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

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Plenty is known about the men behind Operation Mincemeat, but far less information has endured about the women who helped enact it. Jean Leslie, a secretary at MI5, was remembered as being the face of Pam in the photograph included in the briefcase, but the woman who wrote the letters had faded into obscurity.

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 acco-lade, 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.