One of the more well known examples of the Allies using sneaky tricks to fool the Axis in World War II is Operation Mincemeat, where British naval intelligence "planted" a corpse, dressed as a Royal Marine Major Martin, where Nazi intelligence would get the information that the corpse carried plans for a invasion of Sardinia, instead of the real plan to invade Sicily. This ghoulish plan helped Operation Husky to succeed in it's initial landing. The story behind Operation Mincemeat was later recounted in the book The Man Who Never Was, and the movie by the same name starring Clinton Webb.

In the book and movie the identity of of the corpse used is never given, for the stated reason that the donor's family wished anonymity. What is said about the donor is that he died of natural causes and was donated with his families permission. Many years later it is revealed that the donor's name was Glyndwr Michael.

For years I assumed that this was the end of the story. Recently though I saw an episode of Dead Men's Secrets on The History Channel that put forth a different theory. According to this program there is some pretty valid sounding supposition that the identity of "Major Martin" is not what we have been led to believe. The story goes is that and American made R.N. escort carrier, HMS Dasher, blew up and sank in The Clyde. This fact was kept secret during the war to avoid accusations of defective American construction practices. Supposedly the original corpse of Michael had deteriorated to the point it was unusable and was substituted by a corpse, without the families permission, of a dead sailor from the Dasher, John "Jack" Melville. This would not lesson the unselfish donation of Michael, but would question the honor of Ewen Montaqu, the officer in charge of Operation Mincemeat.

I found this a very interesting little known story from World War II.

Very cool story Rodger. I've seen the movie once and would like to see it again.

I'm afraid that believing everything on the history channel, is like believing everything on the Internet, and New York Times.

You mean everything on the internet isn't true!?

I agree Steve. According to some internet searching the RN has acknowledged Melville as the actual "Man who never was." Even without that what was put out as circumstantial evidence made good sense.

BTW Kenny Hulu had The Man Who Never Was available to stream online. Unfortunately it seems they have pulled it. Maybe they will bring it back again sometime.