Although Spain did not participate in World War II, an important operation of that war took place on its coasts.<\/p>\n
Operation Mincemeat (Minced Meat) was organized in 1943 by the Allies <\/strong> to make the Germans believe that they were going to land in Greece instead of Sicily. To do this, they used the corpse of a Welsh beggar who had recently died of pneumonia, named Glyndwr Michael<\/strong>, and characterized him as if he were a commander of the British Royal Marines named William Martin, carrying a letter that made mention of that invasion plan.<\/strong> The body was left in the water by a British submarine and was discovered on a beach in Punta Umbr\u00eda, in Spain<\/strong>, by a fisherman.<\/p>\n The reason why it was decided to carry out this operation in Spain is because the allies knew that the German intelligence service, the Abwehr, had a presence in this country.<\/strong> The information about the letter found on the corpse ended reaching the Germans, who finally took the bait, dividing their forces<\/strong> and thus contributing to the success of the Allied landing in Sicily.<\/p>\n Glyndwr Michael was buried under his assumed name of William Martin in Huelva's La Soledad Cemetery<\/strong>, a Catholic cemetery, rather than the Anglican cemetery next door, because the Spanish, for a medal that the British put up with the body, they thought the castaway was a Catholic<\/strong> (it was part of the deception so that the Spanish would bury the body faster and not do a very exhaustive autopsy, which would have led them to suspect a hoax). Today his real name is also on the tombstone.<\/strong> In 1956, a British film entitled \"The Man Who Never Was\" was released, based on Operation Mincemeat.<\/p>\n
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