A Bit of British History

We had another trip out on the scooter, this time into Huelva to visit Nuestra Senora de la Soledad Cemetery, where Major William Martin is buried.  I know it sounds a bit morbid but for those who have seen the film ‘The Man Who Never Was’ or read the book ‘Operation Mincemeat’ you will be familiar with what was probably the most successful, and certainly the oddest deception operation of the Second World War - possibly of any war, and William Martin (Glyndwr Michael) played a key role.

Nuestra Senora de la Soleda Cemetery

In Brief: In 1943, British Naval Intelligence and MI5 devised a cunning plan to fool the German forces into thinking the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia instead of the actual objective -  to invade Sicily.  It involved obtaining a dead body, dressing it up as a British Officer, equipping it with false documents and leaving it somewhere where the Nazis would find it. If it all sounds a little ‘James Bond’ then that’s because it was partly inspired by Ian Fleming, a young officer in naval intelligence at the time.  The body of Major Martin was fished out of the sea off Punta Umbría, he was wearing a British officer’s uniform and carrying top-secret plans for an Allied invasion of German-held Greece and Sardinia.  He was assumed to be a British military courier who’d perished in a plane crash. The plans were passed to German intelligence, who then changed their strategy accordingly, reinforcing Greek and Sardinian defences in expectation of an attack.  It was, however, an elaborate hoax designed to cover up the invasion of Italy (Sicily) from North Africa.  Thus, allowing the Allies to invade Sicily from North Africa and helping win a crucial battle in July 1943, opening the way for capturing Italy and changing the course of the war and leading to eventual victory.

The story does have a sad side to it though.  The body was a Welsh Vagrant with no family who had killed himself with rat poison in a disused warehouse.  It wasn’t until 1996 when a key document was declassified that it formally identified the ‘man who never was’ as Glyndwr Michael.  He was eventually buried with full military honours but later when his identity revealed, his gravestone was amended to reflect his true name.

Glyndwr Michael, who served as Major William Martin

Continuing with the English theme in Huelva, we went down to the Río Tinto Pier, a huge 19^th century ironwork structure formerly used to ship out minerals that arrived by train from the Río Tinto mines and restored in 2003.

Rio Tinto Pier

The British workers employed in the mines were also responsible for the importation of football into Spain, helping set up Huelva’s league club ‘Recreativo’ in 1889, the oldest football club in the world.  Huelva is a natural estuary port and we enjoyed a lovely walk along the tree-lined path.

In between Huelva and Punta Umbría is the Odiel Nature reserve - Las Marismas Del Odiel, a large estuary and marshland of the Odiel and Tinto rivers, and a protected water area for birds, including pink flamingos, herons and storks.

Pink Flamingos

Well, that's enough history for one day - time to head back home on the scooter!

but not before stopping for a quick beer on the beach!

Playa De La Bota

Sally x