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Bill Thayer

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Chapter 13
This webpage reproduces a chapter of
The Man Who Never Was

by Ewen Montagu

published by J. B. Lippincott Company
Philadelphia and New York,
1954

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
If you find a mistake though,
please let me know!

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 p151  Envoi

Rather than conclude on a somewhat bombastic note — a note that I feel to be owed to the memory of the man who really was, and who became "Major Martin, Royal Marines" — I would like to add something that puts my own part in the "Operation" into its proper prospective.

As the result of what we already knew of the success of "Operation Mincemeat," I was awarded the Military O. B. E. in 1944. When he was pinning the medal on to my uniform jacket, His Majesty asked me where it was that I had earned it, and on my replying, "At the Admiralty, Sir," I could see his eyebrows go up in some astonishment. He followed with another question: "What did you get it for?" Taken by surprise, I could only ejaculate: "Part of the planning of 'Operation Husky,' Sir."

That reply of mine made me realise how the entire thing fitted together and, as I have said, put the whole picture into its proper prospective. "Operation Mincemeat," with all its thrill and "glamour," was just an integral part of the planning of a modern operation.


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Page updated: 13 Dec 20