Glyndwr Michael, AKA Major William Martin, RM

Glyndwr Michael, only one of two known photos.  This poor transient killed himself by ingesting phosphorus, possibly without realizing it.  It was spread on bread and animals would eat it as it glowed at night.  Glyndwr was homeless, from an extremely broken home, unfit for wartime service and certainly mental.  He must have been in the depths of despair, no one had any use for him and he would never have been heard of except the Brits needed a body.  The Man Who Never Was was an incredibly successful ruse.  Kesselring, Goebbels, and Mussolini did not fall for it but the operation was only aimed at one man.  Hitler, based on the papers found on the drowned "courier", Major Martin, diverted troops to Greece and Sardinia instead of re-enforcing Sicily, the obvious target.

 

The man holding the stretcher is the Coroner's assistant.

As he must have looked alive.  This is a look alike.

Finally honored.  I am glad that even his unwitting service has been recognized.

Until proven otherwise, this was the body used by the British in the most successful wartime deception of all time.  There are, of course, doubts and accusations.  But remember, the body was desired to be rotten when found.  Occam's razor puts paid to conspiracy paranoia.

Oh, yeah.  Today is the 6th anniversary of this blog.  I see a parallel here, what a fucking shame.  Oh, well, 6 years later and the bunny marches on!

My hero.  But then again, most of my heroes have been fictional.

More like, The Man Who Never Was Who They Said He Was.  I hope people get do overs on the other side. 

 

When asked if Operation Mincemeat might not give the real target away, Churchill replied that any damn fool knew that the target was Sicily.  When asked what was to be done if the Spanish returned Major Martin unexamined, Winston said that they would just throw the body back in again.