Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was: The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There
    Unavailable
    Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was: The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There
    Unavailable
    Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was: The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There
    Ebook305 pages4 hours

    Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was: The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There

    By Duff Cooper, Ewen Montagu, General Lord Hastings Ismay and John Julius Norwich

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The greatest deception of the Second World War – and possibly in the whole of military history – took place in April 1943 when a body was found floating in the sea off the Spanish coast. The documents found on him would eventually find their way to Hitler’s desk and send German troops hurtling in the wrong direction. The dead man convinced the Axis powers that the Allies were about to attack Greece and not the real target, Sicily. The course of the war was changed. In this volume is a story within the original extraordinary story. Duff Cooper’s only fictional work, Operation Heartbreak, was based upon the emotionally charged decision to use an anonymous corpse to weave the web of deceit. The British authorities tried to suppress the book because it would show the Spanish in a bad light, with Franco now in power. A change of heart followed and Ewen Montagu was encouraged to tell the whole story. Anyone who read Ben Macintyre’s best-selling Operation Mincemeat will have to read this double volume to understand the full story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateNov 8, 2011
    ISBN9780752476322
    Unavailable
    Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was: The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There
    Author

    Duff Cooper

    Alfred Duff Cooper (1890–1954) was a statesman, diplomat, and historian. He was a decorated officer during the First World War and entered Parliament in 1923. He remained a politician until 1938, when he resigned in protest at Britain's appeasement policy toward Nazi Germany. Called back to office by Winston Churchill in 1940, his wartime career culminated in his appointment as Ambassador to France. Shortly before his death he was made 1st Viscount Norwich. He was married to Lady Diana Cooper, the famed society debutant, actress, and writer. Operation Heartbreak is his only novel.

    Related to Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was

    Related ebooks

    Wars & Military For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      In November, BBC Radio’s Danny Robins Shared The Story Of A ‘Poltergeist’ That Once Wrought Havoc In A Belfast Tower Block. But There’s Now A New Twist To The Tale...

      Nov 25, 2021

      Christmas isn’t just a time for receiving unwanted socks and avoiding Brussels sprouts. The true purpose of the festive season is to tell ghost stories. There’s a long tradition of the spooky winter’s tale, stretching back to medieval times; a rush o

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Guide To Con Men

      Sep 22, 2021

      Have you been scammed? I have. It knocked the stuffing out of me, mentally and physically. I’ve never experienced such a living nightmare before. Don’t think I am exaggerating. And please don’t think, ‘This will never happen to me.’ It is happening a

      3 min read

    • Article

      Onward, Christian Soldier

      Aug 11, 2022

      Onward, Christian Soldier
      1 min read

    • Article

      Medieval Trial By Combat

      Sep 30, 2021

      Medieval Trial By Combat
      7 min read

    • Article

      Crete’s Brutal Bayonet Battle

      Feb 2, 2020

      Crete’s Brutal Bayonet Battle
      2 min read

    • Article

      Blood Brothers

      Jan 1, 2019

      Blood Brothers
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Dunkirk Evacuation Had Failed?

      Dec 2, 2021

      Joshua Levine practised as a barrister before becoming an actor and writer. He has written several books on the subject of the two World Wars and served as the historical consultant on the 2017 film Dunkirk. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a vast ope

      5 min read

    • Article

      Storming Yorktown’s Redoubt

      Oct 11, 2022

      The voices of ordinary American soldiers who took part in the Revolutionary War are seldom heard today. One exception is Joseph Plumb Martin, born in 1760 in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut. Martin plunged into the war at age 15 in June 1776,

      9 min read

    • Article

      Black Jack’s Men

      Dec 22, 2020

      Black Jack’s Men
      5 min read

    • Article

      TV, FILM & RADIO

      Aug 31, 2023

      TV, FILM & RADIO
      5 min read

    • Article

      Operation Mincemeat (12a)

      Dec 15, 2021

      Oldie readers will know the familiar, gripping story of Operation Mincemeat – what Hugh Trevor-Roper called ‘the most spectacular single episode in the history of deception’. In 1943, British intelligence came up with the brilliant idea of taking the

      2 min read

    • Article

      1942 Churchill’s Darkest Hour

      Mar 17, 2022

      1942 Churchill’s Darkest Hour
      8 min read

    • Article

      Operation Mincemeat

      Sep 3, 2020

      Operation Mincemeat
      9 min read

    • Article

      Napoleon In Egypt

      Oct 1, 2020

      Napoleon In Egypt
      10 min read

    • Article

      Wheres And Whyfors

      May 8, 2018

      Congratulations to MHQ on yet another terrific issue with your Spring 2018 edition. Excellent! One article that stood out to me from a point of personal interest was Marc G. DeSantis’s “This Frightful Catastrophe.” DeSantis did an excellent job of re

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Final Voyage of the Ourang Medan

      Jan 28, 2021

      The world learned of the bizarre incident in January 1948, when a Dutch weekly newspaper printed an unusual article headed ‘Mysterious Demise of the Ourang Medan’.1 Its sensational introduction was sure to pull readers in: “A riddle of the sea. Since

      13 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Apr 5, 2022

      Reviews
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Day The Sea Caught Fire

      Nov 8, 2022

      The Day The Sea Caught Fire
      12 min read

    • Article

      Action This Day

      May 3, 2018

      Winston spent the spring of 1893 “cramming” with Captain Walter James for the Sandhurst Entrance Examination scheduled for late June. Having twice failed the examination, Winston would have been expected to redouble his efforts, especially after Capt

      5 min read

    • Article

      Folly In The Aegean

      Jul 25, 2023

      Folly In The Aegean
      8 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Oct 29, 2020

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      8 min read

    • Article

      Beneath Their Very Feet

      Jan 1, 2019

      Beneath Their Very Feet
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Last Kingdom

      Jul 12, 2022

      The Last Kingdom
      6 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Jun 10, 2021

      Q&A
      4 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Sep 28, 2021

      Reviews
      7 min read

    • Article

      Breaking Rommel’s Siege

      Nov 29, 2018

      Breaking Rommel’s Siege
      11 min read

    Reviews for Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was

    4/5

    70 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      The inside story of perhaps the most successful ruse in the history of warfare. It's a truth more fantastical than fiction, down to the (randomly selected!) codename "Operation Mincemeat." Packed with "there will always be an England" moments. "You have nothing to fear from a Spanish autopsy"
    • 4/5
      It is a rare treat when you get to read, first of all, about a true intelligence mission like this one, since they are so often classified, but also to hear it from the man who planned it in the first place. That is what this book is -- one of the most interesting true spy stories in history from a primary source.The Allies were trying to mislead the Germans as to where their next attack would be, and so Montagu hatched this plan where they would plant a body, dressed as a Marine officer, in the water off of the Spanish coast and let the Germans find it. The papers he was carrying would convince the Germans that the Allies would attack in a different place.The book is loaded letters and conversations about what these intelligence officers went through to create a fake identity for this corpse that would convince the Germans intelligence officers that it was real. The detail is fascinating, and the book gives a good feel for what intelligence work was really about. There is no James Bond here, but the story is every bit as interesting.
    • 5/5
      I stumbled over this book by accident while cleaning library shelves years ago. It is a quick read, but utterly fascinating. I was riveted. The narrative concerns a covert operation to get bogus information into the hands of Nazis about the Allied landing. The thoroughness with which the British agents prepared the documents, the way they thought through the "incidental" things a man carries in his pockets, the creation of a real character and personality for their "dead courier," all add up to a great page turner. Worth reading again. And maybe again.
    • 4/5
      Published in 1953, this is the account of Operation Mincemeat by a man involved in the deception from the very beginning, when a chat between two colleagues threw up the wild idea of misleading the German High Command about the Allied invasion of Sicily by planting fake documents on a dead body. The same story was covered in Ben MacIntyre's breathlessly dramatic Operation Mincemeat, but because Montagu is an insider this book has a different slant and we're with him as he wades through the operational difficulties, from finding a suitable body, through dealing with the conflicting opinions of his superiors, establishing a background for the pretend Major Martin and ultimately delivering the Major to the coast of Spain. All the way through, Montagu can barely believe that the plan is working.