Ewen Montagu: Last News

Hitler was massive, involving soldiers, sailors, airmen, factory workers and many other people in a wide range of occupations.But perhaps the strangest operation of World War 2 was dreamed up by a novelist.Ian Fleming, long before he became famous as the creator of super-spy James Bond, worked as assistant to the director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Sir John Godfrey (who was the inspiration for Bond’s boss M).In 1943, with the massive Allied invasion of Sicily poised to strike at what Churchill called the “soft underbelly” of Hitler’s Europe, the German defenders needed to be lured elsewhere to prevent a bloodbath on the beaches.And back in 1939, Fleming had dreamed up a secret plan as wild as the plot of any of his novels that would distract the Nazis from the obvious target.In fact, the original idea was pinched from a 1937 detective novel by Basil Thomson, The Milliner’s Hat Mystery.In a list of ideas for baffling the German High Command, Fleming wrote: “A suggestion (not a very nice one).“A corpse, dressed as an airman, with despatches in his pockets, could be dropped on the coast.”The fake despatches would contain misinformation to convince Hitler’s henchmen that the strike would come not in the obvious place of Sicily, but in Greece and Sardinia.From Fleming’s “not very nice” idea Ewen Montagu of Naval Intelligence, a barrister in civilian life, and the RAF’s Charles Cholmondeley, created Operation Mincemeat, an operation so bold, and so strange, it’s inspired two major feature films.Many of the details of the plan were only declassified in 1996.

"Operation Mincemeat," which is now available on Netflix, showcases one of the biggest stunts the British army pulled during World War II. In the film, Colin Firth dresses up as a corpse to fool the Germans.  Here’s what really happened.  In 1943, Ewen Montagu, who is played by Firth, and the British military misdirected the German military away from the Invasion of Sicily with a dead body for the German forces to find.

From today, April 15th, Operation Mincemeat is in cinemas. Colin Firth takes the lead role in this blockbuster portrayal of a bonkers operation carried out by British intelligence during World War II.

KELLY MacDonald and Colin Firth led the stars at the premiere of their new film Operation Mincemeat this evening. The talented actors were greeted by hundreds of fans as they walked a blue carpet at the Curzon Mayfair in London.

It was July 1943 when MI5 started “the greatest deception in history.”