THE EYELASH THAT SPELLED
Tom Cholmondeley is often approached by people whose relatives’ lives were spared thanks to his father’s brilliant plan. ‘When someone says, “My grandad would have been fighting on that beach,” it makes me so proud,’ says Tom, a TV director. ‘Despite knowing the story well, I found the film gripping – who’s not going to like seeing their father as a hero saving 10,000 lives? Tom lost his father when he was just 13, but still vividly recalls him talking about the critical campaign. ‘Dad was very modest but I remember him grabbing the salt and pepper pots and saying, “Here’s Sardinia and here’s Sicily and we needed to persuade the Germans we were going to attack the pepper pot.” I was only eight but I felt very proud. ‘He had an incredible mind. They had one key letter to plant in the attaché case and they needed to know if it had been removed and seen. As they knew that the Germans were very good at opening envelopes and resealing them without anyone knowing,
my dad had the idea of dropping a single eyelash into the letter so when it was opened it would fall out but the Germans wouldn’t notice. And sure enough, they got the letter back and there was no eyelash. So they knew Hitler had fallen for the Allied deception.’