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Loading... OPERATION MINCEMEAT (original 2010; edition 2010)by BEN MACINTYRE
Work InformationOperation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre (2010)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A really absorbing and interesting read. This book tells the story of an ultimately successful attempt by the British to deceive the Nazis about their plans to invade in Southern Europe. Such an attempt is bound to be complex, involving political acumen, spying know-how, involvement of those in high places and yet secrecy at every level. Ben Macintyre handles his material and the wealth of characters skillfully, and turns out a rollicking tale. Yet he does not ignore the pathos surrounding the life of the almost unknown Welshman who is at the centre of this story: you'll have to read the book to find out what I mean, and I thoroughly recommend that you do so. ( ) Worthy and thorough account of the famous World War 2 hoax created by the British secret services to deceive the Germans as to the planned location of their invasion. That ploy, and the quirkiness of its plotters, are now being celebrated on stage in the West End in an energetic and entertaining musical. This calm telling doesn’t quite have the same brio, and indeed one assumes that the memoir, bending the rules of confidentiality, put out by Ewen Montagu, one of the scheme’s actual authors himself, makes for a racier story. That 1950s version with the memorable title “The Man Who Never Was” has never gone out of print, so Macintyre tells us. The book here, it seems, is more evidence-based on the details, of which it has many, and which remain interesting, even if the range and scale of them dilute a little the “gripping” nature of the tale. By now this story is familiar of how the British fooled Germany about the location of where they would attack Nazi and Italian forces in Europe during WWII by planting false documents on a corpse and floating him ashore. This is an extremely well-told story exemplified by deep research and Ben Macintyre’s understanding of the history of espionage and this war in particular. Macintyre is particularly able to translate his research into a gripping narrative with no dull spots, as he does will all his books.
The story of Major William Martin is the subject of the British journalist Ben Macintyre’s brilliant and almost absurdly entertaining “Operation Mincemeat”. The cast of characters involved in Mincemeat, as the caper was called, was extraordinary, and Macintyre tells their stories with gusto. A terrific book with exceptional photographs of everybody, including the corpse. Students of the second world war have been familiar with Mincemeat for many years, but Macintyre offers a mass of new detail, and enchanting pen portraits of the British, Spanish and German participants. His book is a rollicking read for all those who enjoy a spy story so fanciful that Ian Fleming — himself an officer in Montagu’s wartime department — would never have dared to invent it. The complexities and the consequences of the story that Macintyre tells in Operation Mincemeat are compelling — a tribute to his impressive abilities as a sleuth (ones that we’ve witnessed in his previous books) and to his capacities as a writer. He has the instincts of a novelist rather than an historian when it comes to elision, exposition, narration and pace, and his depiction of character is vividly alive to nuance and idiosyncrasy. James Buchan says the story of 'the man who never was' deserves its latest incarnation... Is contained inHas the adaptationAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
From the acclaimed author of "Agent Zigzag" comes an extraordinary account of the most successful deception--and certainly the strangest--ever carried out in World War II, one that changed the prospects for an Allied victory. The purpose of the plan--code named Operation Mincemeat--was to deceive the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed, and the Allies ultimately chose. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.548641History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War II Other Topics Unconventional warfare of Allies Europe British IslesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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