Saturday, April 7, 2007

Historical hoaxes and oddities

Paul Harden For El Defensor Chieftain

NA5N na5n@zianet.com

This month, we break from local history and take a look at some of the possibly lesser known hoaxes, oddities and fun facts in history.

World War II

Secret Invasion

By late1942, Allied forces had successfully defeated the German Army in North Africa. The next logical step was an invasion of Europe. The Allies were not about to send 300,000 troops all the way back to England. Instead, Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to send these troops into Sicily, up through Italy and into Europe proper, into what he called "the soft underbelly of Europe."

The only problem was that the 100,000 Germans defeated in North Africa, and another 200,000 Italian troops, now occupied southern Italy. Germany knew this was an effective blockade, which forced the Allies to invade Europe elsewhere. But, where?

To break the stalemate, a secret plan was devised to invade Europe through Greece and Sardinia, where German resistance was minimal. Every precaution was taken to ensure not even a hint of the plan might fall into German hands. The invasion plans were so secret, they were to be delivered to the commanders in North Africa by courier. Even encrypted radio transmissions could not be trusted.

On April 28, 1943, a briefcase with the top secret plans were handcuffed to special courier Maj. William Martin. Boarding an airplane outside of London, Martin began his journey to hand-deliver the vital documents to Gen. Sir Harold Alexander, the British commander in North Africa under American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The following day, radio operators at MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, listened carefully for the short encrypted message that Maj. Martin had arrived in North Africa. But, the message never came.

On April 30, MI6 began intercepting communications that revealed the body of a Royal Marine officer that was found in the water off the coast of Huelva, Spain, in an aircraft rescue raft. Attached to his belt was a locked briefcase. Could this be the body of Maj. Martin? If so, what a blow to the Allies.

British officers were immediately sent to Spain. After several days of negotiations and delays, the briefcase, and all the top secret invasion plans, were returned by Spanish officials. A few days later, the body of Maj. Martin was returned by the Coroner's Office — with signs an autopsy had been performed.

Although Spain was a neutral country during World War II, there were strong suspicions that the body, and the documents, had been in Germany's possession.

Over the followings weeks, continued monitoring by MI6 clearly showed copies of the battle plans had made their way to Berlin. By May 1943, German leader Adolph Hitler had moved his troops in Italy to Sardinia, Corsica and Greece. With the stolen battle plans, Germany was ready to spoil the Allied invasion of Europe.

On July 10, 1943, as German troops sat idle in Greece, Allied troops instead stormed the shores of Sicily, virtually unchallenged by the few remaining Germans. The Italians had collapsed almost immediately and the token German resistance retreated to Messina. As Gen. George Patton and Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery took Sicily and moved into Italy, the Germans could only watch from hundreds of miles away as the course of the war turned against them.

Hitler, and the German Army, had been totally duped by fake invasion documents and the body of a man who never existed. This was called Operation Mincemeat, and considered the most effective military hoax ever conducted.

It was not until years after World War II that Britain released the details of the operation.

Operation Mincemeat

Here's what really happened. British and American war planners began to devise a plan to covertly convince the Germans the invasion would occur near Greece, and tricked the Germans to move their troops from Italy. This would have to be a carefully executed and elaborate plan to work. And, it did.

Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu, a naval intelligence officer of the British Admiralty, was placed in charge of Operation Mincemeat. His top secret job was to produce documents of the fake Allied invasion and somehow get them into German hands without arousing suspicion.

The fake "secret" invasion plans were carefully drafted, including handwritten orders from Sir Archibald Nye, of the Imperial General Staff in the War Office, to Gen. Alexander in North Africa. This would convince German handwriting analysts the documents were authentic.

Planting the documents on a dead military courier was conceived. For this, Montagu needed a body. He had learned of a British sailor that had died of pneumonia. This was perfect, since fluid in the lungs from pneumonia would be identical to a man who died from drowning, should the Germans conduct an autopsy (which they did).

Montagu next had to completely fabricate the identity of the secret courier. A believable courier would be a Major of the Royal Marines. He gave him the name William Martin, because this was a popular name in the Royal Marines. Should his name become public, it would arouse little suspicion, even among the Allied ranks.

Maj. Martin's frozen body was dressed with the uniform of a Royal Marine. This included love letters and a photo from his fictitious fiancée, Pam. The photograph of Pam was actually that of a War Office worker, and the love letters written by a secretary.

Now, to get the body and the secret documents into German hands without arousing suspicion. It was decided to deliver the body by submarine to Spain, where it could be "discovered" by German spies.

Montagu handed over the body of Maj. Martin to Lt. Bill Jewel, commander of the submarine H.M.S. Seraph. They set sail from the submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland, with their secret cargo on April 19, 1943.

A week later, they arrived off the coast of Spain. At 4:30 a.m., on April 30, Maj. Martin, who was placed in a rubber rescue raft, was deposited into the water off the beach of Huelva, Spain. The wash of the submarine's screws propelled the raft toward the shore. The radioman sent a simple message, "Mincemeat completed." Then, the submarine vented her ballast tanks and disappeared into the black waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Once again, the "Secret Service" had done their job.

The rest, as they say, is history. Maj. Martin's body was found by fishermen and turned over to Spanish officials. German infiltrators quickly learned of the find and discovered the secret invasion plans. Copies were made so the originals could be returned to the British in order to not arouse suspicion that they had been found by the Germans.

Years later, Ewen Montagu wrote a book on the operation, which he named "The Man That Never Was." In 1956, a movie of the story was released under the same name.

The British Royalty revealed years later, the body had actually been that of a homeless Welshman named Glyndwr Michael. He had died from pneumonia due to having ingested rat poison. A plain marble tombstone in Huelva, Spain, now bears both names of the man that helped turn the tide of World War II, and the subject of one of the best military hoaxes in history.

The Hitler Diaries

Knowing Germany was about to be overrun by the Allies, Adolph Hitler boxed many of his personal items and had them flown to a secret location for storage. The plane carrying the items, a Junkers 352 transport, crashed near the town of Boernersdorf in April 1945. Hitler's private belongings ended up in the hands of the locals — and disappeared from history.

It was not until 1979 that some of these items surfaced. Gerd Heidemann, an investigative reporter for the German magazine Stern, found some of these items for sale, including a black book that was one of Hitler's secret diaries. In 1981, Heidemann convinced his employer to purchase the historic find.

In researching the diary, Heidemann was led to another man, Konrad Fischer, who had another 27 volumes. In turn, this led him to an East German general that also had some of Hitler's diaries.

In the end, Stern magazine had paid nearly 10 million Deutschmarks, or about $4 million, for 62 volumes of Hitler's diaries.

Handwriting analysis and other tests showed the diaries to be authentic. On April 25, 1983, Stern magazine broke the story by printing the first of a series entitled "Hitlers Tagebucher Entdeckt" or "Hitler's Diary Discovered."

Europe went crazy over the story. The huge printing was completely sold out, and made the magazine a bundle of money. Immediately, newspapers and magazines around the world made bids for the rights to the story. This alone would make the Stern magazine a fortune.

The first of the printed diaries showed Hitler to be a kinder and gentler man than the world was led to believe. His writings suggested he had little knowledge of the concentration camps and believed the Jews had been merely deported to other countries. This, of course, raised the suspicions of many.

Those who were associated with Hitler claimed he loathed to write, and his surviving secretary had no knowledge of the Fuehrer keeping a diary. Only days after the story broke, the German Federal Archives got involved and ran several scientific tests on the journals. They determined the paper and ink of the diaries were manufactured after Hitler's death. Other's quickly showed the handwriting differed greatly from Hitler's, and events cited in the diaries did not coincide with the historical record.

The volumes for which Stern had paid millions were worthless forgeries. The diaries were a complete hoax.

Heidemann was immediately fired and suspected of being the forger. A full-blown investigation cleared Heidemann of these charges. However, they did find the original owner of the diaries, Konrad Fischer, was actually Konrad Kujau — a known criminal who specialized in forgery. It was learned that Kujau had spent most of his life forging Nazi and Hitler documents, including the forgery of paintings that were long believed to be those of the former Nazi leader.

In fact, when the Stern magazine had Hitler's handwriting in the diaries tested, it was discovered the original documents used for comparison were actually more of Kujau's handiwork. No wonder the handwriting was a match. This, at least, exonerated Stern magazine from being an intentional partner in the hoax.

Kujau was brought to trial and sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison. His wife, Edith, was sentenced to eight months. Heidemann was also tried and found guilty of skimming some of Stern's payments. He was also sentenced to 4-1/2 years. Very little of the $4 million paid for the journals was recovered.

Hitler's secret diaries remains one of the best publishing hoaxes in modern times.

Ohio's Statehood

Ohio became the 17th state in 1803.

"But, wait!" some chanted, "something is wrong."

It all started in 1953, when Ohio was preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its statehood. Historians looking for the original 1803 statehood documents discovered there'd been a slight oversight.

While Congress had approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution, it had never passed the resolution formally admitting the "Land of the Buckeyes" to the Union. Technically, Ohio was not a state.

At once, the Ohio Legislature approved a new petition for statehood. It was ceremoniously delivered to Washington on horseback in August 1953. Congress quickly passed a joint resolution, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, after a few jokes, signed it on Aug. 7. Ohio was now legally a state of the Union — but it was made retroactive to 1803.

"But, wait!," they yelled again, pointing out the constitution says that Congress shall make no ex post facto law. Making Ohio's statehood retroactive to 1803 was unconstitutional and invalid.

In short order, everyone from scholars to attorneys were quick to point out other problems this presented in United States law. For example, they argued that since Ohio wasn't legally a state until 1953, its 1911 ratification of the 16th Amendment was invalid. Therefore, Congress had no authority to enact the income tax on Americans, making the Internal Revenue Service a bogus entity.

Presenting similar problems were the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, and the 14th Amendment, giving all citizens equal rights. These are considered the cornerstones to today's Constitutional rights. Ohio ratified the 14th Amendment in 1867, but rescinded its support the following year. Since the 1960s, those states that did not ratify these amendments have done so in a symbolic gesture to show their support for equal rights. Except Ohio. It wasn't until 2003 that Ohio finally ratified the 14th Amendment — the last state to do so.

Or how about Cincinnati-born President William Taft? The Constitution requires that presidents be natural-born citizens of the United States. Since Ohio wasn't legally a state until 1953, he could not legally have been the 27th president from 1901-1913. All the accomplishments of the Taft administration are, thus, null and void. Offhand, nothing comes to mind as to what that might have been.

Never mind that the historic 1903 first flight at Kitty Hawk, by those two Wright brothers from Dayton, means the airplane was invented by foreign nationals, not Americans. Or the famous Air Force Base in Dayton bearing their name was built on foreign soil.

If you're one of those New Mexicans with a complex that Arizona and New Mexico were the last two states to join the "lower 48," you now know that Ohio actually has that distinction.

Harry S. Truman

Speaking of presidents, Harry Truman became our 33rd president upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945. Truman's presidency was considered a good one, rebuilding the United States, Japan and Europe after World War II, and the first to deal with the "Cold War."

In 1948, he was challenged by Thomas Dewey, a rather charismatic orator. Truman was a common man, and considered by many to be too boring and uninteresting to win re-election against Dewey. His advisers told him that not only was he boring, so was his name. Since President Roosevelt popularized using his middle initial — Franklin D. Roosevelt — so should Truman. The problem was, Harry had no middle name. His advisors chose the letter "S," believing "Harry S. Truman" had a nice ring to it.

During a news conference, a journalist asked what his middle initial "S" stood for. Truman answered honestly, "nothing." Thereafter, his unofficial campaign slogan became "Vote for Harry S-for-nothing Truman."

On the eve of the election, Gallup polls showed Truman would lose to Dewey by a large margin — so much so that the Chicago Daily Tribune declared "Dewey Defeats Truman" on it's front page before the final vote was tallied. The only problem was Truman won the election. The photo of Truman holding the Chicago paper above his head is legendary and documents one of the biggest journalistic blunders of the 20th century.

Harry "S-for-nothing" Truman, whether an intentional hoax or an accident, won him the election. This remained his nickname for the rest of his life.

Tokyo's Zozobra

Every year a giant statue called Zozobra is set ablaze during the Santa Fe fiestas to symbolize burning away the year's bad luck.

Many years ago, in 1657, a Japanese priest did the same. Following a long drought, he set a large kimono figure on fire to exorcise the bad luck from Tokyo. The only problem was, it got a little out of hand and set the Buddhist temple on fire.

Buffeted by strong winds, the flames burned for three days, turning 10,000 homes and structures to cinders, reducing three-fourths of Tokyo to ruins, and claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people. This remains one of the largest conflagrations in history, which makes the burning of Rome look like a flash in the pan.

Think of this the next time you attend the burning of Zozobra. Have an exit strategy.

Speaking of Rome, we've all heard the expression, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." The fiddle was not invented until the medieval times, or, more than 1,000 years after Nero ruled Rome. Maybe he was actually playing with his iPod?

Who Owns California?

In 1579, Sir Francis Drake landed on what is now California near Laguna Beach. The local Indians thought he was a god and gave him all of their land. Drake made a brass plaque and posted it on the beach, decreeing California as the property of the Queen of England.

In 1933, a man found the plaque in the sand and took it home. Having no idea that the old brass plaque was anything of value, he later discarded it as junk on the beach north of San Francisco. A few years later, another man found it. Thinking the Old English lettering was strange, he had it examined by experts.

They determined he had discovered England's long-lost brass deed to California. The opinion of experts are split on it's authenticity. Is the plaque truly Drake's missing deed, or a hoax?

If it is a true artifact, it proves California is today part of the United Kingdom. Spain, and later Mexico, had no authority to transfer California to the United States. Clearly, the British must own California.

The Vikings

The Vikings are responsible for several ancient hoaxes that persist to this day.

According to early Viking writings, a large island west of the British Isles was discovered by Scandinavian sailor Naddoddr in the late 800s. However, these writings also indicate that a handful of "Irish hermits, Celts, Scots and an Irish monk" were already there.

A few years later, in A.D. 874, the first permanent settlers arrived, led by Norse chieftain Ingolfur Arnarson. The island was mountainous with volcanoes spewing out hot, bubbling water that melted the ice and formed green fertile valleys. Furthermore, the warm waters of the Gulf Stream keeps the climate mild, considering it skirts the Arctic Circle.

The Vikings named it Iceland, due in part to the snow-covered mountains and, in part, to discourage others from settling in their new-found paradise. Hoax No. 1.

About 100 years later, one of the Icelanders was a Viking named Eric Thorvaldson, known to his friends as Eric the Red. In 982, he murdered a man and was exiled from Iceland. He traveled the Atlantic and discovered a huge ice-covered peninsula, which he claimed for himself. It seemed to have few areas able to support farming for settlement. Regardless, it was his land and he wanted to promote it in order to see the land settled.

Eric the Red wanted to attract as many settlers as possible to his land. After all, being exiled from Iceland, he had a slight beef with them anyway.

To make his slab of ice appear attractive, he named it Greenland, believing that people would be eager to go there if it had a good name. Hoax No. 2.

Ever wonder why the huge ice-covered island is called Greenland? And, the island with the more temperate climate and fertile fields is called Iceland?

It was a Viking hoax to dupe early settlers. A thousand years later, most of mankind still falls for the hoax.

Life was not easy on Greenland. Eric the Red's hoax worked, however, and settler's kept arriving. Soon, resources became exhausted, and by the 1400s, most of the settlements had died out.

A missionary expedition was sent to Greenland in 1721. Not a single Viking or Norseman could be found. Whether they moved on or perished is not known.

Iceland, on the other hand, has flourished and has been continuously inhabited since the 800s.

Today, Iceland has a population of about 300,000 while Greenland struggles along with about 56,000 inhabitants, of which 85 percent are the native Inuit people.

Most history books state the population of Iceland are primarily Nordic (the old Vikings) in origin. Hoax No. 3.

With modern DNA testing, the majority of Iceland's population has the Celtic marker, not Viking — apparently due to those early Irish hermits, Scots and Celts.

Vikings Before Columbus?

In the year A.D. 1000, Leif Erikson, son of Eric the Red, decided to explore farther to the west. He returned several years later and claimed to have found a fertile land, where they built a settlement. He called it Vinland. Many believe he was the first European to discover North America.

Most historians claimed this was a bunch of bunk, just a hoax, since no archeological evidence exists to support such wild claims.

However, in 1960, a 20th century Viking explorer named Helge Ingstad discovered a Norse village on Newfoundland. Attracted by faint outlines in the surface of an area known as L'Anse-aux Meadows, Ingstad's team of archeologists found remains of old buildings, including a Viking great hall.

Over the years, more than 2,400 artifacts have since been recovered and dated to around A.D. 1000, proving conclusively the Vikings were on North America a full 500 years before Columbus. It has since been accepted by archeologists and anthropologists to be an authentic Viking site.

This is a case where a long-standing hoax has been proven to be true.

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version