US troops wading through water and Nazi gunfire on Omaha Beach. MI5 double agent Juan Pujol Garcia. played a critical role in deceiving the Germans as to where the landings would take place, Photo: US Coast Guard by Chief Photographer’s Mate (CPHoM) Robert F. Sargent.
the greatest double agent of the Second World War.” Tomas Harris, Juan Pujol Garcia’s. MI5 case officer.
Juan Pujol Garcia was a remarkable Spanish spy who played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II. He was a double agent who deceived the Nazis by feeding them false information about the invasion of Normandy, while secretly working for the British Security Service (MI5), the UK’s domestic counterintelligence and security agency. He was so convincing that he earned the trust and admiration of both sides, receiving the Iron Cross Second Class from Germany, which required the personal authorization of Hitler, and was appointed a Member of the Nist Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King George VI.
Pujol was born in Barcelona on 14 February 1912 and grew up in a relatively wealthy family. He served briefly in the Spanish Civil War, where he developed a loathing of political extremism, whether fascism or communism. He married Araceli González Carballo, a native of Lugo, in April 1940. They had three children: Juan, Jorge and María Eugenia. Araceli helped Juan with his spy activities, but she became unhappy in London and had a nervous breakdown and nearly blew his cover. They separated after the war.
Pujol’s espionage career began when he decided to fight against totalitarianism after witnessing the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, he offered his services to the British embassy in Madrid but was rejected. Undeterred, he contacted the German Abwehr, the military intelligence service of the Wehrmacht, and pretended to be a fantastical pro-Nazi official who wanted to spy on Britain. The Abwehr gave him the codename Alarac.
He moved to Lisbon and created a network of 27 fictitious agents who supposedly sent him reports from Britain. He used public sources such as tourist guides, train timetables, newsreels and magazines to fabricate his reports, which he sent to Germany by letters and radio.
Pujol’s network of imaginary agents was a masterpiece of deception and creativity. He invented different personalities, backgrounds, locations and sources for each of his agents, making them seem realistic and reliable to the Germans. His fictitious agents included Agent Alaric, a Welsh nationalist who hated the English and worked as a clerk in the War Office; Agent Dicker, a Dutch airline pilot who flew regularly between Britain and Lisbon and had access to military airfields; Agent Frederick a pro-Nazi French army officer who leaked information about Allied plans in North Africa and later in France; Agent Gerard, a Swiss businessman who traveled frequently to London and had contacts with high-ranking officials; and Agent Ragusa, an Italian seaman who worked on a merchant ship that sailed around Britain and observed naval movements.
He also created fake sub-networks within his main network, led by imaginary agents, such as the Simone network, led by Agent Simone, a French woman who ran a beauty salon in London and had affairs with several influential men; the Chester network, led by Agent Chester, an American engineer who worked for a company that supplied equipment to the US Army; and the Imagine network, led by Agent Imagine, a Yugoslav journalist who had connections with resistance groups in Europe.
Pujol used his network of imaginary agents to report on various topics, such as troop movements, air raids, supply shipments, invasion preparations and political developments. He mixed real information with false information, making his reports plausible but misleading. He also used his agents to corroborate each other’s reports, creating a web of deception that fooled the Germans.
In 1942, Pujol managed to convince the British of his value as a double agent and was brought to London, where he was given the codename Garbo, after the actress Greta Garbo because of his acting skills. He continued to send misleading information to the Germans, while also providing valuable intelligence to the British. His most important contribution was to Operation Fortitude, the deception plan that convinced Hitler that the main Allied landing would be in Pas de Calais, not Normandy. Operation Fortitude was part of Operation Bodyguard, an overall deception strategy during the buildup to the 1944 Normandy landings. Operation Bodyguard had the aim of concealing the time and place of the invasion by creating threats across the European theater, including Norway, the Balkans, southern France and northern Norway. It involved several sub-operations, including Operation Quicksilver, a deception operation that was part of the larger deception strategy.
The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as the Ghost Army, was a unique unit that played a vital role in Operation Quicksilver. The Ghost Army was a top-secret unit of American artists, designers and sound engineers who used visual, sonic and radio deception to fool the German forces during World War II. One of their most important missions was to create a fake army group (Ghost Army) “led” by General George S. Patton. Known as the First United States Army Group (FUSAG), it was intended to convince the Germans that the Allies would invade France at Calais, the closest point to England, instead of Normandy, where the real invasion took place on D-Day. Pujol used his network of imaginary agents to report on FUSAG’s movements and activities, such as training exercises, supply shipments and troop rotations.
The Ghost Army used inflatable tanks, trucks and planes, fake radio transmissions and loudspeakers that played sounds of troops and vehicles to create the illusion of a large and powerful force. They also wore fake shoulder patches and insignia to impersonate different units of FUSAG. The deception worked so well that even after D-Day, the Germans still believed that Patton’s army group was waiting to strike at Calais. The Ghost Army continued to support Patton’s real Third Army as it advanced across France and Germany, using their tricks to mislead the enemy about the size and location of the Allied forces. The Ghost Army’s role in the war was kept secret until 1996, when it was finally declassified. Their actions saved thousands of lives and helped secure the Allied victory in Europe.
Pujol managed to deceive the Nazis until the end of the war, despite feeding them false information. He received $340,000 USD from the Germans during the war to fund his fictitious spy ring. This is the same as about $6,295,965 in 2023 dollars due to inflation.
He went to Angola in 1948 to stage his death from malaria and escape from possible Nazi retaliation. After his “death” in 1949, he moved to Venezuela, where he lived under a new identity for 36 years. Pujol remarried Carmen Cilia Alvarez, a local woman. He had three more children with her: María Elena, Carlos Miguel and Juan Carlos He was eventually tracked down by a journalist and reunited with his former MI5 handler in 1984. He died in 1988 in Caracas, leaving behind a legacy of courage, cunning and creativity that played a major role in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
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