M15 'used tramp in Hitler plot'

The corpse of a Welsh tramp may have been bodysnatched by MI5 and used to pull off one of the biggest intelligence coups of the Second World War.

Historian Roger Morgan spent 16 years trying to establish the identity of The Man Who Never Was - whose body was used to fool Hitler into believing that the Allied invasion of Italy was to come through Greece and Sardinia. Mr Morgan now believes the corpse was appropriated illegally.

The body was dressed in an officer's uniform, given the identity papers of a fictional Major called William Martin, and a briefcase containing fake plans for the invasion was chained to his wrist.

The corpse was then dumped off the Spanish coast near to where a German agent was known to be operating.

Mr Morgan discovered that the dead body central to the operation was that of Glyndwr Michael, an illiterate 34-year-old from the Welsh Valleys with serious mental health problems.

Mr Morgan says that there is no evidence that the secret service attempted to get consent for the use of the body despite claims by Ewen Montagu, who was in charge of the operation, that they did.