Ewen Montagu

The Man Who Never Was Ewen Montagu

As plans got under way for the Allied invasion of Sicily in June 1943, British counter-intelligence agent Ewen Montagu masterminded a scheme to mislead the Germans into thinking the next landing would occur in Greece. The innovative plot was so successful that the Germans moved some of their forces away from Sicily, and two weeks into the real invasion still expected an attack in Greece. This daring and complex operation called for a dead body, dressed as a Royal Marine officer and carrying false information about a pending Allied invasion of Greece, to wash up on a Spanish shore near the town of a known Nazi agent. The corpse was discovered as planned, the officer's documents examined and verified by German intelligence, and action was taken. By any measure, the operation was a success, and likely saved many lives. Even two weeks into the invasion of Sicily, German leaders still believed that the main attack would be in Greece.