Today in History—April 29: That Time the Writer of James Bond Was a Real Spy

On this day in 1943, a body was dropped in the ocean near the sleepy shores of Huelva, Spain.

But this was no sailor lost at sea. This was espionage: a cunning World War II-era plot called Operation Mincemeat.

We’ll warn you now: This story isn’t for the faint of heart.

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Operation Mincemeat got its start with the so-called “Trout Memo,” which was likely written by British Naval Intelligence Department assistant Ian Fleming. (You may recognize him as the creator of James Bond.)

The memo detailed 54 schemes to trick the Germans, including one that Fleming lifted from a 1937 crime novel called The Milliner’s Hat Mystery. In the book, a corpse bearing false intelligence is planted in enemy waters—a pitch Fleming summarized as “a suggestion (not a very nice one).”

This not very nice idea got picked up by Naval Intelligence agent Ewen Montagu, who’d later publish a book about the mission. “My sense of humor having by this time become somewhat macabre,” Montagu wrote, “Operation Mincemeat it became.”

Montagu also helped select the titular “mincemeat”: Glyndwr Michael, a 34-year-old unhoused Welshman who had recently passed away. After giving Michael a false identity as a Royal Marines officer, the British handcuffed a briefcase to his wrist. Inside lay the Allies’ trap: a fake top-secret document that described how the Allies would use an attack on Sicily to divert attention from a larger assault on Greece and Crete.

When Michael’s body washed up on the coast of Huelva, Nazi sympathizers passed their find along to the Germans—even as the British put in a plea to quickly return their “highly secret” briefcase. Within a few days Adolf Hitler moved German troops to protect Greece, the Balkans, and Sardinia, leaving Sicily vulnerable.

When the Allies attacked Sicily on July 9, they met little resistance. Operation Mincemeat was such a successful ruse that even after the Allies’ arrival, German forces continued to leave the island for Greece or Sardinia, still certain that Sicily was just a diversion. The British takeover was complete by the end of the month.

And what about our story’s unsung hero? “William Martin” was buried with full military honors in 1943, just days after his autopsy. Glyndwr Michael’s name wasn’t added to the grave until 1997.

Famous Birthdays

1899: Duke Ellington—American jazz musician

1901: Hirohito—Emperor of Japan

1919: Alla Rakha—Indian tabla musician

1958: Michelle Pfeiffer—American actress