Book description
In the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse, wearing the uniform
of an officer in the Royal Marines, was slipped into the waters off
the south-west coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were
papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British
had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain
turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the
story whole. it was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for
the Allies had not such plan: the purpose of 'Operation Mincemeat' was
to blind the German High Command to their true objective - an attack
on Southern Europe through Sicily. Though officially shrouded in
secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to
Churchill's post-war habit of telling the story at dinner). it gave
rise to two very different books. In 1950 came Duff Cooper's poignant
nvel Operation Heartbreak, a romantic tale, one which the government -
right up to PM Clement Attlee - atempted to suppress. Its publication
prompted the intelligence service to pressurise the operation's
mastermind, Ewen Montagu, into writing a factual account, The Man Who
Never Was. This book presents two accounts, fictional and factual, of
one of the greatest intelligence operations ever undertaken, with an
introduction by Duff Cooper's son, John Julius Norwich.
"Operation Heartbreak is a work of jewel-like brevity and
intensity." New York Herald Tribune
