Juan Pujol Garcia and the German Abwehr
Juan Pujol Garcia (1912 – 1988) was an eccentric Spaniard who, out of a sheer desire for adventure and excitement, hoaxed the Nazis with fictional spying during WWII. The hoax grew into the greatest double-cross operation of the conflict and played a significant role in ensuring Allied victory on D-Day and in the subsequent Normandy Campaign.
Pujol hated fascists, and when WWII began, he decided to help the Allies “for the good of humanity”. However, when he offered his services to British intelligence, he was rejected. Undeterred, he posed as a Nazi-sympathizing, Spanish government officer, and offered his services to the Germans, who accepted and ordered him to Britain, where he was to recruit a spy network.
Instead, he went to Lisbon, and from there, made up reports about Britain with content culled from public sources, embellished and seasoned with his own active imagination, then sent them to his German handlers as if he was writing from Britain. The Germans swallowed it and begged for more, so Pujol invented fictional sub-agents and used them as sources for additional fictional reports.
Intercepting and decoding secret German messages, the British realized that somebody was hoaxing the Germans, and upon discovering it was Pujol acting on his own, they belatedly accepted his offer of services. Giving him the codename GARBO, they whisked him to Britain, where they built upon his imaginary network, transforming it into an elaborate double cross operation that carefully fed the Germans a massive amount of often true but useless information, mixed in with half-truths and falsities.
The flood of reports from Pujol and his steadily growing network of fictional sub-agents transformed him, in German eyes, into their most successful spy in Britain. The moment for cashing in on that trust came during the buildup to D-Day and the subsequent Normandy campaign, as the ultimate aim was to convince the Germans that the Normandy landings were but the first in a series of planned invasions, with an even bigger one planned against the Pas de Calais.
To cement Pujol’s credibility with the Germans, British intelligence had him send a message alerting the Germans to the invasion a few hours before its commencement, knowing 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, and served only to enhance Pujol’s reputation.
They then went in for the kill: building upon the years of trust, Pujol informed the Germans that the Normandy landings were diversionary, and the real blow would fall upon the Pas de Calais a few weeks later. That, coupled with other measures whereby a fictional First US Army Group, under the command of George Patton, was massed across the English Channel opposite the Pas de Calais, convinced the Germans during crucial weeks in June of 1944 to keep powerful formations in that region, rather than rush them to Normandy to help destroy the vulnerable Allied beachhead. By the time the Pas de Calais formations were finally released, the Allies had amassed sufficient forces in Normandy to not only defeat German attacks, but to then go on the offensive, and breaking out of the beachhead, sweep across and liberate France within a few months.
As to Pujol, he gained the distinction of earning an Iron Cross from Germany, plus a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) from Britain. After the war, fearing reprisals from the Nazis, he faked his death in Angola in 1949, then moved to Venezuela, where he ran a gift shop and bookstore. He led an anonymous life until 1984, when he agreed to be interviewed for a book about agent GARBO, after which he was received at Buckingham Palace, was lionized in Britain, and on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, traveled to Normandy to pay his respects to the dead. He died in Caracas 4 years later.