The Unknown Courier. With a Note of the Situation confronting the Axis in the Mediterranean in the Spring of 1943 by Field-Marshal Kesselring. THE FIRST REAL TASTE OF MINCEMEAT: SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY

8vo., First Edition, with portrait frontispiece, plates and endpaper maps; elegantly bound in full dark green crushed morocco, sides with gilt frame border, back with rasied bands, second and fourth compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, all other compartments tooled in gilt, gilt top, hand-made endpapers, ribbon marker, a most attractive copy ideal as a gift or for presentation. A PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE AUTHOR WITH HIS SIGNED HOLOGRAPH INSCRIPTION ON FRONT FREE ENDPAPER. Arguably the most famous strategic deception of WWII, Operation MINCEMEAT remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Duff Cooper's novel Operation Heartbreak in 1950. The author, a sharp-eyed journalist, was intrigued by the plot and linked it to a footnote in a book by General Westphal, formerly Kesselring's Chief of Staff. The result of his researches is the present work, a piece of investigative journalism so close to the truth that the authorities had little choice but to allow Montagu (MINCEMEAT's organiser), to relate the story (almost) in full in 'The Man Who Never Was'. SIGNED COPIES ARE EXTREMELY SCARCE. Enser, p.399; Law 0825.