The mincemeat postmortem: forensic aspects of World War II's boldest counterintelligence operation

On the 30th of April 1943 the waterlogged body of Major William Martin of the Royal Marines drifted toward the shores of the Spanish Atlantic-coast city of Huelva after having been floated from a British submarine. A train of events was set into motion, which helped to change the course of the war. Major Martin, although dead, played a key role in the allied deception operation code-named Mincemeat. Operation Mincemeat has been the subject of several books and a motion picture. The crucial postmortem examination of Major Martin conducted by the Spanish authorities has received surprisingly little attention in the general intelligence literature and details of the medical aspects have to our knowledge never been examined. This article is, in a manner of speaking, a postmortem itself. The events happened 65 years ago and although new material is presented, the interpretation of its significance in the context of the known facts may convince some readers but not others. Nevertheless, we hope that this literary postmortem will fascinate intelligence and medical professionals alike and contribute to the medical and intelligence history of World War II.