Ian Fleming and Operation Ruthless - Birth of the Pinch Attack
Part of Raids and Operations Week on WW2TV

David O'Keefe is a Military Historian, best-selling author, Professor of History, Documentarian, Creator, Host, Writer, Producer for History Television and UKTV. https://twitter.com/okeefehistorian

Operation Ruthless was an unrealised British deception operation that planned to acquire German Enigma encryption information, codebooks and documents. It was planned by the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre, a primary beneficiary of the 'Ultra' decrypts, and was developed by Commander Ian Fleming. It involved using a captured German Heinkel bomber flown by a five-man British crew wearing German uniforms and covered with 'blood' and bandages, to follow on behind aircraft returning from a night bombing raid of the UK. As it passed over the middle of the English Channel, it would cut one engine and lose height with smoke pouring from a 'candle' in the tail, send an SOS distress signal and ditch into the sea. The crew would then take to a rubber dinghy, having ensured that the bomber sank before the Germans could identify it, and wait to be rescued by a German naval vessel, preferably a minesweeper. When on board, the 'survivors', one of whom was to speak fluent German, would then kill the German crew, and sail the captured vessel, complete with its Enigma machine and documentation, to a port on the south coast of England.

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