| Display title | The Man Who Never Was |
| Default sort key | Man Who Never Was, The |
| Page length (in bytes) | 4,432 |
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| Page ID | 172152 |
| Page content language | en - English |
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| Page creator | m>Import Bot |
| Date of page creation | 21:27, 1 November 2013 |
| Latest editor | Robkelk (talk | contribs) |
| Date of latest edit | 01:29, 5 October 2020 |
| Total number of edits | 7 |
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Description | Content |
Article description: (description)
This attribute controls the content of the description and og:description elements. | The story of a wartime plot to deceive German intelligence regarding the then-imminent invasion of southern Europe by the Allied forces. This was to be achieved by allowing a dead body, dressed as a British officer named William Martin, to wash ashore in southern Spain carrying "plans" for the invasion (which the Germans were expecting anyway), in the hope of making the enemy think that he was a courier who had drowned en route. Spain was technically neutral but friendly to Germany, and would certainly allow them to obtain a copy of any documents on the body, but they would also hand the body back to the British if asked, and so offer the Germans just a couple of days to handle the original documents and possibly investigate the body in detail. To make it all work, the British invented a Backstory about Major Martin's career, tastes, private life, etc., designed to provide enough detail to convince the enemy that their windfall was genuine. It succeeded, and German High Command ordered several army units to move to the Balkans (where the purported invasion was to take place) from Italy (where the actual invasion was going to be). As with D-Day a year later, the quality of the deception was such that while the actual invasion was underway, the Germans still believed it to be a decoy. |