Operation Mincemeat

April 25, 1859. About 150 people have gathered on the shores of Lake Manzala in Egypt. And one of them, a mustachioed, retired French diplomat, steps forward. He raises his pickaxe and strikes a ceremonial blow. The audacious goal is to cut through the desert to connect the Medit ...  Show more

April 20th, 2004. A quiet suburban development outside Seattle. Brand-new homes. Fresh lawns not yet grown in. Then, in the middle of the night—sirens. Flames ripping through two houses. Investigators quickly find the cause: homemade incendiary devices. And a message, left behind ...  Show more

It’s 1943. The Allies are determined to break Hitler’s grip on occupied Europe and plan an all-out assault on Sicily, but they face an impossible challenge - how to protect a massive invasion force from a potential massacre. It falls to two remarkable intelligence officers, Ew ...

As World War II raged on in 1943, both Allied and Axis forces knew they were riddled with spies. In a dizzying cavalcade of undercover, double, and even triple agents, both sides of the war sought to deceive their opponents -- and ethical concerns increasingly took a back seat in ...  Show more

On 28 March 1942, in the darkest months of World War Two, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook “the greatest raid of all”, turning an old destroyer ...

In 1943, British agents concocted a daring plot to trick Hitler, involving a dead body, fake love letters and a false identity. Speaking with Emily Briffett, author and historian Ben Macintyre discusses the real history behind Operation Mincemeat, a new film adapted from his 2010 ...  Show more