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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

17. A Literal False Flag

Decatur and his men fighting Barbary pirates. Naval History and Heritage Command

The mission to recapture the USS Philadelphia was assigned to Lieutenant Stephen Decatur. Earlier, the US Navy had captured a Tripolitanian ketch and renamed her the Intrepid. It was restored to its original condition to look like a local ship. The Intrepid was then used in a deception operation to recover the captured American frigate. On the night of February 16^th, 1804, Decatur and a volunteer crew sailed the Intrepid, disguised as a Maltese ship flying a British flag, into Tripoli’s harbor.

Burning of the USS Philadelphia. Naval History and Heritage Command

Decatur and his crew feigned distress, claiming to have lost all anchors in a storm. Their pilot asked and was granted permission to tie up next to the Philadelphia. Once tied up to the captured frigate, Decatur and his men overwhelmed her guards, using only cold steel without firing a shot so as not to alert the authorities. Upon confirming that the ship was repairable and seaworthy, but unable to sail her away themselves, Decatur and his men destroyed the Philadelphia by putting her to the torch, then made their escape.

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.