Dead Man Working. Poem by guy lipmore

‘Dead Man Working’.

Wacky ‘out of the box’ or sincere,
No rules or set criteria.
Whatever the idea,
Regards to a ‘war’ theatre.
Allied landings were planned,
‘Room 39’ ideas they scanned.
A macabre plan they would employ,
By using a dead body as a decoy!
Place their ‘weapon’ in the sea,
To dupe the Spanish and Nazi hierarchy.
To lure Germans away from Sicily,
Therefore, invade the Reich’s ‘under belly’.
A mission to alter the course of the war,
If ‘The man that never was’ ‘made’ it ashore.
Should their plan back fire,
The invasion plan would expire.

All they had to do was ‘find’ a dead body,
And prepare him for a ‘journey’!
They asked a local pathologist,
To look for a ‘victim’, then assist.
He duly got one identified,
The deceased had ‘gone’ by suicide.
Preparation and timing was the key,
To turn the plan in to reality.
On his person they would plant,
Battle plans in a document.
To make things look authentic,
And their ‘officer’ realistic.
They placed a few personal effects,
Within his wallet and pockets.

Love letter and a ring receipt,
All part of the unusual deceit.
Theatre stubs and a bank statement,
And letter demanding payment.
Possessions they meticulously fake,
Attention, to detail they take.
Officer’s uniform and I.D card with a face,
Attached was the all-important brief case.
He was to be ‘killed’ in a ‘plane crash’,
Therefore, they would fake the aftermath.
Shot up dingy, and life preserver,
Around the neck of the ‘major’.
Last touches, ‘lost’ shoe, ripped clothes,
All ready, then the body they froze.
Ready for the ‘go-light’ of green,
And put in a canister then a submarine.

The plan had been going smoothly,
However before releasing the body.
A mile off the Spanish coast,
They had the feet to defrost!
The rate of thawing was not quick,
An electric fire did the trick.
He was supposed to have drowned,
The British feared the ‘reality’ might be found.
If a full autopsy went on,
Authorities may find the ‘killer’ was poison.
They had another area of concern,
Should the autopsy be prolonged and learn,
Regards to the rate of decomposition,
It may cause a definite suspicion.
The corpse would start to ‘rot’ out from the dry ice,
After all, it had started to decompose once, now ‘twice’!
Hot weather, corpse on a bench,
They found ‘no suspicion ‘and there was a bit of a stench.
Catholic authorities disliked bodies lying around,
And got it quickly put under ground.
Nazi spies, intelligence gathers,
Aided by local Nazi collaborators.
The ‘disinformation’ they bought,
And they channelled it to the top!
Successfully went the cheeky deception,
The documents reached Hitler’s attention.

His commanders were duly alerted,
Significant forces were duly diverted.
Greece, they were redeployed to,
Panzers divisions were sent too.
Bait had totally been swallowed,
The rouse was blindly followed.
Progress had been tracked during the mission,
Bletchley’s ‘ears’ on every communication.
Thanks to ‘Enigma’ providing the ‘talking’ sound,
As well as agents and double on the ground.
Churchill had been informed by telegram,
That the Germans had bought the scam!
“Operation Mincemeat, swallowed rod, line and sinker”,
Believing the documents on the body of the major!
Allied plans were allowed to commence,
And they took advantage of the foe’s ‘lesser’ defence.
Germans tanks taken from the Kursk salient,
To counter the allied invasion ‘stunt’!
Thousands of casualties the operation did save,
Many fatalities were prevented from an early grave.

The ‘hero’ now rests in a Spanish plot,
Posthumously the ‘recognition’ he got.
For decades the real identity was concealed,
Investigations had since revealed.
“William Martin” was the name on the tombstone,
A bizarre legacy, history did ‘atone’.
Glyndwr Michael was the real ‘hero’ that was ‘sent’!
A Welshman found dead in London, alcoholic, a vagrant.
Down on his luck whilst alive, always struggling,
Whilst dead, an honour he was given!
Sad, true, and bit of a morbid story,
Yet fascinating and extraordinary.
Operation “Mince Meat”, was an audacious gamble,
However, it turned out successful.


19/12/13