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Operation Mincemeat

The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II

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Operation Mincemeat

By: Ben Macintyre
Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Operation Mincemeat written and read by Ben Macintyre.

THE SUNDAY TIMES NO 1. BESTSELLER

'Astonishing . . . Sheds riveting new light on this breathtaking plan' Daily Mail

'A rollicking read' Max Hastings, Sunday Times

'Brilliant and almost absurdly entertaining' Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker
____________________

April, 1943: a sardine fisherman spots the corpse of a British soldier floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and sets off a train of events that would change the course of the Second World War.

Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception ever attempted. It hoodwinked the Nazi espionage chiefs and saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret agent who was different 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, an irascible admiral who loved fly-fishing, and a dead Welsh tramp.

This is the true story of the most extraordinary deception ever planned by Churchill's spies: an outrageous lie that travelled from a Whitehall basement all the way to Hitler's desk.©2010 Ben Macintyre (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 20th Century Espionage Europe Germany Military Modern True Crime Winston Churchill War
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Growing up I had heard the seen the movie and heard the story of The Man Who Never Was but Ben Macintyre’s recount of this fascinating episode of British history is outstanding. Giving a face and a personality to Glyndwr Michael, Macintyre weaves a very personable story of Michael’s “recruitment” and his highly detailed preparation and delivery as a courier of battle plans. Macintyre’s research is extremely detailed but it is treatment of the people involved that is most effective - creating fully formed characters who feel the impact of the decisions they make requires a willingness to get inside the heads of the actors and to try to understand the gravitas of what they were trying to achieve. McIntyre achieves this brilliantly. Beautifully written and absolutely captivating in its reading, Operation Mincemeat is an outstanding account of one of the most intriguing stories of WWII.

Gripping tale of an incredible deception

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I have read and listened to several books by Ben MacIntyre but this tale was not as captivating as his others and the detail around the corpse was quite off putting. The objective of the exercise was worthy and probably saved many soldiers lives but it was very insensitive regarding Glyndwer Michael and the treatment of his body as well as the dark humour around the description.

A bit of a macabre true story

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