Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II
One April morning in 1943, a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War.Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted, and certainly the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs, sent German troops hurtling in the wrong direction, and saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different, in one crucial respect, from any spy before or since: he was dead. His mission: to convince the Germans that instead of attacking Sicily, the Allied armies planned to invade Greece.The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer and a brilliant Jewish barrister, the great hoax involved an extraordinary cast of characters including a famous forensic pathologist, a gold-prospector, an inventor, a beautiful secret service secretary, a submarine captain, three novelists, a transvestite English spymaster, an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing, and a dead Welsh tramp. Using fraud, imagination and seduction, Churchill’s team of spies spun a web of deceit so elaborate and so convincing that they began to believe it themselves. The deception started in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall. It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany. And it ended up on Hitler’s desk. Ben Macintyre, bestselling author of Agent Zigzag, weaves together private documents, photographs, memories, letters and diaries, as well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5 and Naval Intelligence, to tell for the first time the full story of Operation Mincemeat.
Amazon.co.uk Price: £5.89 (as of 09/04/2023 11:08 PST- Details)
One April morning in 1943, a sardine fisherman noticed the corpse of a British soldier floating within the sea off the coast of Spain and set in prepare a course of occasions that will change the course of the Second World Conflict.Operation Mincemeat was probably the most profitable wartime deception ever tried, and positively the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs, despatched German troops hurtling within the incorrect route, and saved 1000’s of lives by deploying a undercover agent who was completely different, in a single essential respect, from any spy earlier than or since: he was lifeless. His mission: to persuade the Germans that as a substitute of attacking Sicily, the Allied armies deliberate to invade Greece.The brainchild of an eccentric RAF officer and a superb Jewish barrister, the nice hoax concerned a unprecedented solid of characters together with a well-known forensic pathologist, a gold-prospector, an inventor, a good looking secret service secretary, a submarine captain, three novelists, a transvestite English spymaster, an irascible admiral who beloved fly-fishing, and a lifeless Welsh tramp. Utilizing fraud, creativeness and seduction, Churchill’s staff of spies spun an internet of deceit so elaborate and so convincing that they started to consider it themselves. The deception began in a windowless basement beneath Whitehall. It travelled from London to Scotland to Spain to Germany. And it ended up on Hitler’s desk. Ben Macintyre, bestselling creator of Agent Zigzag, weaves collectively non-public paperwork, pictures, recollections, letters and diaries, in addition to newly launched materials from the intelligence recordsdata of MI5 and Naval Intelligence, to inform for the primary time the complete story of Operation Mincemeat.
Based on 0 reviews
Be the first to review “Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II”
Related products
-
Law
The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation
In 1889, the first Official Secrets Act was passed, creating offences of ‘disclosure of information’ and ‘breach of official trust’. It limited and monitored what the public could, and should, be told. Since then a culture of secrecy has flourished. As successive governments have been selective about what they choose to share with the public, we have been left with a distorted and incomplete understanding not only of the workings of the state but of our nation’s culture and its past.In this important book, Ian Cobain offers a fresh appraisal of some of the key moments in British history since the end of WWII, including: the measures taken to conceal the existence of Bletchley Park and its successor, GCHQ, for three decades; the unreported wars fought during the 1960s and 1970s; the hidden links with terrorist cells during the Troubles; the sometimes opaque workings of the criminal justice system; the state’s peacetime surveillance techniques; and the convenient loopholes in the Freedom of Information Act.Drawing on previously unseen material and rigorous research, The History Thieves reveals how a complex bureaucratic machine has grown up around the British state, allowing governments to evade accountability and their secrets to be buried.
SKU: n/a -
Law
Unfair Game: An exposé of South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry
In April 2019 Lord Ashcroft published the results of his year-long investigation into South Africa’s captive-bred lion industry. Over eleven pages of a single edition of the Mail on Sunday he showed why this sickening trade, which involves appalling cruelty to the ‘King of the Savannah’ from birth to death, has become a stain on the country.Unfair Game, to be published in June 2020, features the shocking results of a new inquiry Lord Ashcroft has conducted into South Africa’s lion business. In the book, he shows how tourists are unwittingly being used to support the abuse of lions; he details how lions are being tranquilised and then hunted in enclosed spaces; he urges the British government to ban the import of captive-bred lion trophies; and he demonstrates why Asia’s insatiable appetite for lion bones has become a multimillion-dollar business linked to criminality and corruption, which now underpins South Africa’s captive lion industry.
SKU: n/a -
Law
All That Remains: A Life in Death
_________’Utterly gripping’ – The Guardian’Fascinating’ – The Sunday Times’Moving’ – Scotsman ‘Engrossing’ – Financial Times__________Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-fiction 2019, this incredible memoir from the Sunday Times Bestseller. Professor Sue Black breathes new life into the subject of death. Sue Black confronts death every day. As a Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment, and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All That Remains she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed, and examining what her life and work has taught her. Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue’s book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour in stories as gripping as the best crime novel. Part memoir, part science, part meditation on death, her book is compassionate, surprisingly funny, and it will make you think about death in a new light._________’One might expect [this book] to be a grim read but it absolutely isn’t. I found it invigorating!’ (Andrew Marr, BBC Radio 4 ‘Start the Week’)’Black’s utterly gripping account of her life and career as a professor of anatomy and forensic anthropology manages to be surprisingly life-affirming. As she herself says, it is “as much about life as about death”‘ (PD Smith Guardian)’An engrossing memoir . . . an affecting mix of personal and professional’ (Erica Wagner, Financial Times) ‘A model of how to write about the effect of human evil without losing either objectivity or sensitivity . . . Heartening and anything but morbid . . . Leaves you thinking about what kind of human qualities you value, what kinds of people you actually want to be with’ (Rowan Williams, New Statesman)’For someone whose job is identifying corpses, Sue Black is a cheerful soul . . . All That Remains feels like every episode of ‘Silent Witness’, pre-fictionalised. Except, you know, really good’ (Helen Rumbelow, The Times)
SKU: n/a -
Law
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
What if you could combine the agility, adaptability, and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organization?When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq in 2003, he quickly realized that conventional military tactics were failing. The allied forces had a huge advantage in numbers, equipment and training – but none of the enemy’s speed and flexibility.McChrystal and his colleagues discarded a century of conventional wisdom to create a ‘team of teams’ that combined extremely transparent communication with decentralized decision-making authority. Faster, flatter and more flexible, the task force beat back al-Qaeda.In this powerful book, McChrystal and his colleagues show how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be relevant to any leader. Through compelling examples, the authors demonstrate that the ‘team of teams’ strategy has worked everywhere from hospital emergency rooms to NASA and has the potential to transform organizations large and small.’A bold argument that leaders can help teams become greater than the sum of their parts’ Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit’An indispensable guide to organizational change’ Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
SKU: n/a
There are no reviews yet.