Nazis Place Their Trust in a Spanish Fabulist
One of WW2’s best-known and most decisive events was the successful Allied D-Day amphibious landings in Normandy on June 6th, 1944. Less known is that much of the operation’s success was owed to an eccentric Spaniard who, out of a simple desire for excitement and adventure, hoaxed the Nazis with fake spying. The hoax grew until it became the centerpiece of the war’s greatest deception operation, and ensured Allied victory on D-Day and in the subsequent Normandy Campaign.
Juan Pujol Garcia (1912 – 1988) hated fascists, so when WW2 began, he decided to help the Allies “for the good of humanity”. He was rejected by British intelligence, however, when he offered his services. He wanted in on the adventure of war, however, so he pretended to be a Nazi-sympathizing Spanish official, and offered his services to the Germans. They accepted, and ordered him to Britain, with instructions to recruit a spy network.
Instead, Pujol went to Lisbon, Portugal, and from there, simply invented reports about Britain, using content culled from public sources. He used his active imagination to add color, then sent the reports to his German handlers as if he was writing from Britain. The Germans believed him and begged for more. So Pujol made up fictional sub-agents and cited them as sources for more made-up reports.
The British, who were intercepting and decoding secret German messages, realized that somebody was hoaxing the Germans. When they discovered it was Pujol, they belatedly accepted his offer of services, gave him the codename GARBO, and sent him to Britain. There, British intelligence built upon Pujol’s “network”, transforming it into an elaborate deception operation that carefully fed the Germans massive amounts of often true but useless information, mixed in with half-truths and falsities.
The volume of reports from Pujol and his growing “network” of “sub-agents” led German intelligence to view him as their most successful spy in Britain. It was all building up to D-Day, and that was when British intelligence cashed in on that trust. The goal was to convince the Germans that the Normandy landings were just the first in a series of planned invasions, with an even bigger landing planned for the Pas de Calais.
British intelligence had Pujol send a message alerting the Germans to the invasion a few hours before its commencement. It was a gamble, but one deemed worth the risk. Pujol’s handlers figured that by the time it worked its way from German intelligence to commanders in the field, the invasion would have already taken place, and the warning would have done the Germans no good. However, it would cement Pujol’s credibility in German minds.
British intelligence then went in for the kill. Building upon the years of trust, Pujol informed the Germans that the Normandy landings were diversions, and the real attack would fall upon the Pas de Calais a few weeks later. That, coupled with other deception measures, convinced the Germans. So during the crucial weeks following the D-Day landings, the Germans kept powerful formations in the Pas de Calais, instead of sending them to help destroy the vulnerable Allied beachhead at Normandy. By the time the Pas de Calais formations were finally released, the Allies had amassed sufficient forces in Normandy to defeat the German attacks. They then went on the offensive. In late July of 1944, the Allies broke out of the beachhead, then swept across and liberated France within a few months, not stopping until they ran out of fuel at Germany’s border.
As to Pujol, he gained the distinction of winning an Iron Cross from Germany, plus a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) from Britain. After the war, he faked his death, then moved to Venezuela, where he ran a gift shop and book store. He led an anonymous life until 1984, when he agreed to be interviewed for a book about agent GARBO. The revelation led to Pujol’s lionization. He was received at Buckingham Palace, and on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, he traveled to Normandy to pay his respects to the dead. He died in Caracas 4 years later.