Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the
Second World War. In 1943, the body of Glyndwr Michael was dressed as an
officer of the Royal Marines, and items were placed on him identifying
him as the fictitious Captain William Martin. Correspondence between two
British generals suggesting that the Allies planned to invade Greece and
Sardinia, with merely a feint at Sicily, was also planted. The body was
taken by the submarine HMS Seraph to the southern coast of Spain and
released close to shore, where it was picked up the following morning by
a Spanish fisherman. The nominally neutral Spanish government shared
copies of the documents with German military intelligence, before
returning them to the British. Ultra decrypts of German messages showed
that the Germans fell for the ruse. Reinforcements were shifted to
Greece and Sardinia before and during the invasion of Sicily; Sicily
received none. The body was buried with military honours in Spain (grave
pictured).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1899:
Philippine–American War: Malolos, capital of the First
Philippine Republic, was captured by American forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Malolos>
1942:
Second World War: Because of a mutiny by Indian soldiers
against their British officers, Japanese troops captured Christmas
Island without any resistance.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Christmas_Island>
1992:
USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship,
was decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_%28BB-63%29>
2018:
Nikol Pashinyan began his protest walk, starting in the city of
Gyumri, opening the 2018 Armenian revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Armenian_revolution>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
verklempt:
1. (US, colloquial) Overcome with emotion, choked up.
2. (US, colloquial) Flustered, nervous, overwhelmed.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verklempt>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The war continues. Russia is sending new forces to our land to
continue to destroy us, to destroy Ukrainians. We must do more to stop
the war! The first and most important thing is weapons. Freedom must be
armed no worse than tyranny.
--Volodymyr Zelenskyy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy>