The film Operation Mincemeat – which relates the true story of a Second World War event – has been widely acclaimed.
It tells the story of one of the most daring intelligence plots of all time: a plan to convince the Nazis that far from intending to invade Sicily in 1943, as would have been the militarily obvious move, the Allies were in fact getting ready to invade Greece.
To do this, a corpse was obtained from a morgue and given a completely false identity. The body, carrying false documentation including fake military information, was then floated off near the coast of Spain in the hope that it – and the papers it was carrying – would find their way to German high command, which, eventually, they did.
What is much less well-known is the role of a German army colonel, Alexis von Rönne. Described by historians as ‘Hitler’s favourite intelligence analyst’, he rose to a prominent position as a direct adviser to the Führer. In this role, he deliberately misled Hitler, and passed on the fake Operation Mincemeat information to him, helping divert German focus and military planning to Greece, rather than Sicily where the Allies did indeed then land. (Whether or not he spotted the intelligence was fake is a much-debated question).
Von Rönne was a committed Christian believer and acted to deceive Hitler because of his faith. Later in the war he was arrested. At a show trial, he declared that Nazi race policies were inconsistent with his Christian values. He was then hanged on a meat hook. His final words, to his wife, were: ‘In a moment now I shall be going home to our Lord in complete calm and in the certainty of salvation.’
He never lived to see the end of the war and the fall of the Nazis. But his faith, leading to his actions, were arguably crucial. Who knows what role you – even unknowingly – can play in history because of your faith in Christ?
