Chapter 392 Briefcase

The Allied forces gathered more and more troops and ships in North Africa, and the bombing of Sicily became more and more fierce... Bombers flew to Sicily almost five to six times a day and bombed the island's facilities day and night, mainly bombing the ten airports on the island.

This forced the German and Italian fighters to retreat to Sardinia or southern Italy... The high-altitude bombing of the US B17 was a bit frustrating. Although such high-altitude bombing was not accurate, the bombing of the airport was fatal because the fighter planes were very fragile. As long as they were hit by shrapnel or fragments, they might not be able to take off, be scrapped or even explode on the spot.

The bombing lasted for two weeks, so most German and Italian officers and soldiers took it for granted that the Allied target was Sicily.

However, this was the effect that British intelligence personnel wanted... First, let everyone believe that the Allied target was Sicily, and then let things turn around. When they turned around, the German and Italian troops would think they were deceived and hurriedly change their strategic deployment. They didn't know that this was the real trick.

The most important part of this was how to turn things around without leaving any traces.

In the second week of the bombing, British intelligence officers launched their long-planned "Mincemeat Plan".

A British submarine, the "Seraphim", was quietly sailing under the sea. It set off from the port of Greenlock in Scotland late at night. No one knew about their actions, and even the naval command thought that the submarine was anchored in the port.

The submarine was carrying out a highly confidential mission, but all the submarine crew members, including the captain, Major Bill Jewell (note: the name of the captain who actually carried out this mission), did not know the purpose of the mission. They only knew that the mission was to throw a body at a designated location within a designated time.

Greenlock Port is about 1,500 nautical miles away from the destination. The "Seraphim" will take about ten days to travel, and the submarine has always maintained radio silence during these ten days. At this moment, they finally arrived at their destination.

In the submarine, the cautious captain Major Jewell checked the information and conditions for the last time:

"Time!"

"Five o'clock in the morning!"

"Coordinates!"

"3522, 1017!"

"Wind force!"

"Wind force level three!"

...

After thinking for a while, Major Jewell ordered: "Surface!"

Then, the submarine slowly surfaced like a ghost.

The hatch was opened, and Major Jewell stuck his head out and used a telescope to check the gray sky around him. After making sure that no one had discovered them, he retracted his head.

Then a group of soldiers climbed out, and hurriedly lifted an aluminum barrel from the cabin and lifted it onto the deck...The aluminum barrel was filled with dry ice, and the barrel was sealed to keep the body from decaying.

Under Major Jewell's order, the soldiers opened the aluminum head, lifted out a body with the rank of major, and tied a leather briefcase firmly to the body.

After getting ready, the soldiers looked at Major Jewell and waited for his order.

Major Jewell nodded, and two of the soldiers lifted the body one after the other, shaking it like a thousand autumns, and then let go... the body was thrown into the sea.

Major Jewell and the soldiers immediately returned to the submarine and dived, but they did not leave immediately. Instead, they followed and observed the body with a periscope until they confirmed that the surging waves pushed the body to the coastline not far away and it rose and fell with the waves on the shore.

"What are they doing?" The staff officer couldn't help asking before leaving.

Major Jewell shook his head: "You don't need to know anything, just follow the orders!"

"Yes, Major!" The staff officer replied.

The submarine has one last mission, which is to launch a torpedo into the distance and detonate it... But this mission is obviously much simpler than what was just done, so a muffled sound came from the sea.

But because it is not far from the sea, the fishermen living on the shore heard a faint explosion, but because it was too far away and too dark, they were not sure what exploded in the sea.

Soon the sky brightened up. At Punta Umbría Beach not far from Huelva, a fisherman named Antonio Rey Mariel was preparing his fishing boat to go fishing as usual... Before the fishing boat had gone far, he saw a body bobbing with the waves not far away.

Half an hour later, the Spanish Navy Office in Huelva received a call claiming that a British soldier's body had been found.

The Navy Office immediately sent people to the beach, and they confirmed from the rank that it was a major in the Marine Corps.

As usual, the office staff immediately searched the clothes and bags of the body, and initially determined that the deceased was William Martin, a staff officer of the British Joint Planning Command and a Royal Navy Captain (Acting Major), codenamed 09560. In his jacket pocket was a bank overdraft slip and a collection letter from Lloyds Bank. Major Martin seemed to have just gotten engaged, and he carried with him a bill for an engagement ring purchased on credit from Phipps, an international jeweler on Bond Street. Two love letters were soaked by seawater, but the signatures were still visible: "Love, Nisha" and other words.

"This must be a plane crash!" Garcia from the office said to his assistant after asking the fishermen: "They said they heard an explosion before this, and the plane must have fallen into the sea. This unlucky guy didn't escape!"

"What should we do with it?" the assistant asked.

Garcia answered without thinking: "You take the body to the morgue in the cemetery, and I will contact the British Consulate!"

"Okay!" The assistant nodded and handed the leather briefcase carried by the body to Garcia.

There were no mobile phones in this era, so it was twenty minutes later when Garcia called the British Consulate.

The British Consulate responded to the call: "Yes, we do have a plane missing nearby, I will be there soon, and you can't open the briefcase anyway. It is not a personal item, it is British property!"

"No problem!" Garcia replied: "We are not interested in it!"

The British Consulate is dozens of kilometers away from Huelva, and the road conditions in this town are not good, but the people sent by the British Consulate still arrived at the Navy Office within an hour and accepted the briefcase.

When accepting the briefcase, the British personnel carefully checked the status of the briefcase and the documents inside. They believed that the briefcase had not been opened, so they thanked the office staff and left in a hurry.