The forgotten hero of an outlandish plot to fool the Nazis

AUTHOR ERIN EDWARDS REVEALS THE SECRET ROMANCE BEHIND A CUNNING MILITARY OPERATION THAT HELPED CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

- ERIN EDWARDS

IT IS one of the most incredible stories of the Second World War: fake documents planted on a dead body tricked Hitler and hastened the Allied victory.

And Operation Mincemeat’s backstory is now being told in a smash hit West End and Broadway musical. Its standout British star, Jak Malone, 30, recently won a Tony Award, stage acting’s highest accolade, for playing a woman - M15 secretary Hester Leggatt - whose importance in the daring plot has only recently come to light.

Like most people, Jak did not know much about Hester when he agreed to the role (and others in the show) in 2019. But he is now a huge fan, even writing the foreword to a book I co-authored about her, Finding Hester.

In it, he admits that he agreed to the role because he thought she was just a secretary who did not play a big part in the plot. He assumed playing her would give him more opportunity to play additional supporting roles.

But that all changed a few years later when a group of fans of the musical dug up new information, putting Hester at the centre of the daring operation.

“It’s an incredible story that I still have trouble believing myself,” Jak said. “A group of individuals who pull off the unthinkable - a moment in history that truly deserves to shine.”

It was in 1943 that the Germans thought they had got their hands on a briefcase full of British military secrets.

But it was all a ruse. The documents had been created by MI5 to trick Axis forces into leaving Sicily undefended, when in fact the Allies planned to invade, and they had sold the lie by planting the briefcase on a corpse dressed up like a British pilot.