Operation Mincemeat ( 2022 ) Ending Explained | Movie Spoilers
Today I am going to recap and explain a recently released true story-based film called operation mincemeat. It is set against the backdrop of deception operations carried out during World War Two. In the beginning, we hear the voice-over of Ian Fleming, he narrates the importance of deception during the war. This is the same guy who wrote iconic James Bond novels. During World War two he was a personal assistant to rear admiral John Godfrey. Flemming was a prolific reader and writer, most of his spy novels were influenced by his wartime experience.
The film's main lead is commander Ewen Montagutagu, who was the senior intelligence officer at the Admiralty. He had the cover of a Navel supply officer. His brother was Ivor Montagu who always suspected him. Ivor was the president of the international table tennis association. He had a colorful political history with socialism and communism. We see Montagutagu and his wife Iris, at a send-off party, apparently, she and her kid were leaving for America early morning. Montagu gives a nice speech in honor of Iris which surprises her as both of their relationships were somewhat shaky. Iris was Jewish hence as a precautionary measure Montagu was sending them to America. Ivor and Montagu were all alone in the house to deal with this ghastly war.
Next, we see Admiral Godfrey and Flemming meeting with Churchill. Churchill and allied forces were planning to attack Sicily in the summer. It was obvious, hence German had built a heavy defensive position there. Allied forces needed heavy deception tactics to divert Germans from Italy. Godfrey and Flemming had written a memo known as the trout memo, in the year 1939. It basically dealt with deception techniques. Such as luring axis U boats and ships to minefields. Spreading wrong plans through spy networks. Number 28 on that memo talked about placing misleading secret documents on a dead floating corpse of the officer. This idea was straight from Basil Thomson's spy novel, The Milliners Hat Mystery book. Released in the year 1937. Flemming wanted to use this fiction in real life. Churchill was not impressed by this but his plan of July attack was solid, hence he gave tacit permission.
The second lead in this film is Charles Cholmondeley. He was the flight lieutenant. His brother was an RAF pilot killed in Chittagong, India. India was undivided by then and the British were killing Indians by millions through Churchill's strategic denial plan. British caused Bengal Famine which killed nearly 4 million Bengalis. That's why Churchill is known as India's Hitler in India and Bangladesh.
The twenty committee headed by Godfrey agreed to Operation mincemeat. It was originally Charles's idea to use trout memo number 28 here. Montagu and Charles made the point on this operation where Flemming was overseeing this with other deceptive operations. These guys choose Greece as their fake target, they spread rumors across spy networks. Bought Greece currency, rations, and ammunition and started creating an atmosphere like it is their next target. The twenty committee chose Spain for dumping the body as it was a neutral country and easy to disguise.
Montagu and Charles got their base, Hester was Montagu's secretary. Now, these guys needed a near-perfect body and they got one. A guy called Glyndwr Michael. He was originally from Wales. He died by suicide, by consuming rat poison. He had no family listed hence the guy was perfect. Montagu and Charles had three Months before the body starts to decompose. Next, we see these guys at an officers club where one bar attendant by the name of teddy offers them a drink. The name of William Martin was chosen for the dead body. Martin will have the rank of major and will be directly reporting to commander Montagu. They finalize his background, parents, address, bank account, and a love letter from his wife. Montagu disagreed with Hester's proposal of this love letter as he thought, that romance is unnecessary. But to build credibility Charles insisted on having a wife hence Montagu agreed.
The next day Charles asks his colleague Jean Leslie to be part of this operation. He wanted her to be major Martin's fictitious wife. Jean agrees and gives him, her 20-year-old photograph which her husband took while on holiday. For this, she asked a seat at the table. Meaning full know-how of operation. The name of Pam was chosen for Major Martin's wife. Charles was romanticly interested in jeans hence he was happy.
To make the ID real, they dressed up the cadaver like a royal Marine and tried to take photos. But it was unsuccessful. hence, decided to look around for other guys who might resemble Major Martin. They finally choose Jean's sort-of boyfriend Sergent Rogger Dearborn from America. Without giving him many details, they took his photograph and made a fake of Major William Martin.
For the next few days, these guys build a solid background for Major Martin. Jean and Montagu work together to come up with good ideas. They became good friends and attend a couple of parties. Soon gossip starts at the office stating an affair between the two. This rattles Charles a little. Charles submitted the progress report to Godfrey and said, it's now ready to be presented to Churchill. Godfrey hints at Montagu's brother being a Russian spy and asks him to keep an eye on him. Later Godfrey presents the plan to Churchill who was not very pleased with it.
He asks what type of ink will be used on the papers. since they are drowning the body the ordinary ink will definitely get erased. Here if they used water-insoluble ink then the enemy would have no that this is fake. As for ordinary correspondence, nobody uses water insoluble ink. Admiral Godfrey says MI 5 is working on that. This operation mincemeat was one operation in a whole host of other operations. hence Churchill orders the admiral to make it error-proof.
Back at the office Montagu and Charles encounter another problem. The sister of the dead guy Martin was here demanding the body for the service. The hospital staff informed her about her brother's demise. She was from a poor background hands Fleming tried to bribe her with some Mone. This made her furious, she threatened to go to the police against these guys. Without giving her any information Montagu said, your brother had been inducted into her majesty's service, he will be saving tens and thousands of lives. Montagu straight out refused the body. The lady thought that these guys are doing some sort of experiments on his brother's body and hoped that God will do justice to his soul.
Next, we see UK naval attache to Madrid Captain Ainsworth, and his assistant attache Gomez arriving for the briefing. Captain Ainsworth was also a writer who had written the novel A Nights Starlings. which Flemming admired. Montagu explained the plan to these guys. The body with the papers will be released through a submarine near Huelva, the coast of Spain. It is under officer Gomez's territory. He will say that Major Martin died in a plane crash and washed up on the shore. Adolf Clauss is a German spy at Huelva who reports to Karl Kuhlenthal. According to M I 5 Kuhlenthal is an espionage disaster.
He is one-quarter Jewish hence to prove his German pure blood loyalty he will do anything. Once Kuhlenthal gets the paper it will be forwarded to colonel Alexis Con Roanne who is Hitler's right-hand man on intelligence. It is rumored that he is plotting an anti-Hitler plot but M I 5 has no credible source on this. If the rumors are true then will act on this. Else he will know the deception. Montagu asks Ainsworth and Gomez to make sure that Kuhlenthal sees the papers.
The secret document that Major Martin was supposed to carry was a letter from General Archie Nye to Harold Alexander instructing him to prepare for Greece's attacks. Montagu prepares 14 drafts of this letter but none was approved. Finally, he approached General Nye and asked him to write the fake letter himself. Which he did. Admiral Godfrey finally approved the operation. Hester wrote the love letter. Charles gets a package from M I 5 about Ivor's history, it was indicated that he might be a Russian spy. Godfrey orders Charles to spy on Montagu and Ivor. In return, he promised him he will arrange his brother's last remains from India. Charles agreed.
These guys placed an eyelash in the letter so that if it's got open they will know. Then they sealed the letter. There was a risk of this plan not working at all as at high sea anything might happen. Water may float the paper in one way and the body in another. They placed all other documents and were ready for the transport from Holy Loch. While on the way Charles told Montagu about Godfrey's suspicion about Ivor. Montagu dismissed them by saying my brother is not a spy. By the tone of his, he was pretty sure about it. Charles went along with the body in a submarine and released it into the water.
The next day few fishermen caught the body and informed the local navy officers. Back in London intelligence was that Germans were sending men to Italy. England's other deceptive plans were not working. Back in Spain local naval officer offered off the record handing over of body and documents to Gomez as a mark to prove neutrality in this war. But Gomez needed it to travel up the command to Madrid so that Kuhlenthall can have a look at it. He refused the offer. Here local forensic expert had died so the Spanish Navy had asked a drowning expert from Madrid to conduct the autopsy. As the doctor started he recovered a dead snake from Major Martin's body. Nobody knew who or how it got there. Gomez convinced the expert to cancel the examination and label it as drowning. The expert just did that.
Charles called captain Ainsworth on an unsecured line and asked him to get those papers asap. Captain Ainsworth's lines were tapped by Clauss he was hearing this, later he informed this message to Kuhlenthal. At Huelva, a funeral took place for Major Martin and a tombstone got erected. Back in London Sergent Rogger says goodbye to Jean as he was shipping on the next boat. The papers finally land at Spanish admiral Moreno's table. Who was hesitant to show them to Kuhlenthal. He insisted that he had no papers.
Since Captain Ainsworth had bugged Kuhlenthal's lines he knew that he was furious. Kuhlenthal desperately wanted those papers, he was getting calls from Berlin. Captain Ainsworth took the help of Spanish double agent Colonel Cerruti to get those papers to Kuhlenthal. Colonel Cerruti was promised remuneration but trust was not associated with him. There was no guarantee that he will do the job. Couple of days later Admiral Moreno handed over the parers to Captain Ainsworth claiming Spain is neutral. By the look of it, it was uncertain whether the letter was opened or not. When Montagu and Charles checked it, the eyelash was missing. Implying someone has seen it and most probably made the photocopies of it.
When Jean returned to her house one night she found her photograph beside the lamp. The bar attendant Teddy was there with the gun, he threatened her and asked for everything. He was spying for germans. He said there are good Germans who are trying to bring down Hitler. For that, they need to know the truth. Jean told him a half-truth. She said the officer was indeed carrying secret documents but her being his wife is false. It's a routine in M I 5 to mix truth with half-truth, alternate truth, and fake truth to confuse the enemy. Montagu and Charles were furious at this security breach. They knew who were the spies, who were the sympathisers yet failed to detect Teddy. The next day they get the news that the Germans are retrieving, General Edol had ordered troop build-up at Greece. Charles and Montagu were relieved, they theorized that Von Ronnne is fighting the secret war against Hitler. Admiral Godfrey was not convinced that the deception had worked. If he had his way he would have postponed the invasion but Churchill was adamant.
He had promised the Americans a July attack. England was moving ahead with the plan. Jean was transferred to another branch. Montagu thanked her for her role. On July 10th, 1943 allied forces attacked Sicily, and with meager resistance they captured it. Operation Mincemeat saved tens and thousands of lives, it paved the way for the Nazi's defeat. Sergent Roger was at the infantry assault, he safely landed at the beach. Later Charles and Montagu became good friends and celebrated their success in silence. Charles got back his brother's remains. Montagu and Iris reunited after the war, they remained married. Nazi Officer Von Ronnne was hanged after the war in august 1945 for war crimes. Major Martin's story was kept hidden for nearly 50 years. In the year 1997, they reviled the truth and epitaph to his grave. Overall Operation Mincemeat was a success.
