Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat was the codename for a plan created and carried out by a small number of British intelligence officers during World War II, with the intent of convincing the German High Command - through false documents deliberately passed to them - that an Allied invasion into southern Europe through Greece would take place in mid-1943. Extremely successful, Mincemeat would cause the Germans to remove a significant amount of troops and armor from France, the eastern front against the Soviet Union, and the island of Sicily to bolster their forces in Greece and the Balkans; their acceptance of the ruse allowed for complete Allied victory in Operation Husky, in which the real target of invasion was Sicily. The success of Mincemeat was further guaranteed by the macabre element central to the plan: the documents were in a briefcase chained to a dead man - with a false identity - who was set adrift at sea.