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  • (guns firing off)

  • - [Voiceover] At the height of the Second World War,

  • the Allied Forces were planning a secret mission

  • to invade Nazi-occupied Sicily.

  • In order to confuse the Germans,

  • they devised an audacious and utterly bizarre plan,

  • a plan which hinged on the ultimate success

  • of one man,

  • a man who was already dead.

  • On April 30th, 1943, a Spanish fisherman

  • discovered the body of a British soldier

  • off the coast of Spain.

  • The dead soldier had a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.

  • The Nazis got a hold of the body

  • and examined the man and his possessions.

  • What they uncovered astounded them.

  • The dead soldier carried letters

  • which described critical details

  • of the Allies' plan to invade Greece.

  • Nazi officials, including Hitler himself,

  • were convinced they had stumbled upon

  • the greatest military intercept of the Second World War.

  • The only issue for the Nazis was the dead soldier

  • and all of the details outlining the pending invasion

  • were a fantastical ruse designed to foil the German army.

  • The idea was conceived by a group

  • within British intelligence

  • which included Ian Fleming.

  • Yep, the guy who wrote James Bond.

  • To pull it off, the team had procured the body

  • of a 34-year old man who had died the month before.

  • They gave the guy a uniform, a fake passport,

  • theater tickets, a picture of a girlfriend,

  • and even loose tobacco to make him appear real.

  • They drove from London to Scotland,

  • and they put it on a submarine.

  • Two days later, the body was placed

  • in the ocean where it was later found.

  • Hitler was so convinced that he moved

  • the bulk of his forces to Greece

  • in preparation for the pending invasion,

  • an invasion that never came.

  • So when the allies landed in Sicily

  • they encountered a whole lot less resistance,

  • occupied Southern Italy,

  • and ultimately changed the course of the war,

  • thanks to one dead man and a crazy plan.

  • (marching music)

(guns firing off)

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