The Man Who Never Was

The Man Who Never Was is a 1954 book by Ewen Montagu and a 1956 World War II 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 was directed by Ronald Neame and 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 William Martin, R.M.' and putting it into the sea near Huelva, Spain. Attached to the corpse was a brief-case containing fake letters suggesting 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 still believed that 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, who had committed suicide by eating rat poison. The report was believed to be inaccurate because the family that provided the body did so under one condition, that his identity never be revealed. However, Thomas John Michael, Glyndwr Michael's father, died before 1943, so there is speculation that the denial of "The Man Who Never Was" being Glyndwr Michael is itself a ruse.

The body was buried as "William Martin" in a cemetery in Huelva, Spain. The legend "Glyndwr Michael Served As Major William Martin, R.M." appears on the famous tombstone.