Quotulatiousness

May 25, 2022

The Spy Game That Killed Yamamoto – WW2 – Spies & Ties 17

Filed under: History, Japan, Military, Pacific, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 24 May 2022

We’ve already seen the power of signals intelligence. Churchill loves being fed information from MI6’s Ultra. Now it brings a vengeance for his American allies. They manage to bag the scourge of Pearl Harbor, C-in-C of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
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May 11, 2022

Operation Mincemeat – The True Story – WW2 – Spies & Ties 16

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 10 May 2022

We’ve encountered plenty of different secret agents. Men, women, Allied, Axis, Partisans. They all fight for different reasons: patriotism, vengeance, or cold hard cash. But they’ve all had one thing in common. They’ve been alive. We’ve never had a dead secret agent. Yet …
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May 1, 2022

The race for Tunisia turns into a crawl – WW2 – 192 – April 30, 1943

World War Two
Published 30 Apr 2022

The Allies launch a deception operation to hide their intent of soon attacking Sicily, but first, they’ll actually have to secure Tunisia, and it is slow going. A German offensive in the Caucasus grinds to a halt, and German U-boats are suddenly finding themselves unable to destroy Allied shipping in the Atlantic.
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April 30, 2022

God Help These British Agents – WW2 – Spies & Ties 16

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 28 Apr 2022

We’ve seen it time and time again in this war. Supposed Allies arguing with each other instead of fighting the enemy. But when SOE and MI6 begin vying for leadership of Britain’s secret war, it’s more than cross words. Now there are lives at stake.
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April 17, 2022

Operation Mincemeat, 1943

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Germany, Greece, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Once an obscure bit of espionage and military disinformation, the events of Operation Mincemeat are being brought to the big screen (boy, does that term seem dated) in a feature film starring Colin Firth. Michael Curtis provides a look at the actual deception mission that inspired the film:

The corpse of Glyndwr Michael, dressed in a Royal Marine uniform with false documents and a fake ID, used in Operation Mincemeat, 1943.
Public domain image from The National Archives.

The story of the British deception, a fascinating story of Allied subterfuge, is now told in the film Operation Mincemeat. It is a remarkable and seemingly highly improbable story of a plan of Allied intelligence to deceive Hitler and misdirect German intelligence. Indeed, it is one of the best examples in history of military deception.

The concept of a plan starts with the Trout Memo, officially written in 1939 by Admiral John Godfrey, director of Naval Intelligence, but almost certainly written by his subordinate Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, not yet dreaming of 007, about the deception of an army in war time by fly fishing. Many ideas were suggested, including sending out tins of explosives disguised as food so that hungry sailors would pick them up. One idea, number 28 on the list, almost certainly the thought of Fleming who thought of elaborate deception options, was to use a dead body dressed as an airman dropped from a parachute that had failed and carrying false papers, and drop it where the Germans would find it and be deceived by it.

The deception was planned by a group, the Twenty Committee, XX, headed by Lieutenant Commander RNVR, Ewen Montagu, Cambridge, Harvard, a naval intelligence officer and prominent Jewish lawyer, who later became a judge, together with an RAF officer Squadron Leader Charles Cholmondeley. Montagu later wrote an account of the affair in a book, The Man who Never Was, 1953. The memory of the event is also simply commemorated in a mortuary in Hackney in East London where the body that was used in the plot is buried. In a rather unkind but truthful remark Montagu said of the man who was used, “The only worthwhile thing he ever did, he did after his death.”

The main deception in the plot was a personal letter purported to be from General Sir Archibald Nye to General Sir Harold Alexander, starting, “My dear Alex.” Nye’s letter contained details of sensitive topics, and of a new commander of the Guards brigade, and U.S. service medal awards. He also referred to Operation Husky, an imminent Allied invasion of Greece, that the Germans had been reinforcing and strengthening their defenses in Greece and Crete, and therefore the chief of the Imperial General Staff felt that the Allied troops planned for the assault were insufficient. Thus, it was agreed by the chiefs of staff that the 5th division should be reinforced by one brigade group for the assault on the beach south of Cape Araxos and that similar reinforcement should be made for the 56th division at Kalamata. The letter was a clever double bluff. Nye wrote that “we stand a very good chance of making the Germans think we will go for Sicily, it is an obvious objective and one about which they must be nervous.” To confuse Hitler, he therefore suggested the Allies would invade Sicily.

It is interesting but not surprising that a key figure in the deception appears to have been Ian Fleming, Mr. James Bond, who had written of methods to confuse the enemy, and was crucial to the Trout Memo.

The plot developed. After some difficulty a suitable body was found by a London coroner and kept on ice for few months. It was Glyndwr Michael, 34, homeless Welsh laborer, penniless, with mental health problems, who had died after ingesting rat poison in a London warehouse. He was transformed into Major William Martin, of the Royal Marines whose body contained love letters from a non-existent fiancé named Pam, a jewelry bill for an engagement ring, ticket stubs, religious medal, a copy of a letter marked “personal and most secret”, and above all the false Nye letter. The body had to look as if it had died in an air crash, but floated ashore and he had died at sea. Major Martin, his body wrapped in a life jacket, and with a black attaché case chained to his wrist, was found on April 30, 1943, by a Spanish fisherman off the coast of Huelva.

Even more unlikely than the plan itself was the impact the “secret” document had on Axis planning, summarized in the Wikipedia article:

On 14 May 1943 Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz met Hitler to discuss Dönitz’s recent visit to Italy, his meeting with the Italian leader Benito Mussolini and the progress of the war. The Admiral, referring to the Mincemeat documents as the “Anglo-Saxon order”, recorded

    The Führer does not agree with … [Mussolini] that the most likely invasion point is Sicily. Furthermore, he believes that the discovered Anglo-Saxon order confirms the assumption that the planned attacks will be directed mainly against Sardinia and the Peloponnesus.

Hitler informed Mussolini that Greece, Sardinia and Corsica must be defended “at all costs”, and that German troops would be best placed to do the job. He ordered that the experienced 1st Panzer Division be transferred from France to Salonika, Greece. The order was intercepted by GC&CS on 21 May. By the end of June, German troop strength on Sardinia had been doubled to 10,000, with fighter aircraft also based there as support. German torpedo boats were moved from Sicily to the Greek islands in preparation. Seven German divisions transferred to Greece, raising the number present to eight, and ten were posted to the Balkans, raising the number present to 18.

On 9 July the Allies invaded Sicily in Operation Husky. German signals intercepted by GC&CS showed that even four hours after the invasion of Sicily began, twenty-one aircraft left Sicily to reinforce Sardinia. For a considerable time after the initial invasion, Hitler was still convinced that an attack on the Balkans was imminent, and in late July he sent General Erwin Rommel to Salonika to prepare the defence of the region. By the time the German high command realised the mistake, it was too late to make a difference.

March 9, 2022

Switzerland – The Heart of European Spying – WW2 – Spies & Ties 14

Filed under: Europe, Germany, History, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 8 Mar 2022

As a neutral country surrounded by occupied and axis countries, Switzerland was a major spy hub during World War Two. Surrounded by the Swiss Alps, the Axis and Allies fought a parallel spy war to get the upper hand.
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February 21, 2022

D-Day – The Biggest Trick in History – WW2 Special

Filed under: Africa, Britain, Europe, Germany, Greece, History, Italy, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 17 Feb 2022

It’s 1943, the preparations for D-Day have already begun: deceive the Wehrmacht. Here at TimeGhost, we have begun to prepare our D-Day for 2023, and we want you to join us! Find out how in the pinned comment.
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OSS Flying Dragon: A Silent Poisoned Dart Gun

Filed under: History, Military, USA, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 7 Apr 2018

The OSS experimented with a lot of … unorthodox weapons during World War Two, and one of their overarching goals was a weapon with a 100 yard lethal range but without flash or noise. To this end they experimented with a number of suppressed firearms as well as weird stuff like various crossbow designs, silenced dart gun pistol conversions, and in this case a CO2 powered dart gun. It was code-named the Flying Dragon, and first mentioned in documents in 1943. In the summer of 1945, 15 were manufactured, and 12 of these remained in OSS stocks at the end of the war.

In July 1945 testing, the Flying Dragon was found the be the second-quietest option (the William Tell crossbow was quieter, at 66 decibels to the Dragon’s 69 decibels). However, the testing board noted that a simple suppressed .22 pistol was pretty much just as good, and quite a lot cheaper (and more reliable, I would expect). The problem with a dart gun like this one is that if it is not reliably lethal, the whole point of it being silenced is lost. Anyone shot by that big dart and not killed by it (which would require a pretty significant muzzle velocity) will immediately start making a heck of a lot of noise. OSS investigated options for poison on the darts to give the weapon the necessary lethality, but was unable to find a suitable solution. This led to discussion of using a small hypodermic syringe as a projectile, an even less practical idea — but this was the freewheeling OSS, where such things were not uncommon to consider.

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February 10, 2022

MI6’s Secret War – WW2 – Spies & Ties 13

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 9 Feb 2022

Britain’s MI6 is caught off guard when war breaks out. As the Germans advance across Western Europe MI6’s networks collapse, and Britain becomes almost blind. MI6 have their secret weapons at Bletchley Park but they now face a painful struggle to rebuild their eyes in Europe.
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January 6, 2022

Chinese Spymasters – The New Warlords? – WW2 – Spies & Ties 12

World War Two
Published 5 Jan 2022

During World War Two, China was ripped up by many different warring parties, all of which were also playing spy games with crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses.
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December 8, 2021

Imperial Japan – A Spy Comedy? – WW2 – Spies & Ties 11

Filed under: History, Japan, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 7 Dec 2021

Japanese spy rings were somewhat successful up until December 1941, but after Pearl Harbor, Japanese intelligence remains only a shell of its former self.
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November 17, 2021

The Real History Behind The Forgotten Battle | Battle of Walcheren 1944

History With Hilbert
Published 10 Nov 2021

The Forgotten Battle is a Dutch/Belgian Netflix war film set during the Battle of Walcheren in 1944, part of the Liberation of the Netherlands from German control following the successful D-Day landings of the Allies. In this video I look at the history of the Battle of the Scheldt and in particular the assault on Walcheren, as well as some of the other historical aspects covered by the film such as Dutchmen who served in the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front and the Dutch Resistance (De Ondergrondse) who fought against the German occupiers and aided the Allies in their push into the Netherlands.

@History Hustle’s excellent videos on Dutch Waffen SS units:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlF0…

Go Fund My Windmills (Patreon):
https://www.patreon.com/HistorywithHi…

Join in the Banter on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/HistorywHilbert

Indulge in some Instagram..?(the alliteration needs to stop):
https://www.instagram.com/historywith…

0:00 – Intro
3:00 – Walcheren Remains In German Hands
4:14 – The Battle of Walcheren Causeway
6:18 – Operation Infatuate I & II
8:00 – Walcheren Is Captured
8:47 – Dutchmen Serving in the SS
10:18 – The Dutch Resistance In World War 2
13:04 – Outro

Send me an email if you’d be interested in doing a collaboration! historywithhilbert@gmail.com

#WW2 #Netherlands #Netflix

November 13, 2021

Here’s Looking at You, Bill – The Secret Preparations for Operation Torch – WW2 – Spies & Ties 10

Filed under: Africa, Britain, France, History, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 12 Nov 2021

To smooth the way for the Allied invasion of French North Africa, Operation Torch, a massive spy operation is set up in 1941 and 42.
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October 18, 2021

Strategikon – Army Manual of the Eastern Roman Empire

Filed under: Books, History, Middle East, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Kings and Generals
Published 30 Mar 2021

The Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the evolution of the Roman Army continues with the second episode of the series on the Army of the Eastern Roman Empire – the Byzantine Empire. In this episode, we’ll focus on Strategikon of Maurice – the army manual that defined the structure, training and tactics of the Byzantine army.

Support us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/KingsandGenerals or Paypal: http://paypal.me/kingsandgeneral

We are grateful to our patrons and sponsors, who made this video possible: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o…

The video was made by Arb Paninken http://bit.ly/2Ow3oC8, while the script was developed by Matt Hollis. This video was narrated by Officially Devin (https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficiallyDevin)

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Production Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound: http://www.epidemicsound.com

#Documentary #Byzantines #Romans

October 9, 2021

The USSR: A Conspiracy Disguised as a Country – WW2 – Spies & Ties 09

Filed under: History, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 8 Oct 2021

The Soviet Union is built on distrust and paranoia, giving birth to a system of intelligence and a huge spy network ran by agencies such as the GRU and NKVD. But what good is all that information if you don’t believe it?
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