Chapter 3

Tactical Deception – Lawrence of Arabia, The Haversack Trick, Operation Mincemeat

T.E. Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia

Richard Meinertzhagen – Deception Master

Major William Martin – The Man Who Never Was

The British soldier T.E. Lawrence and the Arabian monarch King Feisal rallied the Arabs against the Turks and created a unique theater of war during World War I that shaped the Middle East as we know it today. The British soldiers and politicians that successfully used military and personal deception to change the course of the world wars of the twentieth century are analyzed.

The art of military tactical deception and the creation of false identities are as old as war itself. A summary of this kind of deception is presented with a focus on three figures who refined the art of deception in war and their public image: T.E. Lawrence, Richard Meinertzhagen, and Major William Martin.

T. E. Lawrence and his many personas and relationships are probed, especially his role as a World War I hero in the Middle East and particularly his capture of the Turk-controlled port city of Aqaba, a military act that sealed his reputation as a legend. Lawrence and his alter egos of T.E. Shaw and John Hume Ross are presented along with his relationships with Winston Churchill, King Feisal, the leader of the Abu Tayi tribe Auda, journalist Lowell Thomas, Lawrence’s female counterpart, rogue British intelligence agents and historians Jack Philby (Philby of Arabia) and Gertrude Bell (The Queen of the Desert), General Allenby, filmmaker David Lean, biographers John Aldington and Dr. John Mack, George Bernard Shaw, and Richard Meinertzhagen.

Another fellow British officer Richard Meinterzhagen is spotlighted along with his role as a master of military deception illustrated in his famous Haversack Trick during World War I. Declared by Prime Minister David Lloyd George as one of the most “successful brains I had met in any army,” Meinertzhagen distinguished himself as military man, author, ornithologist, and, like his friend Lawrence, an extraordinary liar. Meinertzhagen’s liaisons with famous and infamous characters and military operations are examined, which include, T.E. Lawrence, General Allenby, the tragic Franks Deceit, the Haversack Trick, the Zimmermann Telegram and the real reason behind the Balfour Declaration, Hitler, his obsession with Zionism, and proclivity to exaggerate his accomplishments.

Ewen Montagu’s Operation Mincemeat took the art of placing false papers in the hands of the enemy to another level during World War II in what has been called The Man Who Never Was. A dead body packed with false information is used to deceive the Nazis into believing there was an Allied attack planned other than Sicily. Much of this legendary operation has been documented in several sources including Montagu’s “official” book version (The Man Who Never Was) and a Hollywood film, but several facts have been left out of these versions of the story, which include the real identity of the Man Who Never Was and how he became the dead hero who told lies.