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The Man Who Never Was is a 1954 book by Ewen Montagu and a 1956 2nd World War war film based on the book. It is about Operation 'Mincemeat', a 1943 British Intelligence plan to deceive the Axis powers into thinking Operation 'Husky', the Allied invasion of Sicily, would take place elsewhere.
The film starred Clifton Webb as Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu, Gloria Grahame as Lucy Sherwood, Robert Flemyng as Lt. George Acres, Josephine Griffin as Pam, Stephen Boyd as Patrick O'Reilly, Laurence Naismith as Adml. Cross, Geoffrey Keen as Gen. Nye, André Morell as Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Michael Hordern as Gen. Coburn and William Squire as submarine commander Bill Jewell.
Operation 'Mincemeat' involved the acquisition of a human cadaver, dressing it as a 'Major Martin' and putting it into the sea near Huelva, Spain. Attached to the corpse was a brief-case containing fake letters stating that the Allied attack would be against Sardinia and Greece. When the body was found, pro-German Spaniards passed the papers to the German Intelligence Service who passed them on to their High Command. The ruse was so successful that the Germans thought Sardinia and Greece were the intended objectives weeks after the landings in Sicily had begun.
The real name of the person/body remained secret, but in 1997 it was claimed that he was a homeless Welsh alcoholic named Glyndwr Michael. The report was found to be inaccurate because the family that provided the body did so under one condition, that his identity never be revealed. The body was buried as Major Martin in a cemetery in Huelva, Spain.
The Goon Show
The BBC's popular radio comedy show, The Goon Show, made a send-up of the story of The Man Who Never Was and incorporated most of the regular Goon Show characters. Written by Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens, it was broadcast on March 20, 1956 and remade later and broadcast on February 17, 1958. Co-incidentally, Peter Sellers (one of the Goons) provided the voice of Winston Churchill in the film, although the character did not appear in The Goon Show adaptation.
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1954 books | 1956 films | World War II films | British films | Films based on actual events | Allied invasion of Sicily
"The Man Who Never Was"