During the planning of Operation Husky, in the spring of 1943, the British secret services implement a plan that was intended to divert the 'attention of the Germans about the place of implementation of the landing in Europe. The project, conceived by a young Navy intelligence officer, Captain Ewen Montagu, was given the code name of mincemeat (ground meat). The plan was to prepare a series of false documents to be sent randomly to the Germans, giving details of an imminent landing Anglo-American in Sardinia and Greece. In the late morning of April 30, off the Gulf of Cadiz, Spain, opposite the city of Huelva, some fishermen rescued at sea the lifeless body of a British officer who, by the documents in its possession, turned out to be Major William Martin , of the British Royal Marines. The body, still wearing a life jacket, "Mae West", was immediately delivered by fishermen to the English authorities who underwent a thorough search. In addition to documents and personal effects (including a photograph of his girlfriend, some of her love letters, a theater ticket), the man had with him, tied his belt with a chain, a diplomatic bag in which were contained top secret documents . The Germans were informed of the discovery and the documents were sent to Berlin. Among those papers, one letter in particular caught the attention of Hitler: the 'sent' by the Naval War Staff to General Alexander, where it explicitly spoke of an imminent invasion of Greece by the Allies, and how they believe he was doing likely that a German landing would take place in Sicily. The "meatloaf," as Churchill called it the same, was swallowed without any suspicion by the Germans and the confirmation of this came when Hitler moved from France to all the Peloponnese men of the First Panzer Division.
The body of the "greater Martin" is now buried in the cemetery of the English town of Huelva. The stone above the tomb bear wrote: "William Martin. Born on 25.3.1907, died 24.4.1943. Glydwyr beloved son of John Martin and the late Antonia Martin, Cardiff, Wales. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Requiescat in pace. " On the grave man who has never lived , it seems that every year the British Embassy side lay a wreath of flowers. Ezio Costanzo, from the book Sicily 1943
0 comments:
Post a Comment