The wild true story behind Operation Mincemeat

Prime Video currently has a nail-biting Second World War espionage movie that’s got everyone talking — but what’s the real story behind Operation Mincemeat?

Directed by John Madden, this tense war story was released in 2022, with Brit heavy-hitter Colin Fifth and Succession star Matthew Macfadyen as its leads.

It tells a staggering true story that was orchestrated, in part, by the guy behind James Bond and had a huge impact on mitigating unnecessary casualties during the war.

Intrigued? Well, if you're thinking of hitting play on the movie this weekend, get clued up on the real story behind Operation Mincemeat before you dive in.

How can I watch Operation Mincemeat?

Operation Mincemeat is streaming on Prime Video after landing on the platform in September 2024. It was previously available via Netflix.

Below, you can watch the movie’s official trailer, one that invites viewers into a shady arena of Second World War, dead bodies and a risky plan that changes one of the biggest conflicts in history.

Is Operation Mincemeat based on a true story?

Operation Mincemeat is a real-life spy story that used elaborate trickery to con the enemy into dropping their guard. It was led by British Intelligence officers Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu, played by Macfadyen and Firth in Operation Mincemeat, respectively.

The plan’s origins lay partly in a document called the ‘Trout Memo’ that compared war espionage methods to fly fishing and listed various ways that deception could be utilized to fool an enemy by misdirection to gain the upper hand.

The memo was penned by Rear Admiral John Godfrey, a military official who was the Director of Naval Intelligence during World War II. However, later inspection discovered that it contained many key similarities to the work produced by his personal assistant at the time, Ian Fleming — the person who would later go on to create the iconic spy James Bond.

Listed within this memo was the suggestion that a corpse could be used to trick the enemy by placing fake documents within its clothing and placing it in a key area where it would be discovered by an opposing country.

It was this idea that was actually acted upon when British Intelligence personnel discovered the dead body of an unknown homeless man who had apparently died after eating rat poison. They decided to use this body to lure German reinforcements to the wrong location during the liberation of Sicily.

Acting quickly and with the approval of British prime minister Winston Churchill, agents dressed the body in a Royal Marine officer’s uniform and secretly transported it by submarine to the South coast of Spain. Working with military commanders in the Mediterranean, the body was dumped into the ocean allowing it to make its way to the shore where it was quickly discovered by local fisherman.

When the body was reported to the authorities, the fake documents hidden in its clothing were shared with German authorities who deciphered fake codes and fell for the British Intelligence plan. Believing that an invasion of Greece and Sardinia was imminent, they moved their troops accordingly, leaving Sicily with no reinforcements when the British allied forces moved in.

As a result, Operation Mincemeat was a success and Sicily was liberated in a much quicker time, with fewer deaths.

Operation Mincemeat is streaming now on Prime Video.