MEINERTZHAGEN, RICHARD

A British staff officer on Field Marshal Lord Allenby’s staff during the Palestine campaign in World War I, Meinertzhagen conceived of a scheme to distract the Turkish defenders away from an intended attack on Gaza City by planting false documents with the enemy. Meinertzhagen approached an enemy patrol and then pretended to accidentally abandon a briefcase, which contained forged documents that purported to contain details of future military plans. The deception was successful and Gaza City was finally captured against minimal opposition because the Turkish garrison had been deployed elsewhere to meet an imaginary threat.