In Spring 1943, almost exactly 78 years ago, the British and American Allies began planning to invade Sicily, the first liberation of part of mainland Europe from Nazi Occupation. Heavy Allied casualties were expected.
A Jewish barrister, Commander Ewen Montagu, OBE, KC, RNVR and a wealthy aristocrat Flight Lt. Charles Cholmondeley, MBE, RAF, both working in Secret Intelligence, were tasked to plan a deception. They used a dead body dressed as a fake Royal Marine Officer, who would carry forged documents in a brief case, but actually signed by senior Allied generals, saying it had been decided to invade Europe via Greece, and not Sicily.
The body was prepared and dressed at Hackney mortuary by the Intelligence Officers Montagu and Cholmondeley, together with the Chief Coroner for London, with a famous racing driver, who was to drive the Officers and a special container with the body, protected by dry ice, to a secret submarine base in Scotland. From here, with only the submarine officers knowing what was in the container, the body was taken to near the coast of Spain. It was then floated into the sea at a spot where it was known that the current would wash it ashore near the coastal town of Huelva. Here it was discovered, as expected, and the local Spanish authorities, as sympathisers with the Nazis, ensured the local Nazi spies saw the contents; they then photographed the letters, and sent the documents to Berlin.
Thus it was that many German soldiers, tanks, aircraft and much artillery were sent to Greece from both Italy and Sicily, resulting in far fewer casualties when the Allies ultimately landed in Sicily on 9th July 1943.
The story was recounted in Montagu’s 1953 book, ‘The Man Who Never Was’ and a film (1956) was later made with Montagu playing a small cameo role in one scene; the full story with true names and many details, could not, however, be told in the book and film owing to The Official Secrets Act, but Ben MacIntyre’s book , ‘Mincemeat’ published in 2010 was able at last to tell all.
The Hackney plaque was financed by Jerry Klinger of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, UK branch, with the initiative of Martin Sugarman and the Hackney and Stamford Hill Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women - AJEX - of the UK, and assisted by Hackney Council and St John at Hackney Church. A ceremony of official unveiling is planned for 2022.
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