He never trained for underwater work and never wanted to be a spy, but during World War II he was dropped off by submarine just off a Spanish beach, under cover of darkness as a spy. The Spy who saved tens of thousands of lives, many of them American lives, came ashore to what his superiors knew would be a very, very hostile environment, full of Germans. They knew that this spy would likely be discovered. And that's what they wanted. They wanted his discovery. And they knew Major Martin, in his thirties, would never return to England alive.
Major Martin was actually an insignificant little man, not known for bravery, indeed, not known for much of anything, actually, though he did have something of a reputation for keeping late hours in the local pubs.
The Allies (the combined forces of England, France, America and other nations) were at war with Germany. They had a problem. The Allies, led by American General Dwight Eisenhower, were concluding operations in Africa and now they wanted to launch an invasion in Sicily (called Operation Husky). The problem was that the Germans were sure to know where the invasion was going to be and would be there to stop it.
In order to invade, the Allies had to make a huge buildup of troops and equipment. They knew the Germans had spies in place and would report the buildup of troops and would be looking to see where the Allied forces would be landing. And when they landed on the beaches, the Germans would be waiting with bombs, bullets and death. It would be a slaughter. Those beaches would be under the thousands of guns the Germans would place on the hills up from the beach. Therefore, it became critical that the Germans not know where or when the Allied forces would be landing.
It was decided that they had to form a complete set of fake plans for another invasion site and time and then convince the Germans that this plan, the fake, was where the Allied forces would be landing in their ships and boats.
The problem was, how could they convince the Germans? How could they communicate their fake plans to the Germans in such a way as to convince the Germans it was true?
And then a man, Sir Archibald Cholmondley, came up with a plan. They named their plan "Operation Mincemeat." Cholmondley posed the question: Why not permit one of their spies to be "captured" with the false documents? Of course, one big problem with that was that the spy would never live through capture. Clearly, this is not a mission most spies would volunteer to take.
Enter our friend, Major Martin. They gave Martin false false papers, gave him an ID, and enough information in a briefcase attached to his wrist to give a false view of when and where the invasion would occur. He was given love letters (made up by secretaries in the office), overdue bills, a stern letter from the Major's father, some keys, matches, theater ticket stubs and even a picture of his fiancé (also made up). They also drafted documents which, on a close reading, were designed to lead the Germans to believe that the Allies were pretending to invade Sicily, but that their real target was the island of Sardinia, which would then be used to hit Sicily and that secondary targets were Greece and the Balkans.
Major Martin left England on April 19, 1943 aboard the British submarine HMS Seraph, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. N.A. Jewell. He was taken to a point just off the coast of Spain where the Allies knew the most efficient Abwehr (German military intelligence) network was in place, put in a life jacket and set adrift.
Soon thereafter, it was learned that Major Martin had made it to the shore and had been discovered by a fisherman. And as the Allies knew, Major Martin would never see England alive. On the return of Major Martin's body to England, they discovered that his briefcase had been very carefully opened, then resealed. The Germans had photographed every document on Martin's body and in his briefcase, then released him back to the Spanish authorities for return to England. English authorities had been demanding return of Martin's body.
Hitler issued an order to the German army which read in part: "Measures regarding Sardinia and the Peloponnese take precedence over everything else." He'd bought the the fake invasion plans completely and the Germans immediately made plans to counter the Allied invasion. Hitler even sent an additional Waffen SS brigade to Sardinia, and to the Allies' delight, assigned Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, probably the most brilliant and feared Commander of the entire German army, to form an army group to counter the invasion. Hitler ordered one entire panzer (tanks) division to Greece, all the way from France.
When the Allies stormed ashore on Sicily they caught the Germans completely unprepared. Operation Mincemeat was a complete success.
Major Martin had played his part perfectly.
He'd not said a word in captivity.
You see, Major Martin was a dead man when he'd been put aboard the submarine.
He'd died of pnuemonia several days earlier.
