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Homeless hero

October 01 2024

With Remembrance Sunday observed on 11 November, our writer reminds readers of a lesser-known hero from the Second World War. Words by Liam Court-Road

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that began on 6 June, 1944, leading to the defeat of Nazi Germany. So many people helped to secure the end of Nazism, and are rightly honoured for their part, but D-Day wasn’t the only operation that helped win the war.

One person is constantly overlooked – despite two films and a West End musical about the operation that he played a pivotal role in.

His name was Glyndwr Michael, a homeless Welshman who died in London, aged 34, in 1943. The Allies used his corpse to fool the Nazis about the invasion of Sicily later that year. He was handcuffed to a briefcase full of fabricated documentation, including his supposed identity as Captain William Martin, and was released by a British submarine off the Spanish coast.

Though Spain was neutral in WW2, its fascist dictator General Franco was obviously sympathetic to Hitler, and Nazi intelligence soon gained possession of the misleading documents, which convinced them that the British were to invade Greece rather than Sicily. The Nazis therefore relocated their troops to Greece for an invasion that happened elsewhere. The ploy was codenamed Operation Mincemeat.

The ploy worked, leading to a successful operation in Sicily, whence the Allies secured a foothold in Italy, driving Mussolini’s fascists back, resulting in their changing sides at half-time, forcing the Nazis to spread their forces ever thinner, across Italy, leaving the Normandy beaches just that little bit less well defended by 6 June 1944.

The Man Who Never Was told the story in 1956, as did Operation Mincemeat in 2021, and the current West End musical makes a big song and dance about it.

Sadly, Glyndwr Michael was dismissed as a “tramp” or a “drifter”, at least until 1996, when his role in Operation Mincemeat was officially revealed and his real name was put on the headstone of his grave.

As Remembrance Sunday arrives, we’d do well to remember Glyndwr’s role in an operation instrumental to the Allies’ eventual victory.

< News in Brief 152: October - November 2024 Doing time, part III >
December 2024 – January 2025 : Solidarity

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