Operation Mincemeat
by Ben Macintyre · first published 2010
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A narrative history of the WWII deception plot in which planted papers on a dead man fooled the Nazis. It is a gripping, well-told account for readers interested in wartime spy stories.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Ben Macintyre's Agent Zigzag was hailed as "rollicking, spellbinding" (New York Times), "wildly improbable but entirely true" (Entertainment Weekly), and, quite simply, "the best book ever written" (Boston Globe). In his new book, Operation Mincemeat, he tells an extraordinary story that will delight his legions of fans.In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated-- Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by w
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I'd also recommend Operation Mincemeat. https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Mincemeat-Bizarre-Assured-V...
on “Factoring may be easier than we think” ↗any history book by Ben MacIntyre is a terrific read. He has written sseveral about WWII: I've read Agent Zig-Zag and Operation Mincemeat. He also wrote a good book about the spy Kim Phiulby, A Spy Among Friends. Another great book about WWII is Citizens of London by Lynne Olson. One of the best books I've read recently is Peter Frankopan's…
on “Ask HN: What are your favourite history books?” ↗I think a couple of Macintyre's other works even top The Spy and the Traitor in terms of "craziness". Particularly Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat (out of those I've read). They're both thoroughly worth a read if you enjoyed this one.
on “Good Books for a Lousy Year” ↗The book by Ben Macintyre, "Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory", is very good. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7632329-operation-mincem...
on ““This telegram must be closely paraphrased before being communicated to anyone”” ↗http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat should also be noted. Not only an amazing story/execution, but its successful outcome did have; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat#Impact_on_l... Well worth reading the book by the same…
on “The piece of paper that fooled Hitler” ↗Writer Ben Macintyre has written extensively, and lucidly, about deception campaigns of WWI. Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, and Double Cross all capture the efforts made by the British and its allies. No individual operation swung it but there was an amalgamation of disinformation on various fronts. It’s hard to put a tangible…
on “Operation Dissimulation: WW2'S Biggest Deception Campaigns” ↗…see there being a middle ground where you publish some sort of context that a user’s LLM can generate the content from. Is it fundamentally any different from dramatized non-fiction? Think of books like Operation Mincemeat where the facts are thoroughly researched, but the author uses a lot of artistic license to tell the story. But to your point, if there is back-and-forth, I wish people would pay more attention to the…
on “Ask HN: Add flag for AI-generated articles” ↗Technically counter-espionage, but I always think of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat Edit: Probably SIGINT, not HUMINT, but I'll leave the link for other people's reading pleasure. In any case, one that would definitely be HUMINT- I recall some Axis pilot defected to the Allies, giving…
on “Why spies never discover anything useful” ↗…back, my issue was with another Yuval book: Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow Maybe I'll try Sapians it give Yuval another try. My recent list: The Half Known Life Born a Crime American Prometheus Operation Mincemeat Leonardo Da Vinci Powers and Thrones The Icepick Surgeon Destiny of the Republic The River of Doubt Red Famine Under the Banner of Heaven In Order to Live The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream…
on “Neanderthals hunted dangerous cave lions, study shows” ↗