Operation Copperhead

Operation Copperhead (originally called "Operation Telescope") was a small British-run deception operation run during World War II.

It was one of many deceptions run prior to the invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). For instance, General Patton was supposedly in command of a fictitious army massing for a crossing to Calais. This was one aspect of a deception called Operation Fortitude.

An Australian actor, M. E. Clifton-James, depicted Field Marshal Montgomery on a well-publicised visit to Gibraltar and North Africa. This was to suggest to the Germans that the Allies were planning to invade Southern France.

On 25 May 1944 Clifton-James flew from Northolt to Gibraltar on Churchill's private aircraft. At a reception at the governor-general's house, hints were made about Plan 303, a plan to invade southern France. German intelligence picked this up and ordered agents to find out what they could about Plan 303.

Clifton-James then flew to Algiers where over the next few days he made a round of public appearances with General Henry Wilson, the Allied commander in the Mediterranean theatre. Clifton-James was then secretly flown to Cairo where he stayed until the invasion in Normandy was well underway. He then returned to his job after an absence of five weeks.

This operation was the subject of the book and movie I Was Monty’s Double. In the movie Clifton-James appeared both as himself and as Montgomery.

Some sources wrongly refer to this operation as Operation Hambone, the name used in the book for the operation.

References

• Howard, Sir Michael, Strategic Deception (British Intelligence in the Second World War, Volume 5) (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1990), p. 126
• Holt, Thaddeus, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (Scribner, New York, 2004), pp. 561-62, 815
• British National Archives, "A" Force Permanent Record File, Narrative War Diary, CAB 154/4 pp. 85-90