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A Memorable History of Deception and Spy Capers

Khalid Elhassan June 7, 2020 34 min

Operation Mincemeat - World War II — Items recovered from Major Martin and his briefcase. BBC

39. Recovering Major Martin’s Briefcase

The discovery of a drowned body with an attached briefcase off Spain’s coast in 1943 was part of one of WWII’s most macabre deceptions. Ciencia Historica

General Francisco Franco‘s Spain was ostensibly neutral during WWII, but its pro-Axis sympathies were an open secret. During the Spanish Civil War, Franco had been generously supplied and armed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Tens of thousands of Spanish volunteers were fighting under German command on the Eastern Front.

Initially, Spanish authorities resisted German entreaties to let them examine the contents of Major Martin’s briefcase. However, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence, the Abwehr, personally intervened, and the Spaniards relented. Spanish intelligence personnel carefully opened sealed envelopes in the recovered briefcase, dried and photographed them, then handed the photos to the Germans.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.