The Man Who Never Was

During Operation Market-Garden, the Allied invasion of Holland in September 1944 (fourteen months after Operation Mincemeat and the invasion of Sicily), a British staff officer brought a complete Corps-level operations order with maps and graphics, which was never supposed to leave Britain, with him on a transport glider and then inadvertently left it on the glider when it landed in Holland. The Germans eventually overran the glider landing zone and found the operations order. But due to Operation Mincemeat, they were so convinced that this was another set of fake documents planted for deception by the British, and actually maneuvered contrary to what the documents indicated for the first few days of the battle. This was included in A Bridge Too Far (1977), about Operation Market-Garden.

When the body is delivered to the submarine the naval party on the dock is called to attention by "Shun!" In the Royal Navy this is "Ho!"

Military security and respect for a solemn promise have made it necessary to disguise the identity of some of the characters in this film; but in all other essentials this is the true story of "Major William Martin."

Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!: एपिसोड #1.16 (1983)