In April 1943, a submarine surfaced off the coast of Huelva, Spain. Crew members gently placed a body in the water — a man dressed as a Royal Marines officer, with a briefcase chained to his wrist containing secret documents about Allied invasion plans for Greece and Sardinia.

There was no invasion planned for Greece or Sardinia. The Allies were about to invade Sicily. The dead man was the centerpiece of one of the most audacious deception operations in military history.

Creating "Major Martin"

The plan was conceived by Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu and RAF Flight Lieutenant Charles Cholmondeley. They obtained the body of a recently deceased Welsh vagrant named Glyndwr Michael, who had died from ingesting rat poison. They created an entirely fictional identity for him: Major William Martin, Royal Marines.

The attention to detail was extraordinary. They gave "Martin" a wallet containing a photo of a fictional fiancée (actually a clerk in MI5), theater ticket stubs, a stern letter from his father, a receipt for an engagement ring, and a letter from his bank about an overdraft. They even put a used bus ticket in his pocket.

The key documents were fake letters between senior British generals discussing invasion plans that pointed to Greece as the main target, with Sicily as a mere diversion — the exact opposite of the truth.

The Result

Spanish authorities recovered the body and, as the British had anticipated, allowed the Abwehr (German intelligence) to photograph the documents before returning them. The documents went all the way to Hitler himself, who became personally convinced that Greece would be the target.

Germany reinforced Greece, Sardinia, and Corsica at the expense of Sicily. When the Allies landed on Sicily in July 1943, the initial resistance was far lighter than expected. The deception saved an estimated thousands of Allied lives.

The real identity of the body wasn't revealed until 1996, when historians identified him as Glyndwr Michael. A gravestone in Huelva now reads: "Glyndwr Michael, served as Major William Martin, RM."