Posted on 12/28/2021 8:06:41 AM PST by DFG
In the final row of graves in an obscure cemetery in southern Spain, is a tomb dedicated to William Martin - a British officer killed during the Second World War.
Except that Martin wasn't real. He was invented by British spies as part of a daring and successful plot to fool Hitler about the invasion of Sicily, using the corpse of an unknown man dressed up like an officer and carrying a case full of fake documents.
Now, ahead of the release of new film Operation Mincemeat which documents the mission, calls are growing to exhume the grave so the true identity of The Man Who Never Was can be confirmed and his place in history assured.
Leading the calls are Ben Macintyre, a journalist and author who penned a book on Operation Mincemeat and believes Martin's real identity is that of a homeless Welsh man, and two teams of Spanish researchers with conflicting claims.
According to Macintyre, the corpse used by British intelligence as a stand-in for Martin was Glyndwr Michael - a vagrant who had been living on the streets of London before dying in January 1943 after accidentally eating rat poison.
This is backed up by MI5 documents obtained in 1996 by an amateur historian which seem to confirm the identity, and by an inscription on 'Martin's' grave which gives his father's name as John Glyndwr Martin - perhaps a nod to the body's true identity.
But Jesus Ramírez and Enrique Nielsen, Spanish researchers, say there are inconsistencies in that account and they believe the body is actually that of a British sailor who died when HMS Dasher sunk off the coast of Scotland in March 1943.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
1956 movie “The Man Who Never Was” starring Clifton Webb, Stephen Boyd, and Gloria Grahame.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049471/?ref_=ttmi_tt
They ought to just leave the guy alone.
January 2022 movie “Operation Mincemeat” starring Colin Firth.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1879016/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4
We do not have to know every last detail about everything. Some things - like graves - should be left alone.
I have two bodies that I want to dig up and do DNA testing. One is the woman married to my great great grandfather. She would have been in her fifties when my great grandfather was born so my theory is that she is the step mother after my great great grandmother died in the Irish famine. The other is a man with the same last name as my great great grandfather and buried in the family plot with a very nice headstone and with the words, “A colored man.” My theory is that he and my great great grandfather were half brothers. I know, I need to get a life.
Whatever happened to Rest in Peace.
God knows who he is and that’s enough. Let him Rest In Peace.
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away...
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away...
Hughes Mearns
I doubt that the remains of a homeless man would have passed the muster, as a British officer, after the autopsy that the Germans would have had performed on him.
Bookmark
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away...
~Hughes Mearns
Written about Biden?
If they find out who he is, they may discover in the 30’s he insulted a protected group and they will have to move him to an unmarked grave.
During WWII, two intelligence officers use a corpse and false papers to outwit German troops.
I hope the movie pays more attention to detail than did the writer of the synopsis.
As I learned the story a more accurate synopsis would have been:
"Two British officers head up an intelligence team that develops an elaborate plan to use a corpse, disguised as a British Intelligence officer, to deceive German Intelligence with false information on a proposed European invasion."
As I learned the story, the key piece of information that convinced German Intelligence that the invasion would be in Greece, was a letter, planted on the body, ostensibly from the officer to his girlfriend. In the letter a casual reference is made to toasting to a 'glass of Retsina'.
The Brits were smart enough to know the Germans would not fall for something as obvious as a folder labeled: TOP SECRET: PLANS TO INVADE GREECE
No, they had to be subtle.
The cast also includes Johnny Flynn (who will play a young Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming), Penelope Wilton (who plays Mrs. Hughes in Downton Abbey) and Ellie Haddington (who played Hilda Pierce in Foyle's War).
Problem is that it is a grave in a SPANISH graveyard.
Me? I say that it should be RIP and be done with it! Past efforts like the REAL exhumation of President Zachary Taylor in 1991 on suspicion of poisoning tend to resolve nothing in the partisans.
Admin Moderator: Please fix the UK Daily Mail link
The found body was in NEUTRAL SPAIN (pro-Axis but neutral) and thus the Germans had minimal and short-term access to body & papers. The finding of the body was already reported to the British so a real 'deep dive' was just not possible for German Intelligence on time alone. Add to this that the operation was a coordinated operation with other actions ongoing that made the found evidence look more valid that Greece was more likely than Sicily.
The movie was good. I suspect it had more drama than the real life events.
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