On the second question, the scholarly view has evolved toward emphasizing the systemic nature of the deception. Mincemeat worked as well as it did partly because of what it was — a carefully constructed and authentically presented piece of false intelligence — and partly because of the system within which it operated. The double agents, the Ultra feedback, the broader Barclay deception, and the pre-existing German anxieties about the Balkans all contributed to the environment in which the Mincemeat documents were received and believed.
This is not a diminution of the operation’s achievement. It is a more accurate account of how strategic deception actually works. The creative achievement of Montagu, Cholmondeley, and their colleagues was to construct something that fit perfectly within a system that magnified its effects. That is a sophisticated accomplishment, not a lucky accident.
The two identities that the operation brought together — the carefully constructed fictional identity of Major William Martin, RM, and the real identity of Glyndwr Michael, Welsh laborer — are both now documented in the historical record. The fictional identity served its purpose in the spring and summer of 1943 and is now a matter of historical record. The real identity was recovered, partially, by postwar scholarship and is now acknowledged on the headstone in Huelva.
Neither identity is complete without the other. The story of Operation Mincemeat is both the story of what British intelligence built — a convincing false person, with a false biography and authentic-seeming documents — and the story of what was used to build it: a real person, with a real and difficult biography, who had no say in the matter.
The headstone in the Nuestra Señora cemetery in Huelva tells both stories in two lines. That is the most honest summary of what happened: a Welsh miner’s son, who died poor and alone, served — without knowing it, without choosing it — as the foundation of a deception that contributed to one of the most significant Allied military successes of the Second World War.
His name was Glyndwr Michael. The record now includes it.