“Operation Mincemeat – “The man who never was.”
- Memorial Text
- Wars are won by acts of strength, bravery and guile. But they are also won by feats of imagination. – Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence.
- One overcast morning in April 1943, a Spanish fisherman noticed a corpse floating in the sea off the coast near Huelva, Spain. The corpse was brought ashore and identified as Major William Martin of the Royal Marines. The leather attache case, secured to his belt revealed a wealth of information about TOP SECRET plans for the invasion of Greece, the Balkans and Sardinia.
- However, Major William Martin never existed. The body was that of a Welshman Glyndwr Michael who as a homeless man died after eating rat poison infected food.
- Operation Mincemeat’ is the incredibly true story of an elaborate plan by Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley, officers of MI5 who fooled the German High Command into believing that Greece, the Balkans and Sardinia would be the next planned invasion. Hitler was so convinced that he ordered reinforcements from Italy, Sicily and the Russian front to counter the expected Allied Landings. The actual successful invasion was in Sicily and then into Italy. Such was the success of the operation that countless lives were saved.
- HMS Seraph (Pennant No. 219) was an S class submarine built in 1942 and was under the command of Lieutenant ‘Bill’ Jewel carried out the operation to drop the body into the sea close to the Spanish port. The documents were naturally read and copied by the Spanish who passed them onto the Germans before being handed back to the British Consul in Madrid.
- ‘Bill’ Jewel was for a number of years the President of the Royal Naval Association, City of Birmingham & District RN Branch and the plaque was presented to the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove by A/B Richard Stimpson who was the Secretary of the Branch.
Visit to the Grave of Glyndwr Michael December 2024.
On the 20th December we visited the last resting place of Glyndwr Michael (Alias Major William Martin) and laid a Crochet Poppy Tribute gifted by one of our Friends.
Further Information
- The Grave of Major Martin
- 2021 – Moves to exhume the body of “Major Martin”
- Aberbargoed Wales – Memorial Plaque
- Major William Martin RM
- History Press
- The Man who never was
- Imperial War Museum
- National World War Two Museum
- World War Two Database
- Royal Naval Association
PAGE UPDATED 20TH OCTOBER 2025
alliedspecialforcesmemorialgrove.org 