Operation Mincemeat

The Nazis are winning the war. It’s time to take drastic measures. Meet two particularly imaginative British naval intelligence officers, Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley, who built a convincing history for the body of a man they tipped into the sea off the south of Spain in the hope he’d be found by the Germans. The body was in uniform and had a briefcase attached to its wrist, containing secret papers detailing allied plans to invade Greece instead of Sicily. But the whole thing was a complex hoax. The corpse was actually a homeless Welsh man called Glyndwr Michael, who had died after eating rat poison.

The ruse worked, the false information found its way to Hitler himself, and he diverted divisions of tanks, artillery and boats to defend Greece, Sardinia and the Balkans. When Allied troops invaded Sicily on 10th July 1943, the Nazis were totally unprepared. You couldn’t make it up... but it’s a true story, and it’s on at Covent Garden’s Fortune Theatre. This is one of many curious tales that together helped win the war for the allies, and it has already proved a popular plot for a musical with loads of critical acclaim. It’s playing at the Fortune in 2023 and we’ll announce the details as they become available. One thing we do know – it’s very funny indeed.