Operation Mincemeat

[Tricky Dicky]

That's what I'd be interested in. Now many years after the event surely we're able to look at things a bit more subjectively and it would be fascinating to hear the success stories from the enemy. There must be some instances surely!?

I was thinking about something similar the other day - we see many films about the British and Allies undercover sabotaging in Germany and France etc., but we never hear about it happening here, I presume it did.

 

[Greavsey]

I was thinking about something similar the other day - we see many films about the British and Allies undercover sabotaging in Germany and France etc., but we never hear about it happening here, I presume it did.

Perhaps any documentation got destroyed or "misplaced" by the Russians at the end of the war, and any spies rounded up and disposed of.

 

[simmo]

I was thinking about something similar the other day - we see many films about the British and Allies undercover sabotaging in Germany and France etc., but we never hear about it happening here, I presume it did.

I saw a similar program to Operation Mincemeat recently and in that the claim was made that the British found and either neutralised (imprisoned or worse) or better still turned every single German spy located in Britain during the Second World War. Also there was only one ever German escapee from a British POW camp and he actually escaped while in Canada (to the USA which was then neutral) there was a film about him to, called "The one that got away"

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Great book

 

[SeagullSongs]

I saw a similar program to Operation Mincemeat recently and in that the claim was made that the British found and either neutralised (imprisoned or worse) or better still turned every single German spy located in Britain during the Second World War. Also there was only one ever German escapee from a British POW camp and he actually escaped while in Canada (to the USA which was then neutral) there was a film about him to, called "The one that got away"

I could be wrong, but I thought that was about an 8-man SAS squad, where only 1 man (Chris Ryan) managed to escape?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I could be wrong, but I thought that was about an 8-man SAS squad, where only 1 man (Chris Ryan) managed to escape?

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/904218/The-One-That-Got-Away/Product.html?searchstring=The+one+that+got+away&searchsource=0&searchtype=allproducts&urlrefer=search

 

[SeagullSongs]

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/904218/The-One-That-Got-Away/Product.html?searchstring=The+one+that+got+away&searchsource=0&searchtype=allproducts&urlrefer=search

Fair enough, I was thinking of this, which they also made a film of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_That_Got_Away_%28book%29

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Looking at this thread I would think that several posters may enjoy a book called We die alone by David Howarth which is based on a true story from World War 2.

In March 1943 a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from the Shetland Islands - the most northerly part of Britain - for Nazi-occupied Norway.Their mission was to organise and support the Norwegian resistance. They were betrayed and only one man survived the ambush by the Nazis. Crippled by frostbite and snow-blind, hunted by the Nazis, Jan Baalstrud managed to find a tiny arctic village. There - delirious, near death - he found villagers willing to risk their own lives to save him. David Howarth narrates his incredible escape in this gripping tale of courage and the resilience of the human spirit.

We Die Alone: Amazon.co.uk: David Howarth, Andy McNab: Books

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Back to the Germans 'and did they outwit us' did the Allies/British have a mock-up of planes/tanks etc somwhere in Norfolk/Suffolk set-up to fool the Germans over the D-Day landings ? Then of coarse there is the finding and breaking the code of the enigma machine,but surely they must have fooled us ?

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Agree he is a really good writer. Have you read double cross? Also by him (think it's reasonably new)

No, that's his latest isn't it... I've taped the BBC doc that was on the other night about it, hopefully I won't be tempted to watch it until I've bought and finished the book. There is an old British film, The Man Who Never Was, based on Operation Mincemeat. I haven't seen it for years but will have to search it out again.

 

[Uwinsc]

No, that's his latest isn't it... I've taped the BBC doc that was on the other night about it, hopefully I won't be tempted to watch it until I've bought and finished the book. There is an old British film, The Man Who Never Was, based on Operation Mincemeat. I haven't seen it for years but will have to search it out again.

Brilliant book, well worth the money. Have you ever been to bletchley park? Worth a visit if you are interested in the subject of code breaking etc.

 

[Uwinsc]

Back to the Germans 'and did they outwit us' did the Allies/British have a mock-up of planes/tanks etc somwhere in Norfolk/Suffolk set-up to fool the Germans over the D-Day landings ? Then of coarse there is the finding and breaking the code of the enigma machine,but surely they must have fooled us ?

I don't know about on the continent but I don't believe that the Germans have ever disputed the fact that every german spy in Britan was discovered and imprisoned/executed or under British control.

 

[JOLovegrove]

Is the film worth seeing, if so, may have to purchase it off of Amazon!

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Is the film worth seeing, if so, may have to purchase it off of Amazon!

It's a 50s British war film, which are always worth a Sunday afternoon imo. It might be fun seeing as you know the story it would have been based on. I'm surprised the Americans haven't remade it to show how they won the war (see that awful Matthew Mahogany film about them cracking the Enigma code)

 

[Seagull on the wing]

The Norwegian resistance got hold of a box of spare Enigma code wheels which eventually ended up at Bletchly. In 1941 the destroyer HMS Bulldog was escorting a convoy off of Iceland when a corvette depth charged U-110 which surfaced and the crew abandoned the submarine. The Bulldog sent a boarding party led by a junior officer who found the Enigma machine intact (although at the time they had no idea what it was)...when sent to Bletchly the code was finally broken.

 

[Norman Potting]

Agree he is a really good writer. Have you read double cross? Also by him (think it's reasonably new)

Waiting for that one to come up at the library. I would also recommend "Churchill's Wizards" by Nicholas Rankin which is a highly readable account of British deception in both world wars. I find it fascinating that someone like Garbo and his team could bamboozle and befuddle the mighty Third Reich war machine from the comfort of a semi in Hendon, so successfully that they ended up believing that "D Day" was a deception and the main invasion was to be near Calais. They even gave him an Iron Cross for his trouble and a pension to the widow of one of his (totally imaginary) agents.

I live near to "Aspidistra" for those who have an interest in this aspect of warfare.

 

[Norman Potting]

I was thinking about something similar the other day - we see many films about the British and Allies undercover sabotaging in Germany and France etc., but we never hear about it happening here, I presume it did.

I think that the answer to this (based on the books I have read on the subject) is no - they got "invited" to "turn" and work for us or were shot.

 

[Twizzle]

It's a 50s British war film, which are always worth a Sunday afternoon imo. It might be fun seeing as you know the story it would have been based on. I'm surprised the Americans haven't remade it to show how they won the war (see that awful Matthew Mahogany film about them cracking the Enigma code)

Americans can be annoying, and you often hear their "if it weren't for us you'd be speaking German" bullshit. They seem to overlook the fact WE declared war on Hitler despite the overwhelming odds (Russia, Italy, Hungary, Albania, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland,Vichy France, Denmark [at the start] plus all Germany inc. Austria, and more) against us, we spanked them in the air and we gave them a torrid time at sea, came at them in North Africa with inferior equipment and faced them while they bombed the crud out of London and Coventry.... and other major cities.
Hitler declared war on the USA, after already sinking their ships with subs off the East Coast for ages, and they entered the fray bloody LATE. If it wasn't for us, they would have been against the odds themselves, and caught in a pincer between Europe and Asia. We declared joining war on Japan THREE DAYS BEFORE Adolph even declared war on the Americans.
Joe Kennedy, father to the famous future presidents and congressmen, was an admirer of Adolph Hitler.
The yanks got the glory when marching into Germany liberating POW and concentration camp prisoners, giving guided tours of those camps for the local German villagers so they knew what their own were doing to people in their own backyard.
Yes they were needed to be on our side and supply desperately needed equipment, ammunition and men, a force alongside ours, but had much to lose if they hadn't. Plus, we were all to benefit from Russia doing an about-face. Poland suffered from both the Germans and Russians, poor buggers.

 

[Uwinsc]

Waiting for that one to come up at the library. I would also recommend "Churchill's Wizards" by Nicholas Rankin which is a highly readable account of British deception in both world wars. I find it fascinating that someone like Garbo and his team could bamboozle and befuddle the mighty Third Reich war machine from the comfort of a semi in Hendon, so successfully that they ended up believing that "D Day" was a deception and the main invasion was to be near Calais. They even gave him an Iron Cross for his trouble and a pension to the widow of one of his (totally imaginary) agents.

I live near to "Aspidistra" for those who have an interest in this aspect of warfare.

I have that book but found it hard to get into and gave up, must try again sometime