The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The Allies gathered more and more troops and ships in North Africa, and the bombing of Sicily became more and more fierce... Bombers flew to Sicily in almost five to six batches every day, bombing facilities on the island around the clock. , chief among them the bombing of the island's ten airfields.

This forced the German and Italian fighter planes to retreat to Sardinia or southern Italy... The high-altitude bombing of the US military B17 was a bit frustrating. Although the accuracy of such high-altitude bombing was not high, the bombing of the airport was fatal. The reason is that fighter planes are very fragile. Once they are hit by shrapnel or fragments, they may not be able to take off, be scrapped, or even explode on the spot.

The bombing lasted for two weeks, so most German and Italian officers and soldiers took it for granted that the Allied target was Sicily.

However, what the British intelligence officers wanted was this effect... first let everyone believe that the Allied target was Sicily, and then reverse things. When the reverse happened, the German and Italian troops would think that they had been deceived and hurriedly Changing the strategic layout, they didn't know that this was when they were really fooled.

The most important part of this is how to flip things around without leaving any trace.

As the bombing entered its second week, British intelligence officers launched their long-gestating "Mincemeat Plan."

A British submarine, the HMS Seraph, sailed quietly under the sea. It departed from the port of Greylock, Scotland late at night. No one knew about their actions. Even the naval command thought that the submarine was anchored at port.

This submarine is performing a highly confidential mission, but the entire crew of the submarine, including the captain, Major Bill Jewell (note: the name of the captain who actually performed this mission), does not know the purpose of this mission. They only know The task is to throw a body at a designated location within a designated time.

The port of Grilock is about 1,500 nautical miles away from the destination. The "Seraph" has to travel for about ten days. During these ten days, the submarine always maintains radio silence. At this moment, they finally reached their destination.

In the submarine, the cautious captain, Major Jewell, finally checked the information and conditions:

"time!"

"Five o'clock sharp!"

"coordinate!"

"3522, 1017!"

"Wind power!"

"Wind level three!"

…

After thinking about it, Major Jewell ordered: "Float!"

Then, the submarine slowly surfaced like a ghost.

The hatch cover opened, and Major Jewell stuck his head out, used his telescope to check the surrounding gray sky, and then retracted his head after making sure no one noticed them.

Then a group of soldiers climbed out, scrambled to lift an aluminum drum from the cabin, and carried it to the deck... The aluminum drum was filled with dry ice, and the drum was sealed , in order to keep the body from decaying.

Under the command of Major Jewell, the soldiers opened the aluminum head, lifted out a corpse with the rank of major, and tied a leather briefcase tightly to the corpse.

After getting ready, the soldiers looked towards Major Jewell waiting for his orders.

Major Jewell nodded, and two of the soldiers lifted the body one after another, shaking it like a thousand autumns, and then when they let go... the body was thrown into the sea.

Major Jewell and the soldiers immediately returned to the submarine and dived, but they did not leave immediately. Instead, they used periscopes to follow and observe the body until they confirmed that the rough waves pushed the body to the coastline not far away and landed on the shore. The edge rises and falls with the waves.

"What are they doing?" the staff officer couldn't help but ask before leaving.

Major Jewell shook his head: "You don't need to know anything, you just need to do as ordered!"

"Yes, Major!" the staff officer replied.

The submarine had one last mission, which was to launch a torpedo into the distance and detonate it... But this mission was obviously much simpler than what it had just done, so there was a muffled sound in the sea.

But because it is not far from the sea, the fishermen living on the shore faintly heard an explosion. However, because it was too far away and it was too dark, they were not sure what caused the explosion in the sea.

Soon it was getting brighter. On Punta Umbria Beach, not far from Huelva, a fisherman named Antonio Rey Marier prepared his fishing boat to go fishing as usual... The fishing boat had not yet set off. How far away, I saw a body floating with the waves not far away.

Within half an hour, the Spanish naval office in Huelva received a call claiming that the body of a British soldier had been found.

The Navy Office immediately sent people to the beach, and they confirmed from the military rank that he was a major of the Marine Corps.

As usual, the office staff immediately searched the body's clothes and leather bag, and initially determined that the deceased was Royal Navy Captain (acting major) William Martin, code name 09560, staff officer of the British Joint Planning Command. In his coat pocket were a bank overdraft note and a demand letter from Lloyds Bank. Major Martin appears to have been newly engaged and carried with him a bill for an engagement ring purchased on credit from Phipps, an international jeweler in Bond Street. Two love letters have been soaked by sea water, but the signatures are still visible: "Love you Nisha" and other words.

"This should be an air crash!" Garcia from the office said to his assistant after asking the fishermen: "They said they heard an explosion before. The plane must have fallen into the sea. This unlucky guy couldn't escape. Get over it!"

"What should we do with it?" the assistant asked.

Garcia replied without thinking: "You transport the body to the morgue in the cemetery, and I'll contact the British Consulate!"

"Okay!" The assistant nodded and handed the leather briefcase carried by the body to Garcia.

There were no cell phones in this era, so it was already twenty minutes before Garcia called the British consulate.

The response of the British Consulate upon receiving the call was: "Yes, we do have a plane missing nearby. I will be there right away. You cannot open the briefcase under any circumstances. It is not a personal item, it is British property!"

"No problem!" Garcia replied: "We're not interested!"

The British Consulate is dozens of kilometers away from Huelva, and the road conditions in this town are not good, but the people sent by the British Consulate rushed to the naval office within an hour and accepted the briefcase.

When accepting the briefcase, the British personnel carefully checked the status of the briefcase and the documents inside. They believed that the briefcase had not been opened, so they thanked the office staff and left in a hurry.