Operation Copperhead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 of 4

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Copperhead&pr...

Operation Copperhead
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Copperhead was a small military deception

operation run by the British during the Second World
War. It formed part of Operation Bodyguard, the cover
plan for the invasion of Normandy in 1944, and was
intended to mislead German intelligence as to the
location of General Bernard Montgomery. The operation
was conceived by Dudley Clarke in early 1944 after he
watched the film Five Graves to Cairo.
The German high command expected Montgomery, one
of the best-known Allied commanders, to play a key role
in any cross-channel bridgehead. Clarke and the other
deception planners reasoned that a high-profile
appearance outside the United Kingdom would suggest
that an Allied invasion was not imminent. An
appropriate look-alike was found, M. E. Clifton James,
who spent a short time with Montgomery to familiarise
himself with the general's mannerisms. On 26 May 1944,
James flew first to Gibraltar and then to Algiers, making
appearances where the Allies knew German intelligence
agents would spot him. He then flew secretly to Cairo
and remained in hiding until Montgomery's public
appearance in Normandy following the invasion.
The operation did not appear to have any significant
impact on German plans and was not reported high up
the chain of command. It was executed some time before
D-Day, and in the midst of several other Allied
deceptions. German intelligence might have suspected a
trick, or not attributed much importance to the visit.
Following the war James wrote a book about the
operation, I Was Monty's Double. It was later adapted
into a film, with James in the lead role.

Copperhead
Part of Operation Bodyguard

Copperhead formed one of the subordinate plans of

Operation Bodyguard
Operational
scope

Strategic deception

Location

Gibraltar, Algiers

Planned

1944

Planned by

Dudley Clarke, London

Controlling Section

Objective

To confuse German intelligence as

to the location of the proposed
D-Day landings.

Date

26 May 1944

Contents
1
2
3
4
5

Background
Operation
Impact
Later depictions
References
5.1 Bibliography
5.2 Further reading

25/05/2016 13:37

Operation Copperhead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2 of 4

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Copperhead&pr...

Background
In preparation for the 1944 invasion of Normandy, the Allied nations
conducted a complex series of deceptions under the codename
Bodyguard. The overall aim of the plan was to confuse the German
high command as to the exact location and timing of the invasion.[1]
Significant time was spent constructing the First United States Army
Group, a notional army to threaten Pas de Calais, along with
political and visual deceptions to communicate a fictional Allied
battle plan.[2] Copperhead was a small portion of Bodyguard
conceived by Dudley Clarke. Earlier in the war Clarke had
pioneered the idea of strategic deception, forming a deception
department in Cairo, Egypt, named 'A' Force. Clarke and 'A' Force
were not officially in charge of Bodyguard planning (a role that fell
to the London Controlling Section), but because of the location of
the deception the Cairo planners organised much of the operation.
[3][4]

Clifton James, in the guise of

Montgomery, 1944

On a visit to Naples in January 1944 Clarke had seen the film Five
Graves to Cairo, in which actor Miles Mander makes a brief
appearance as Bernard Montgomery. The film involves one character
impersonating another and Clarke suggested attempting the same
trick in real life. He proposed an operation to mislead German
commanders as to Montgomery's location in the days immediately
before the Normandy landings (codenamed Operation Neptune).[4][5]
Montgomery was one of the most prominent Allied commanders and
the German high command expected him to be present for any
invasion of France. Clarke hoped Montgomery's apparent presence
in Gibraltar and Africa would lend support to the idea that the Allies
might be planning landings in Southern France, as part of Operation
Vendetta, rather than across the Channel. While in London, in
February 1944, Clarke, the London Controlling Section and Ops (B)
drafted Copperhead in support of Vendetta.[5]

Montgomery, photographed in 1943

Operation
Mander, the actor from Five Graves to Cairo, was located in Hollywood but found to be too tall in real
life.[4] Another look-alike was identified but before he could be drafted into the operation he broke a leg in a
motorbike accident. Eventually, Lieutenant-Colonel J. V. B. Jervis-Reid, head of Ops (B), spotted a
photograph of Meyrick Clifton James in the News Chronicle. James, an Australian, had spent 25 years as an
actor before the war, and at the time was assigned to the Royal Army Pay Corps. Colonel David Niven, a
well-known British actor, was asked to contact James and offer him a screen test for future army films.
When he arrived at the meeting, James was told his true role.[5][6]
James was not a perfect stand-in for Montgomery. He had lost a finger during the First World War, so a
prosthetic had to be made. He had also never flown before, so the London Controlling Section's Dennis
Wheatley took James up for a test flight to make sure he did not suffer from air sickness. Finally, James both
drank heavily and smoked cigars, while Montgomery was a teetotaler and disliked smoking.[7] The
deception planners were worried that James might be spotted drinking, spoiling the performance. Despite
these hitches, and with Montgomery's approval, the plan went forward.[8] To get into character, James spent

25/05/2016 13:37

Operation Copperhead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3 of 4

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Copperhead&pr...

some time with the general, posing as a journalist, to study his mannerisms.[4][5]
Allied deceivers used their double agent network to circulate the idea that Montgomery would command
ground forces during the invasion.[6] Then, on 26 May 1944, James flew overnight from RAF Northolt to
Gibraltar, where the Germans maintained an observation post overlooking the airport from across the
Spanish border. The plane had to circle for an hour before landing to allow James, who had smuggled a
bottle of gin onto the flight, to sober up.[7] He then attended breakfast with the British governor, Sir Ralph
Eastwood, before departing again for the airfield. The Allies had arranged for Ignacio Molina Prez, a
Spanish envoy known to be a German spy, to visit Government House. After observing James's departure,
Prez hurriedly crossed the border to place a call to his German handler.[4][5]
James then flew to Algiers, where he was publicly paraded through the airport and driven to meet General
Maitland Wilson, ostensibly for a meeting to discuss operations against the south of France. Instead, he was
moved quietly to a remote villa by 'A' Force's Rex Hamer. Rumours suggest this was because James had
been spotted smoking and staggering around Algiers, so the deceivers decided to cut his appearances short.
[7][9] Whatever the reason, the next day, out of character, James was flown to Cairo. He was to remain
hidden there until the public disclosure of Montgomery's presence in France. Meanwhile, double agents in
North Africa were used to extend the masquerade for a few more days, by hinting Montgomery was still in
the region.[4][5]

Impact
The impact of Copperhead is unclear. The visit was reported up the German chain of command, and some
double agents later received requests for information about Montgomery's movements.[5] There is no
indication that Montgomery's appearance affected German views of the imminent invasion threat. Writing in
2011, historian Joshua Levine attributes this to the fact that the deception was carried out ten days before
D-Day, arguing that there would be no reason for a flying visit to North Africa to preclude an imminent
invasion.[10]
Another factor was that, in early May 1944, an uncontrolled agent based in Spain (who sold fictional
intelligence to the Germans) had passed on details of a meeting in Gibraltar between several high-ranking
Allied officers. Documents found after the war indicate that the Germans found this information suspect,
and may have treated Montgomery's appearance as equally so.[10] Although double agents received several
urgent requests from the Abwehr about his whereabouts it does not appear that this information was passed
on to the German command in France.[5] According to captured enemy generals, German intelligence
believed that it was Montgomery, though they still guessed that it was a feint.[11] The Bodyguard deception
had confused the German command as to Allied intentions and the apparent arrival of Montgomery in
Gibraltar added little to the picture.[10]
James did not enjoy the experience. Although he received equivalent pay (10 per day) to Montgomery
during the operation, it had been a stressful assignment. Following Montgomery's public appearance on the
Normandy beachhead, James flew back to England and resumed his role within the Pay Corps and was
warned not to discuss the operation. Dennis Wheatley, in his memoirs, commented that he felt James had
been treated "shabbily" for his efforts.[4][5]

Later depictions
In 1954 James wrote an account of the operation, entitled I Was Monty's Double (published in the United
States as The Counterfeit General).[9] The British government made no attempt to stop publication, and in
1958 the book was adapted into a film of the same name.[7] James starred, both as himself and Montgomery,

25/05/2016 13:37

Operation Copperhead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4 of 4

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Copperhead&pr...

alongside John Mills, as an intelligence agent.[10][12]

References
1. Holt (2005), p. 811
2. Holt (2005), p. 897
3. Rankin (2008), p. 178
4. Levine (2011), pp. 262263
5. Holt (2005), pp. 560561
6. Casey (2005)
7. Rusbridger (1991), p. 178
8. Hesketh (1999), pp. 122124
9. Wise (2002), p. 36
10. Levine (2011), pp. 264266
11. Niv by Graham Lord, Orion Books, 2003. P.123
12. Holt (2005), p. 786

Bibliography
Casey, Dennis (2005). "The Impersonation of General Montgomery". Spokesman Magazine. OCLC 836829486.
Holt, Thaddeus (2005). The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War. Phoenix.
ISBN 0-7538-1917-1.
Hesketh, Roger (1999). Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign (Repr. (twice) ed.). St. Ermin's.
ISBN 0-316-85172-8.
Levine, Joshua (2011). Operation Fortitude: The True Story of the Key Spy Operation of WWII That Saved
D-Day. Collins. ISBN 0-00-741324-6.
Rankin, Nicholas (2008). Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception, 19141945. Faber and Faber.
ISBN 0-571-22195-5.
Rusbridger, James (1991). The Intelligence Game: The Illusions and Delusions of International Espionage.
London: Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-338-0.
Wise, James E.; Baron, Scott (2002). International Stars at War (1. print. ed.). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 1-55750-965-4.

Further reading
British National Archives, "A" Force Permanent Record File, Narrative War Diary, CAB 154/4
pp. 8590
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Copperhead&oldid=722000191"
Categories: 1944 in the United Kingdom Operation Fortitude
This page was last modified on 25 May 2016, at 10:18.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a
registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

25/05/2016 13:37