108 • COPPERHEAD
based on true events, and without seeing the Twentieth Century–Fox
movie of the same title, which was released in 1955 and incidentally
included a scene with a serving MI5 officer,Ronald Reed, operating
a transmitter.
In the meantime aDaily Expressjournalist, Ian Colvin, had been
tipped off to the authentic background of the novel and had under-
taken a search of cemeteries along Spain’s Atlantic coast to find a
British officer who had been buried at the appropriate time. His re-
lentless research took him to Huelva, where he found the grave of a
Major William Martin, and to the Ministry of Defence where he was
informed that the Hon.Ewen Montagu, QC, had been allowed ac-
cess to the relevant files. Montagu had been theNaval Intelligence
Division’s representative on theTwenty Committeeduring the war
and had played a key role in the execution of the plan. In 1953, as
Colvin uncovered the true story for publication asThe Unknown
Courier, Montagu was commissioned to write over a single weekend
an official account, which was entitledThe Man Who Never Wasand
was serialized in theSunday Expressin February 1953.COPPERHEAD.Code name for an ingenious MI5deceptionplan to
persuade the Germans that, shortly beforeD-Day, General Bernard
Montgomery had passed throughGibraltaron his way to a new ap-
pointment in the Mediterranean, thereby implying that the long-
awaited invasion of occupied France was likely to be spearheaded
from the Mediterranean and drawing attention away from the prepa-
rations for the imminent invasion of Normandy. Lieutenant Clifton
James, a Royal Army Pay Corps officer who bore a strong resem-
blance to Monty, was flown to Gibraltar with a suitably large retinue
to catch the attention of the localAbwehragents and received by the
governor.
CORDEAUX, JACK.After graduating from Osborne and Dartmouth,
Jack Cordeaux served in the Royal Navy but in 1923 he transferred
to the Royal Marines. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he
was assigned to theNaval Intelligence Division, and two years later
he moved again, to theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS) with the
rank of acting colonel.
The decision to draft in three senior officers, one each from the