Operation Mincemeat

Summary

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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Episode: Operation Mincemeat

Date: December 11, 2025

Host: John Allen (MrBallen)
Stories: "Last Stand" and "Cloak and Dagger"

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Overview

In this episode, MrBallen presents two remarkable and dramatic battlefield stories, both rooted in extraordinary historical events. The first, "Last Stand," delves into the harrowing defense of Ossevich Fortress by Russian soldiers during World War I in the face of a deadly chemical attack. The second, "Cloak and Dagger," recounts the true story behind Operation Mincemeat—one of World War II's most daring and successful acts of military deception. Through vivid narration, MrBallen explores the horror, courage, and cunning that defined these episodes, underscoring how strange and dark moments can alter the course of history.

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Story 1: "Last Stand" — The Defense of Ossevich Fortress

(Begins: 03:49)

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Setting the Scene:
  On August 3, 1915, during WWI, 21-year-old Russian officer Vladimir Kotlinsky and his garrison of roughly 900 men defended Ossevich Fortress in Poland against 7,000 German soldiers. The fortress was strategically important due to its railway, river, and road access.

• Stalemate and Boredom:
  Six months into the siege, both sides had settled into an uneasy stalemate. Russian soldiers, bored by the inactivity, even sneaked out to fish.
  (Quote:)

  "There had been so little action from either side that the Russian soldiers... got so bored they began sneaking out the side door of the fortress to try to catch fish with their bare hands." — MrBallen [06:10]

• Ominous Signs:
  Vladimir noticed "strange behavior" among a group of German officers, but, doubting his own instincts, dismissed concern.

• The Chemical Attack:
  Three days later, on August 6, the German army launched a chemical attack, releasing a mixture of chlorine and bromine gas, which combined with internal moisture to form hydrochloric acid, essentially dissolving victims from the inside out.
  (Quote:)

  "It would literally fill their lungs with acid, which would dissolve them from the inside out... the gas would get into their eyes and into their nose, and the acid there would burrow holes into their skull." — MrBallen [09:12]

• No Protection & The 'Dead Men':
  Russian soldiers, unprepared and without gas masks, attempted makeshift defenses (wet rags), which only made the gas more dangerous. As death seemed certain, Vladimir rallied approximately 100 remaining survivors—severely wounded and dying—to launch a desperate counter-attack.

• The Charge:
  Covered in blood, coughing up pieces of their lungs and with terrorizing eyes, the Russian soldiers charged the Germans in a scene reminiscent of a zombie attack.
  (Quote:)

  "These men that are covered in bloody rags... stumbling forward like zombies with bayonets out, screaming like banshees, it scared the living shit out of the Germans." — MrBallen [16:56]

• German Panic & Retreat:
  The Germans, shaken to the core, believed they were facing undead soldiers, leading to panic and retreat—even though they outnumbered the Russians 70 to 1.

• Aftermath:
  Despite their success in repelling the initial German assault, all Russian defenders eventually succumbed to the gas. When the Germans later captured the ruins, the fortress was destroyed beyond use.

• Legacy:
  Vladimir Kotlinsky was posthumously awarded Russia's highest military honor, and his defense—known as "The Attack of the Dead Men"—remains enshrined in Russian memory through songs, stories, and statues.
  (Quote:)

  "His actions and the actions of the other dying soldiers... are remembered today in stories, songs, and statues all across Russia." — MrBallen [20:32]

Notable Moment

• Vladimir, after being stabbed through the stomach, spat blood and lung tissue onto his attacker before continuing to fight, an image that encapsulates the horror and defiance of the defenders.
  (Quote:)

  "Vladimir spit blood and lung tissue all over this German’s face, and then just began screaming directly at the sky... and then Vladimir was back on his gun with the bayonet still in his stomach, shooting at the Germans." — MrBallen [18:43]

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Story 2: "Cloak and Dagger" — Operation Mincemeat

(Begins: 21:15)

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Discovery of the Body:
  On April 30, 1943, fisherman Jose Antonio Ray Maria found a decomposing body off the coast of neutral Spain, chained to a briefcase and dressed as a British officer named William Martin.

• Building the Deception:
  Spanish authorities, under Franco (a secret Nazi ally), confiscated the body and briefcase, finding classified documents. Spain, though officially neutral, provided access to German intelligence, so the letters quickly made their way to Hitler.

• The Letters' Content:
  The briefcase contained forged documents indicating the Allies were planning a fake invasion of Sicily and actually intended to strike Greece, seemingly confirming Nazi suspicions about a Greek assault.

• Hitler Takes the Bait:
  Immediately following the deception, Hitler repositioned massive German forces from Sicily to Greece, all based on this single planted piece of false intelligence.
  (Quote:)

  "Suddenly Hitler went from having no idea where this huge attack on him was going to be, to knowing... he would have the time to shore up his weakest link—Greece." — MrBallen [32:14]

• The Real Allied Invasion:
  On July 9, 1943, while German armies concentrated in Greece, Allied forces launched their massive attack—on Sicily. The undermanned defenders retreated almost without a fight, allowing the Allies to capture Sicily quickly and topple the Italian government.

• Operation Mincemeat Revealed:
  Major William Martin never existed. British officers Ewen Montague and Charles Cholmondeley devised the scheme using the corpse of an unclaimed homeless man, Glendor Michael. The body was meticulously planted with personal effects—love letters from "Pam," nightclub receipts, a diamond engagement ring receipt—creating an authentic backstory to fool anyone investigating.
  (Quote:)

  "Montague and Cholmondeley spent as much time on Major Martin's uniform... as they did on his fake love affair with Pam." — MrBallen [36:45]

• Humanizing the Ruse:
  The episode highlights the tragic fate of Glendor Michael, whose death—though lonely and grim—altered the course of the war.

• Aftermath:
  Operation Mincemeat is now recognized as one of the greatest wartime deceptions, and a marker now honors Glendor Michael as an official British officer. Montague and Cholmondeley were celebrated for their achievement.
  (Quote:)

  "Glendor Michael may have lived a wretched life and died in absolute agony, but in death he helped defeat the Nazis." — MrBallen [39:29]

Notable Moments

• The emotional punch of a fabricated love story:
  Spanish soldiers found personal effects, including a photo signed “Pam” and engagement ring receipts, and concluded Major Martin had only recently become engaged—a touch that made the ruse devastatingly convincing.
  (Quote:)

  "It's like a tragic love story..." — MrBallen [26:08]

• The perfect positioning of the fake intelligence:

  "Hitler thought the secret intelligence he had found inside of Major Martin's briefcase would help him win the war. But in reality, those letters actually proved to be the beginning of the end for the Nazis." — MrBallen [33:21]

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "If they're going to come in here and kill us, then we're going to make it as hard as humanly possible. First."
  — MrBallen, recounting Vladimir's mindset [12:55]

• "The Germans, who had escaped the counterattack and made it back to their trenches... told the other German soldiers that the Russians had turned into zombies, literally that they were undead."
  — MrBallen [18:56]

• "Montague and Cholmondeley had a woman on their staff write these phony love letters to Major Martin, pretending to be Pam..."
  — MrBallen [37:10]

• "It was designed entirely to trick Hitler. The Allies knew if they dropped a dead British soldier off the coast of Spain, a neutral country, that they would turn it over to the Germans. And that's exactly what happened."
  — MrBallen [36:43 and 36:45]

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Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [00:00–02:51]: MrBallen updates and podcast announcements (content schedule, show changes).
• [03:49–21:15]: Story 1 - "Last Stand" (Ossevich Fortress, Vladimir Kotlinsky).
• [21:15–40:00]: Story 2 - "Cloak and Dagger" (Operation Mincemeat).
• [40:00–40:15]: Disclaimer about the use of pseudonyms and dramatization in stories.
• [Interstitial ad breaks skipped]

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Tone & Storytelling Style

MrBallen delivers each story with his trademark blend of suspense, empathy, and attention to haunting detail. He humanizes the horrors of war, focusing not just on historical events but on the emotions, motivations, and fates of the obscure individuals at the center of them. His tone is immersive, respectful of the victims, and keen-edged with the macabre.

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Summary Conclusion

This episode is a gripping exploration of two moments when individuals, either in the last throes of life or through unwitting posthumous service, changed the fate of nations. Whether facing certain doom in battle or serving as the linchpin in the greatest wartime deception, the central figures of "Last Stand" and "Cloak and Dagger" exemplify how strange, dark, and mysterious stories from history can be both horrifying and awe-inspiring.
As MrBallen puts it:

"Glendor Michael may have lived a wretched life and died in absolute agony, but in death he helped defeat the Nazis." [39:29]

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Transcript

[A]

Hello, fans of the strange, dark and mysterious. I'm here today to tell you all about what it actually means now that we've moved over to the SiriusXM family big picture. It means we are gonna make more content for you.

[B]

Right now you get one YouTube video.

[A]

A week on Saturday. Well, what we're gonna do now is we're gonna have the Saturday upload be the same, but then also the Mr. Ballin podcast. Well, we've begun already filming those episodes like a YouTube video. So that's a second piece of content every week. Then there's two other shows that you guys don't even know about yet, which means on any given week, you could.

[B]

Have up to four new video pieces.

[A]

Of content on the Mr. Ballin channel. And also all these pieces of content will double as podcasts as well. This new content schedule is going to.

[B]

Start early next year.

[A]

Also, there's one other thing I want to clarify, which is the state of Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries and redacted. Those shows were created in collaboration with Wondry the, but now we're partnered with Sirius, and so we're not gonna be making any new episodes of either of those shows.

[B]

For now.

[A]

If you wanna hear my podcast episodes one week early and ad free, make sure to subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. Keep on the lookout for more announcements in the coming weeks.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Today's podcast will feature two totally unbelievable stories from the battlefield. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Last Stand. And if there is one war story everybody needs to hear at least once, it's this one. It is both horrific and inspiring. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Cloak and Dagger. And while there are many, many crazy stories that came out of World War II, today's story could be not just the single craziest story, but perhaps one.

[B]

Of the most influential events that even.

[A]

Happened in the entire war. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right show, because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Fall of Buttons house, take all their fresh eggs out of the fridge, hard boil them and then put them back. Okay, let's get into our first story called Last Stand.

[C]

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[B]

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[B]

On the morning of August 3, 1915, during World War I, a 21 year old Russian soldier named Vladimir Kotlinsky looked out from behind the huge stone walls of Ossevich Fortress in Poland. Out in front of him, he saw the same landscape he had been looking at for the last six months that he had been stationed at this fortress. It was a big swampy forest that surrounded them on all sides. Sides. Additionally, in this swampy forest around them on all sides were dozens and dozens of trenches. Trenches are long, deep pits that soldiers will dig to both hide inside of when they're being attacked and then also to launch their own attacks out of from behind their dirt walls. And these trenches that zigged and zagged all around Ausevich Fortress were created by and now occupied by 7,000 German soldiers. And during World War I, the Russians were fighting the Germans. The Germans really wanted to take Ossevich Fortress from the Russians. It was in a great strategic position with a railway passing right through it. There was also a river nearby and a main road, meaning whoever owned this fortress was greatly aided in moving critical wartime supplies and troops in a very hotly contested area. But despite the repeated attempts by these 7,000 Germans to take over Ausevich Fortress over the past six months, they had all been repelled by Vladimir and the puny 900 man Russian force inside of the fortress. And so by that morning, August 3, 1915, as Vladimir is looking out from the battlements over the trenches in the marsh down below, it was like both The Russians and the Germans had reached a sort of stalemate where neither side was trying to attack the other and neither side was leaving. They were just kind of staying put and doing nothing. In fact, over the last few weeks, there had been so little action from either side that the Russian soldiers inside the fortress got so bored, they began sneaking out the side door of the fortress to try to catch fish with their bare hands in the nearby river. But this morning, as Vladimir stood atop the wall, he noticed something strange happening in one of the trenches that was located closest to the fortress. It was still several hundred feet away, but he could see clearly down into this trench. And what he saw was there was this cluster of high ranking German officers that were kind of huddled together and they kept looking down at the ground at something inside of the trench that Vladimir couldn't see. And then they would look up at the sky and kind of wave their hands around, and then they'd look back down at the ground below them. Now, Vladimir had no idea what they were doing. I mean, again, he could not see what they looking at in the trench. And when he looked up into the sky where they seemed to be looking, it just looked like a regular blue sky. But whatever they were doing, it was making Vladimir feel nervous. Vladimir was a young junior officer, which meant he was in charge of other soldiers. But because he was so new, he lacked experience and credibility, and so really wasn't considered a serious leader within the army. And so Vladimir, as he's watching this strange behavior, was concerned that if he left now and told his superiors that he was worried about the Germans because they were looking at the sky funny and looking at the ground funny, that it would make him look like he was being paranoid and not a good leader. And so ultimately, Vladimir just looked at this cluster inside of the trench and decided, you know what? They're not shooting at us. There's no attack happening. So whatever they're doing, it can't be that big of a deal. And lately no one's done anything, so why would that change now? And so Vladimir left the walls of Ossevich Fortress and went down below to hang out with his friends.

Three days later, at 4 in the morning, the Russian soldiers who were up along the Ossevich Fortress walls keeping watch that night noticed something strange out in the darkness near where the Germans were. When they looked out, they saw that the dark night air almost looked kind of blurry or wavy, kind of like if you were looking at air coming off of hot pavement on a sunny day, it would look kind of blurry. That's what the night sky looked like to them. But of course, it couldn't be because of heat and sun, because it's the morning, it's cold, it's dark outside. And so as these Russians are looking out, not sure what to make of this blurry air, they began calling up more Russians to go have a look and figure out what this was. And over the next couple of minutes, as the Russians looked out from behind the walls at this heir, they realized what it was. It was this huge, grayish green cloud that was as wide as the fortress was, and the wind was blowing it in their direction. Now, the Russian soldiers had no idea what this was, and so they just kind of stood there watching it in stunned silence. And as they watched, they saw as the cloud would touch any vegetation, like leaves on trees or the high grass in the marsh, it would all turn and shrivel up. And then the soldiers began hearing a soft thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump out in the darkness. And it was the sound of birds dying and falling to the ground that were inside of this cloud. At this point, the Russians began to panic and they began to run to sound the alarm to get the other soldiers up to prepare for an attack. But as they did, they began to smell this very harsh chemical smell coming into the fortress. And. And then before long, all the Russians could hear was the sound of their comrades coughing. It would turn out that strange behavior that Vladimir saw three days earlier of the German officers huddled together, looking at the sky and then looking down at the ground and then back at the sky again. What they were doing was preparing for a chemical attack on Ossevich Fortress. On the ground, out of sight of Vladimir, were canisters containing the poisonous gas. And when the officers would look up and put their hands up, they were gauging if the wind was strong enough and in the right direction to launch the attack. Now, three days ago, the wind had not been in their favor. But this morning at 4:00am on August 6, 1915, the wind had been in their favor and they had released the gas. And this gas was quite possibly the worst gas you could ever come up against on the battlefield. It was a combination of chlorine gas and bromine gas. On their own, chlorine and bromine are very toxic and can kill you. But when you mix those two gases, it becomes exponentially more dangerous. The gas mixture binds to moisture and then turns the moisture into hydrochloric acid, meaning if a person who did not have a gas mask on came in contact with this poisonous gas, when they inhaled it, it would literally fill their lungs with acid, which would dissolve them from the inside out. And then also the gas would get into their eyes and into their nose, and the acid there would burrow holes into their skull. And once you've come in contact with this gas, there's nothing anybody can do to save you. You're gonna die, except it's gonna take a really, really long time. You don't just immediately dissolve. It's this long, drawn out, excruciatingly painful process. By this point In World War I, chemical warfare was really not being used by anybody. And so as a result, the Russian army did not outfit their soldiers with gas masks. The German army did. And they knew the Russian army did not. So as this horrific poisonous gas began permeating every square inch of Aevich Fortress, all of these Russian soldiers had nothing they could do to protect themselves from this gas. And so right away, soldiers began bleeding from their eyes and their mouths and their ears, and they literally began coughing up chunks of their lung. And so very quickly, the Russians inside the fortress understood they were being poisoned. And so these soldiers that were not as affected, at least not right away by this gas, quickly began ripping off their shirts, dunking them in water and wrapping them around their heads to try to limit how much they breathed in of this chemical. But it really didn't do much to stop the chemical. In fact, these makeshift gas masks might have made it worse because the gas would have bound to the moisture on the shirt. And so the Russians were totally doomed. They were surrounded on all sides outside the walls by their enemy. And then inside the fortress was this gas. And there was no ventilation in the fortress. And so there was nowhere to go. They couldn't escape death no matter where they went. And so Vladimir, he was one of the guys that was still on his feet inside of the fortress. And he stumbled over to this narrow window on the side of the fortress walls, and he looked out and he saw all these Germans running towards them, firing their machine guns, artilleries being fired. I mean, he knows they are moments away from the Germans breaching the fortress door, coming inside and killing every last one of them. But Vladimir's reaction to this was not being scared or being sad. Instead, he suddenly felt incredibly motivated. If they're going to come in here and kill us, then we're going to make it as hard as humanly possible. First.

[A]

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[B]

On December 16, ID presents a new documentary event. My dad disappeared off the face of the earth. Uncover a 56 year old mystery. I asked Mike to come to the psychic with me. The psychic pros of murder. He is in the basement and dig up the truth.

[A]

We were digging for months. There was nothing. All of a sudden I hit something with the shovel. The police need to see this.

[B]

I kept that a secret for a long time. The secrets we bury an ID documentary event December 16th at 9 on ID.

[D]

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[B]

Vladimir had a reputation for being totally fearless over the past six months that they had been under siege from the German army. Out in their trenches anytime fighting broke out, Vladimir was Always the first to run up and be right on the front line of fighting. And then several times when his comrades had been shot or wounded, Vladimir would run out into the line of fire to save the fallen soldiers. It was like Vladimir lacked any instinct for self preservation. And so as the Germans continued their run towards the fortress, artillery shells are hitting the walls, there's constant gunfire. And Vladimir, he leaves his window and he marches back over to the open courtyard inside of this fortress where the hundred or so other still living Russian soldiers were. I mean, they're all going to die. They've been totally poisoned by this gas, and it's just a matter of time now, but they're still on their feet. And Vladimir walks over to them and even though again he's pretty junior, he stands up and he says to them, this is our moment, we are all going to die, but what we do right now will define us. In the way Vladimir said it, he got those hundred soldiers who were on death's door to be so motivated so quickly that they rallied to him. And so as these men are literally bleeding out of their eyes, their mouths, they're coughing up pieces of their lung. Vladimir explained the plan. And then moments later, with Vladimir in the front, this gaggle of soon to die Russian soldiers charged towards the gates, opened the fortress and began running out towards the Germans, screaming with their bayonets lowered. Now, the Germans on the outside fully expected that this chemical attack would kill all of the Russians, that taking Ossevich Fortress would be super routine because when they walked in, everybody would be dead. And so suddenly to have the fortress open and have these men that are covered in bloody rags and they're puking up pieces of their organs and they're stumbling forward like zombies with ban nets out, screaming like banshees, it scared the living shit out of the Germans. In fact, they were so quickly terrified by what they saw, they literally dropped their guns, turned and began running back towards their trenches. And as they did, Vladimir and his Deadman army began picking off the Germans one by one. And then after Vladimir and the Deadman army ran out of ammunition, they just continued staggering forward directly into the thousands of Germans in front of them and began picking up dead German weapons and firing them. And then when they got up to the trenches where these retreating Germans had been so scared they had run into their own barbed wire. And so there's all these retreating Germans stuck on the barbed wire, the Russians just began bayoneting all these men that were stuck. And so at some point, as Vladimir is doing this A German soldier ran up to him and bayoneted Vladimir right in the stomach. He ran him all the way through until the barrel of the gun was right up against his stomach. And Vladimir apparently looked down at this bayonet, knew he had been completely run through, and he looked up at the German who had just stabbed him, who's still holding the gun. And Vladimir spit blood and lung tissue all over this German's face, and then just began screaming directly at the sky. And so the German was so scared, he just dropped the gun, turned, tried to run, and then Vladimir was back on his gun with the bayonet still in his stomach, shooting at the Germans. The Germans were so completely caught off guard and terrified by Vladimir's deadman army counterattack that even though they outnumbered the Russians 70 to 1, they failed to take Ossevich Fortress. The main reason for that was the Germans, who had escaped the counterattack and made it back to their trenches. They told the other German soldiers that the Russians had turned into zombies, literally that they were undead, and so attacking them was pointless. They're already dead. And the Germans were so scared, they refused to leave their trenches again. Once the Russians could tell they had successfully forced a retreat by the German army, Vladimir, who was still alive at this point, with a gun still stuck in his gut from the bayonet, he called out to the rest of his soldiers to retreat back to the fortress. And so this handful of Russian soldiers who were about to die, they hobbled their way back inside of their fortress. And then Vladimir gave his final command. Destroy the fortress. If we can't have it, nobody can.

Every single Russian soldier that came in contact with that poisonous gas died, including Vladimir. When the Germans did eventually take Ossevich Fortress at a later date, when, again, all of the Russians were dead. When the Germans went inside, they realized the fortress had been destroyed and it was no longer strategically valuable. Vladimir would be awarded posthumously, Russia's highest military honor. His actions and the actions of the other dying soldiers that fought alongside him are remembered today in stories, songs, and statues all across Russia.

[A]

The next and final story of today's episode is called Cloak and Dagger.

[B]

On the morning of April 30, 1943, a fisherman named Jose Antonio Ray Maria rode his little boat out into the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Spain. Jose was a sardine spotter, which meant his job was to go out into the ocean and look down and try to find schools of sardines swimming about 20ft below the surface. And then he would flag the other Fishermen over who would scoop the fish up with their nets. And Jose was very good at his job. In fact, he was quite possibly the best sardine spotter in the whole village of Punta Umbria, which is a small fishing village in southwestern Spain, where Jose was from. But on this particular day, the weather wasn't quite great. The water was kind of murky and choppy, and so Jose wasn't seeing any sardines. But as Jose was starting to feel frustrated, he looked out, and on the surface of the water, pretty far away from him, he saw this strange object floating on the surface. And at first, he assumed it had to be maybe some dead sea animal that had floated to the surface. But as he stared at it from his boat that was rocking in the water, he saw between waves, there was a yellow color on this lump that just looked kind of unnatural. And so, feeling curious about whatever this was, Jose decided to start rowing over in that direction and get a better look. And as he got closer and closer, he realized that yellow color was unnatural. The yellow was part of a life jacket, which meant this was a person floating in the ocean. And so Jose, with his heart now racing, was thinking, oh, my gosh, I have to go save this person. And so he raced over right up alongside them. And as soon as he looked down, he realized it was obviously too late. This person was obviously deceased. It was a man who had a military trench coat on who was lying face down in the water. And so Jose reached into the water and rolled the guy over, and immediately he was hit with this horrible smell. And then he looked at the face of this dead person, and he was horrified. The guy's eyes were sunken into his skull. He had mold growing on his chin. You know, bones were exposed, and it almost looked like the dead guy's face was trapped in this kind of ghastly expression, as if the last thing he experienced was horrifying before he died. And then Jose noticed there was something else about this corpse. There was a chain wrapped around his wrist, and that chain extended deep into the water. And so Jose grabbed the chain and began reeling it back in. And eventually, he pulled out this big black briefcase that had a code on the top of it that you would need to enter in order to open it. Now, for context, at this time in Europe, World War II was raging from Britain to Russia. And so there were literally thousands of dead corpses scattered all over the world, basically around the areas where fighting was taking place. So at this time, finding a dead soldier floating out in the middle of the ocean was Actually, not that uncommon. But in Spain, where Jose was, this was uncommon because Spain had not entered World War II. They were a neutral country. And so because there was no fighting happening there, there should not have been any dead soldiers floating just off their coastline. And so Jose stared transfixed at this dead soldier in his briefcase for a couple more moments. And then he kind of broke out of it and turned and yelled to the other fishermen who were out there in another boat and tried to flag them over to help get this corpse out of the water. But the other fishermen, when they realized what Jose was asking them to do, they said, no, we're not helping you with that. We're not touching the dead body. And so Jose just grabbed the dead body with one arm and then awkwardly with his other arm, he managed to row this boat and drag along this corpse all the way back to the beach. And as he did, he and the other fishermen were kind of yelling back and forth at each other. It was kind of a commotion on the water. And so by the time Jose had got the corpse back to shore and dragged it up onto the sand, villagers in Punta Umbria had heard the commotion and come outside to see what was going on. And they saw Jose standing there with this dead body. And so they began forming a crowd around the body. And so nearby Spanish soldiers were doing a training exercise, and they saw this crowd gathering on the beach. And so a group of them walked over to see what was going on. They pushed through the crowd and they saw this dead body on the ground. And right away they began searching the dead body to figure out who it was. And when the Spanish soldiers found his identification papers, they learned that his name was William Martin and he was a major in the British Royal Marines. Also on these papers, it said that Major Martin was assigned to the Combined Operation Headquarters in London, which the Spanish soldiers knew was an outpost that organized commando raids on Nazi held territory under Major Martin's military trench coat. When the soldiers opened it up, they saw he was dressed in full kit, full battle gear, which suggested he had died during one of these commando raids. But after the Spanish soldiers had removed his gear, they couldn't find any shrapnel wounds or gunshot wounds. And so the running theory was, you know, he must have been flying over this area and maybe his plane was shot down, and that's why we can't figure out how he died. But the Spanish soldiers had not heard any reports of a plane being shot down right off the coast. And so really, they had no idea how Major Martin actually came to be here. Then one of the Spanish soldiers who was still searching Major Martin's pockets, found in one of them some crumpled papers and a photograph. And after he looked at them, he tapped on his commanding officer's shoulder and showed him. The photo was black and white, and it was this pretty young woman. And on the back of it, it was signed Pam. As for the crumpled papers that had been near this photo, they were Bill's. One was from a London nightclub from three nights earlier, and the other was a receipt for a diamond engagement ring. Now, these Spanish soldiers were not overly emotional, but they couldn't help but think how kind of sad it was that, you know, Major Martin obviously was in love with this woman, Pam, and they must have just gotten engaged, and now he's dead. It's like a tragic love story. And so the soldier who had found these bills and this photo folded them back up and tucked them back inside of Major Martin's pockets. And then the soldiers talked about what they should do next. Now, technically, because Spain was a neutral country, what they were supposed to do was turn this body back over to the British because he was a British soldier. But the Spanish government was run by a fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, who was not really neutral at all. He was actually secretly aligned with the Nazis. In fact, the Nazis leader, Adolf Hitler, had helped Franco come to power. And so now that he was in power, he regularly shared secrets with the Germans. And so when these Spanish soldiers eventually contacted their higher ups to ask what to do with this dead British soldier, their superiors told them, do not give Major Martin's body back to the British. Instead, bring his body to a nearby morgue where agents who worked for Franco would be able to inspect the body and open up that briefcase and see what was inside. And so these Spanish soldiers did as they were told. And when Franco's agents were able to finally pop open that black briefcase that was connected to Major Martin's wrist, they discovered inside three letters from leaders of the British military. And when Franco's agents read these letters, they knew right away they had discovered something incredible. And within days, these letters were sitting right on Adolf Hitler's desk.

[E]

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[B]

Now at this time In April of 1943, Hitler was starting to worry that he was about to lose the war. Even though the Nazis had successfully conquered most of Europe, it felt like the tide was turning against them. And in Hitler's mind, it was starting to seem likely that the Americans and the British were poised to launch some sort of massive attack on Nazi controlled territory. And if they weren't ready for it, I mean, this could cost them the war. But Hitler had no idea where this major Allied attack was going to happen. And so trying to figure that out was basically the biggest priority the Nazis had at the time. Now most of Hitler's intelligence suggested that this big major Allied attack was going to take place on Sicily, which is an Italian island. Italy was allied with the Nazis. And Nazi spies who were monitoring British and American phone conversations were hearing lots of chatter about an invasion of Sicily. And so that's why they believed that's gotta be the place, that's where the attack's gonna happen. But when Hitler looked at these three letters that were found inside of Major Martin's briefcase, everything changed. The letters, which were all signed by top leaders of the British military, said that the plans to attack Sicily were actually fake. That British and American forces were talking on these obviously tapped phone lines. They knew the Nazis were listening. They were talking on these lines about this invasion of Sicily just to confuse the Nazis. They wanted the Nazis to think that Sicily is the place. But as these letters would go on to explain the real place, the real location of this huge Allied attack was going to be Nazi controlled Greece. So 500 miles away. And so as Hitler is reading this, you know, he's terrified because in his mind he always thought Greece was really the Nazis weakest link. And so to get this intelligence, it was the equivalent of like winning the lottery. Suddenly Hitler went from having no idea where this huge attack on him was going to be to knowing exactly where it was going to be and knowing that he would have the time to shore up his weakest link, Greece. And so, on May 12, 1943, less than two weeks after Jose, the sardine spotter, found Major Martin's body floating off the coast of Punta Umbria, Hitler sent a military directive to all of his leaders to prepare for a huge Allied attack, not on Sicily, but on Greece. And before long, German tanks were rumbling from southern France to Greece, and tens of thousands of German soldiers. Soldiers were setting up barriers on Greek beaches to repel the invasion. And then out at sea, the famous German U boats, their submarines, which were so deadly during World War II, were out all over the place, getting ready to shoot any Allied ships that came towards the shore. In short, the Nazis were ready.

But by July 9, so two months later, nothing had happened. There had been no major Allied attack on Greece, on Sicily, or anywhere else for that matter. Meanwhile, back In Sicily on July 9, one of the few soldiers who was still stationed there, because, remember, all those soldiers had been pushed to Greece, One of the few remaining soldiers was in his bunk writing a letter to his mother. And he would detail that. It just felt too quiet in Sicily. And after he had written this letter, signed it and put it away, he heard outside, a man, massive booming sound. And so he ran outside and he looked in horror towards the horizon. Now, instead of being a beautiful clear blue, it was black with smoke and warships as far as the eye could see. He couldn't even count the number of warships on the horizon. And they were all coming right towards Sicily, firing their cannons and guns. This was the big Allied attack. It was on Sicily. The few soldiers in Sicily who came out of their bunkers and looked out and saw this knew right away that they were so ridiculously outnumbered that there was absolutely no hope. And so the soldier who had just written to his mother about how calm it seemed here, along with several others who was standing near him, they immediately just took off their uniforms and ran. And soon the other soldiers on the island began coming out of their cover and seeing they were under attack. And most of them did the same thing. Everybody basically ran away. And so the British and the Americans that were coming on warships barely had to fight. They took over Sicily incredibly easily. And within a few weeks, the Allies had complete control over the island and the Italian government had been overthrown. Hitler had thought the secret intelligence he had found inside of Major Martin's briefcase would help him win the war. But in reality, those letters actually proved to be the beginning of the end for the Nazis. It would turn out Major William Martin, the dead British soldier that Jose the sardine spotter found off the coast of Punta Umbria, Spain, was not really who he appeared to be. In reality, Major William Martin didn't exist. The body definitely existed. That was a real dead body. But the identification of the body was fake. It had been fabricated by two very smart British intelligence officers named Ewen Montague and Charles Cholmondeley as part of their very famous operation called Operation Mincemeat. And this operation was truly one of a kind. It was designed entirely to trick Hitler. The Allies knew if they dropped a dead British soldier off the coast of Spain, a neutral country, that they would turn it over to the Germans.

[A]

And that's exactly what happened.

[B]

And so everything that was on the fake major's body, from the trenchcoat to the kit he was wearing to the identification papers, the receipts, the photos, all of it was placed very intentionally to convince the Germans that Major Martin was real. Major Martin was given a high enough military rank that it kind of made sense that he might be carrying this really special briefcase with highly classified military secrets, but his rank was not high enough that he would be known in military circles, because that would make it too easy for the Germans to identify that this was fake. And for the same reason, Montague and Cholmondeley gave their fake major a very common Bill Martin. There were loads of Martins in the British military at the time, making a fake one hard to spot. But the British intelligence officers knew that they couldn't just present this kind of basic, generic British soldier and trick the entire German military. They needed to give him a backstory. And so Cholmondeley and Montague spent as much time on Major Martin's uniform and what he was wearing as they did on his fake love affair with Pam. Montague and Cholmondeley had a woman on their staff write these phony love letters to Major Martin, pretending to be Pam. And she wrote in beautiful curling penmanship, talking about how difficult it was to be in love with him during a war. And then also, Chumley and Montague got that receipt for the diamond engagement ring, along with the nightclub receipt from just a couple of days earlier. And they tucked that into his pocket, really making it feel like this tragic love story. And so it was a combination of all of these details that have been thought through so carefully by these intelligence officers that really made major Martin seem 100% real. As for the real identification of the dead body, it belonged to a 34 year old homeless man from London named Glendor Michael. Michael had lived this wretched, miserable life and then eventually died when he ate rat poison that was on a piece of bread. We don't know if he tried to kill himself or if it was accidental. Michael's body had been stored in a refrigerator in a morgue, unclaimed for months when Montague and Cholmondeley found out about him and decided he would be perfect because no one would notice if his body went missing. And so ultimately, Operation Mincemeat was a massive success. Hitler completely mistook a homeless man from London for a relatively high ranking British military officer carrying international secrets on his wrist and it cost Hitler the war. Glendor Michael may have lived a wretched life and died in absolute agony, but in death he helped defeat the Nazis. Today there is a marker on Glendor Michael's grave in Spain that actually denotes him as an official British military officer. As for Montague and Cholmondeley, they were quickly promoted after Operation Mincemeat and then ultimately became famous for their plot.

[A]

A quick note about our stories they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr. Ballin podcast Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories is hosted and executive Produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Produced by Jeremy Bone. Research and fact checking by Shelley Shue, Samantha Vanhus, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway and Camille Callahan. Research and fact checking supervision by Steven Ear Audio editing and post produced by Whit Locasio, Jordan Stidham and Cole Locasio. Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain Production coordination by Samantha Collins Production support by Antonio Moore Minata and Delena Corley Artwork by Jessica Claugston Kiner theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[B]

If you enjoyed today's story and you want to hear more like it, go.

[A]

Ahead and check out our YouTube channel just called Mr. Ballin, where we have.

[B]

Hundreds more stories, a lot like this.

[A]

One, but most of them are not available on this podcast.

[B]

They are only available on that YouTube.

[A]

Channel, which again is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's gonna do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See ya.

[D]

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