that are inside.

- Deception only works if
everyone plays their part.

If they had shown indifference
towards the material

found on this deceased
major's person,

it would have rung alarm bells,

saying, "Why are
they disinterested?

"Why are they treating it
as if this was a laundry list

or just some random memo?"

- [Narrator] From Huelva,
Haselden communicates

with the embassy in Madrid.

Cables from London are also sent

pointing out the urgency of
these documents to be returned.

- One of the worst
things that could happen

is if in asking for it back,

Spain says, "Okay,
sure, here you go."

- [Narrator] The British allow

their false retrieval attempts

to be intercepted by the Germans

and their fake desperation
fools Clauss and the Abwehr,

who become desperate
to get their hands

on copies of these letters.

Three days have passed

since Major Martin's
funeral on May 2nd.

Adolf Clauss still knows nothing

of what those sealed
military documents say.

- The Abwehr is kinda
like this secondary arm

of the intelligence wing.

They don't get as much funding.

They're not seen as being
as elite, quote-unquote,

as the SS intelligence arm is.

This is a huge deal,
finding this body.

Clauss could put the Abwehr
on a different level now

by saying, "I know where
they're going to invade.

"Here's the document."

- [Narrator] With no progress
being made, Wilhelm Canaris,

the head of the Abwehr
headquarters in Berlin,

is forced to get involved.

He is a well-connected admiral

and leans heavily on his
Spanish naval connections

to access the
contents of the letters.

This is nearly a full week

after Clauss learned
of their existence,

an embarrassing failure
for the German agent.

- Lo and behold, Clauss is
given access to the briefcase.

He makes copies of
the important documents

and sends them up
the chain of command.

- They are taken so seriously
that they are sent to Berlin.

You're not going
to pick up the phone

and call and say,
"I have intelligence

"that the Allies are
going to invade Greece."

That has to be sent
straight to Berlin,

straight to the
intelligence offices.

- [Narrator] The letters are
passed to Fremde Heere West,

also known as the F.H.W,

which is the linchpin of the
German military intelligence.

- They know almost everything
going on on the continent.

They have spies everywhere.

They have informants.

The Gestapo is working overtime

to try to find out
counterinsurgency plots,

enemies of the state.

They're locking down Europe.

It is going to be
hard to break through

and fool them into thinking

that this is what's
going to happen.

- There is a high level of
paranoia in the German state.

In any dictatorial society,

you are second-guessing yourself

'cause you put a step
wrong, [tongue clicking]

it's game over.

- [Narrator] Based on
the letter's contents,

it determines they
have two to three weeks

to reinforce the Greek
coast before the Allies attack.

- It has to be fully trusted
before it gets to Hitler.

And at any point
along that chain,

if somebody
doesn't believe in it,

then the whole mission fails.

- There's a lot of anxiety
on the British side.

What's happened
to the intelligence?

Do they believe it?

- [Narrator] The
decision is made.

Hitler is to receive this intel.

Operation Mincemeat
has made its way

to the top German commander.

On May 12th, the Bletchley
Park offices in London

intercept a German message.

It states an enemy
invasion on a large scale

is projected in the near future

in both east and
west Mediterranean.

But has Germany taken the bait

or is this an attempt
to deceive the Allies?

- How do you know the
Germans have fallen for this ruse?

- It's very possible that if
Mincemeat goes wrong,

you're gonna be
walking into a trap,

and the trap being
it's always tough

to have a landing
from the ocean.

If you are caught
on those beaches,

you're gonna have
high casualties

and then it's really
hard to get out of there.

- If the Germans figure
this out, it is mass casualties

for thousands and
thousands of Allied soldiers.

- [Narrator] Finally,
Cholmondeley and Montagu

receive a crucial update

on the outcome of
their deception plan.

- With Cholmondeley and
Montagu's letter in hand,

Hitler issues a decree
and 90,000 German soldiers

are sent to Greece to
dig in at great expense

with fortifications constructed

to prepare for the Allied
invasion of Greece,

which doesn't happen.

- But once Hitler has
said yes, there was no one

in the entire National
Socialist military establishment

who was gonna question him.

- That's the golden prize

'cause that means that they've
bought the deception plan.

- [Narrator] At Bletchley Park,

they intercept plenty of
German communiques,

giving them a clearcut idea

of what German
defenses look like in Sicily.

The coast will be armed
with 300,000 troops

defending 600
miles of coastline.

More than two-thirds are
Italians who are poorly trained

and ill-equipped
for this attack.

- Many of the troops in Sicily,

their heart is not in
the effort anymore,

and that will show when
the Allies do invade.

- [Narrator] Then,
on July 9th, 1943,

the Allies launch Operation
Husky, an attack on Sicily.

This is the culmination
of all their efforts

from Operation Mincemeat.

Two American and two
British airborne troops

carry out attacks
just after midnight.

In the early hours of July 10th,

the amphibious assault
begins their landings

spread along 105
miles of the southern

and eastern
coasts of the island.

British and Canadian
forces are in the east

and Americans are
towards the west.

- It's a smash-and-grab.

Within six weeks or so, we
are now the occupying force

and we've got the
perfect landing stage

via which to launch into
that so-called soft underbelly,

in fact, very tough
gut that is Italy.

And it's very important
that that initial operation

into Sicily isn't too costly
because the Italian war is.

- [Narrator] The attack opens up

the Mediterranean Sea
lanes for Allied forces.

- Think of how
man lives are saved

by that movement
from the Allied side.

If 90,000 or 100,000
Germans had been left

on the Italian frontier,

it would have been a
bog of epic proportions.

- [Narrator] Although
having been caught out,

on August 6th, 1943,
German troops pour into Italy

to shut down any
possibility of a peace treaty.

But all that extra manpower

means they have to loosen
their grip on the Eastern Front

and they begin to withdraw
from Russia and Ukraine.

- If you're being attacked

so hard by the
Soviets on one side

and now you're being
pushed hard from Sicily,

you have a two-front war.

And this pincer movement
is starting to push in,

and that means that
you can't move troops

from the Eastern Front
to Italy and vice-versa

because they're both necessary

and needed to keep
the operation going.

So, you can't utilize your
interior lines anymore,

and this causes a major
problem for Nazi Germany.

- [Narrator] With
the Nazi troops

withdrawing from
the Eastern Front,

the Red Army now has the numbers

to move to a crucial offensive.

- It's not looking
pretty for Germany.

You've got the American
who've come into the war

on the Western Front

and you've got the
extraordinary capacity of Russia

to absorb German firepower.

That had not been anticipated.

- [Narrator] Back on the
Western Front, on July 25th, 1943,

Benito Mussolini is arrested.

Less than two weeks later,

Italy indicates there
may be potential

to sign a peace treaty.

- Fascist Italy falls in a
very short amount of time,

so now the Germans
have another worry.

Now their ally to the south
is knocked out of the war.

- [Narrator] On September
8th, the surrender of Italy

to the Allies is announced
by General Eisenhower

and then by the
Italian government

in the Badoglio Proclamation.

Operation Husky is a success.

If Operation Mincemeat
hadn't convinced the Germans

to pull troops from Sicily,

the Allies may never
have captured it.

On the Eastern Front,
Operation Mincemeat's success

gives Russia an upper
hand on German forces.

- Without as many German
troops on the Eastern Front,

it allows the Red
Army to march in

and make progress towards
moving toward Germany.

- [Narrator] On August 23rd,

the Russians win
the Battle of Kursk,

the largest tank
battle in history.

This marks the decisive end

of German offensives
on the Eastern Front,

paving the way for the
massive Soviet offenses

in 1944 and 1945 that
will end in Berlin's capture

and the Nazis' defeat.

- Everyone was driven
by a sense of desperation

to end the war, and
Operation Mincemeat

certainly expedited
the German defeat.

- What I still can't
get my brain around

is that MI5 allowed these
two young 20-somethings,

Cholmondeley and Montagu,

to just run with this
seemingly farcical idea

of planting evidence
on a dead body,

and they were given free
rein to run with this mission

and it ended up working.

- War is fought on
the ground, certainly,

but it is also fought at home.

It's fought in intelligence,
it's fought in the mind.

- And what Operation
Mincemeat is,

it's an example of being able,

being given the space
to think outside the box,

being given the freedom
to come up with a solution

that's literally going
to outsmart your enemy

and in the end, in the end,

bring this god-awful
conflict to a quicker finish.

- [Narrator] Both
Cholmondeley and Montagu

were given honors for their
part in the successful mission,

but they weren't the only ones.

In 1998, a new
inscription was added

to the gravestone of
General William Martin,

recognizing the part that
Glyndwr Michael had played

in Operation Mincemeat,

a man who helped change
the course of World War II

and, in his death, saved
the lives of thousands more.