Operation Mincemeat

A movie titled "Operation Mincemeat" is soon to be released in the U.S. This is the secret operation in the Second World War that deceived the Nazis about where the first Allied landing in continental Europe would be, following the end of combat in North Africa.

The landing was planned for Sicily but Operation Mincemeat deceived the Nazis into believing that there would be landings in Greece and Sardinia, both of which were occupied by the Nazis. Part of the plan was to make the Nazis expect that there would be a diversion landing in Sicily but that they should keep the bulk of their defensive forces in Greece and Sardinia because that was where the real landings would be.

As a result the Allies had more time to offload soldiers and supplies and to secure their position in Sicily before having to deal with a major counterattack. The Allied battle for Sicily was thus easier than it would have been otherwise.

But this verifies the scenario verifies what we saw in the section 4) QUESTIONS ABOUT D-DAY in the compound posting, "Investigations" December 2018.

Operation Mincemeat and the landing in Sicily took place in 1943. The following year would be D-Day, the landing in Normandy. While preparing for D-Day the Allies succeeded at pulling off a very similar deception. They convinced Erwin Rommel, the Nazi general charged with the defense of northern France, that the D-Day landing would come at Calais, although it would be preceded by a diversionary landing in Normandy.

If the historical account is to be believed the Nazis fell for just about exactly the same deception that they had the year before. By the time Rommel realized that there would be no landing at Calais, that Normandy was the real landing, the Allies had had the maximum amount of time to offload supplies and secure their position before facing a major counterattack.

To top it off on the day that the Allies landed, June 6, 1944, Rommel himself was away at his wife's birthday party and many of his officers were away at war games.

I find that this is simply not believable. The Allies had some kind of secret or implicit communication with Rommel, who it turns out was involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler. I am sure that Rommel was doing what he could to actually make D-Day a success, possibly in return for having the Allies make him leader of postwar Germany. But when the assassination plot failed, and Rommel was dead, there was no reason to make it public. 

I find that it strains the bounds of credibility to believe that the Nazis fell for this deception twice in a row.