The solution was to make Martin an Acting Major, a temporary rank assigned for a specific duty rather than a permanent promotion. This rank indicated significant responsibility and trust without the kind of institutional prominence that attached to full colonels or generals. It was, in short, exactly the rank that a man carrying important courier documents between high-level commands might plausibly hold.
The assignment to Combined Operations Headquarters was equally calculated. Combined Operations was the organization responsible for planning and executing amphibious landings, precisely the kind of unit that would be involved in the operations described in the documents. Its existence was not secret. Its internal staffing was not well documented in public sources. A Combined Operations officer passing through the Mediterranean with correspondence between the Imperial General Staff and field commanders was entirely plausible.
The second problem was the identity card. British military officers carried a Service Dress Card with their photograph, rank, and service number. A body found floating in the Atlantic carrying documents that could affect the course of the war needed an identity card that would survive examination.
Getting a useful photograph proved harder than expected. Attempts to photograph Glyndwr Michael’s corpse produced images that, when printed, were clearly photographs of a dead man. The photographers could not replicate the slight muscular tension and color of a living face.
The solution came accidentally. Montagu was in a meeting to discuss another matter entirely when he looked across the table at an MI5 case officer named Captain Ronnie Reed. Reed, Montagu later wrote, looked strikingly similar to the corpse. His photograph was used for Martin’s identity card.