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Was Operation Mincemeat a waste of time?

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Idamante (U1894562) on Friday, 3rd December 2010

  Or to be a bit less provocative: has Ben Macintyre overstated its importance?
  
  In spite of the success of this British ruse, the Allies still made a hash of the invasion of Italy. Kesselring's gradual fighting retreat was probably the most successful German operation of the latter part of the war.
  
  There also seems to be some uncertainty about the number of German troops diverted to Greece ahead of the invasion, which makes it hard to assess the significance of the operation.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by giraffe47 (U4048491) on Saturday, 4th December 2010

  The question is - How much bigger a hash would they have made of it if the Germans had been expecting them?
  
  One of the best features of the German army (I think) was it's ability to adapt quickly to emergencies - any ad hoc group thrown together in the face of disaster seemed to be able to put up a good defence, and give a good account of itself, delaying any Allied advances. Any junior officer or NCO seemed to be able to grap a few dozen cooks and bottlewashers, give them a rifle, and do an excellent job. This made it difficult to advance quickly, until they had been almost destroyed. (eg after Falaise, Italy 1945, etc)
  
  Mind you, Allied inability to adapt quickly enough to exploit their successes did sometimes help!

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  Posted by Pete- Weatherman (U14670985) on Saturday, 4th December 2010

  Ferth to what Giraffe said. The Germans were also more adaptable to the type of war in Italy, as it was so simaler to the kinds of war ( To a point ) they had fought in Spain. The Germans were more free flowing with the way they fought, where as the Allies were more ridgged and un-bending in there ways of fighting.
  Especially when it came to joint planing, How should I put it. The US were "throw a ton of Shells at them and advance" (Blood and Guts.) The brits "Fix baonets and charge"( Stiff upper lip ) Both working wounderfully in there own right, but not mixing well. Combine this with Inferior weapons. Extending supply lines and the 1001 other thing that can go wrong in a war. Also It is a Hundred time easyer to defend a mountin that to take one.

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  Posted by Mutatis_Mutandis (U8620894) on Saturday, 4th December 2010

  Operation Mincemeat was intended to confuse the Germans about the possibility of an Allied landing in Sicily. Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, made strategic sense because of the island's dominant position in the Mediterranean: It controls the east-west shipping routes. The invasion of Sicily was also very successful, despite some of the worst friendly-fire incidents of WWII. It also realized some of the political hopes advertised for it, as it lead to Mussolini's downfall and the decision of the Italian government to change sides.
  
  Maybe operation Mincemeat was not necessary: It was difficult for Allied intelligence services to judge that. They did construct elaborate and wide-ranging deception plans, of which an episode like this was just one element. In general they used all available means to confuse the enemy, and were highly successful. I do think that the popular attention given to this one particular ruse tends to divert attention from other, at least equally important and ingenuous, efforts at deception.
  
  Later Allied operations in Italy can indeed be criticized for a slow advance. The Allied forces resigned themselves to a long advance over difficult terrain, instead of exploiting the potential advantages of amphibious operations on Italy's long coastline. (The most important attempt to do so, the landing at Anzio-Nettuno, went to waste because the over-cautious general Lucas managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory.) Allied troops were not at home in the mountains and did not operate very successfully there, with the notable exception of French-Moroccan mountain troops.
  
  
  

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