There have been numerous double agents in World War 2 but very few have been so successful as Juan Pujol García. Check out his, indeed, fascinating story.
Juan Pujol García was a Spanish citizen who decided to become a spy “for the good of humanity”. So, he contacted both the British and the American intelligent services but none of them accepted him. García was so determined thought that these “failures” weren’t enough to stop him. In fact, he had another idea: to create a false identify as a pro-Nazi Spanish government official and become… a German agent. Surprisingly, he succeeded!
Being a German spy, he was giving information to German intelligence that was either complete fiction, genuine information of little significance or valuable military intelligence that was artificially delayed. For example, in November 1942, right before the Operation TORCH landings take place in North Africa, he reported that a convoy of troopships had left the port. The letter though was postmarked before the landings, but was intentionally timed to arrive after the events. García received a reply stating “we are sorry they arrived too late but your last reports were magnificent.” (the article continues after the ad)
Eventually, he was accepted by the British MI5 mainly because of an incident in which Germans, following information given by García, spent huge resources attempting to hunt down a fictional convoy.
While he was working as a double agent, he was able to fool the Germans in numerous ways. In addition to the false information, he found ways to get a significant amount of money from the German machinery by convincing them that he had a network of agents all around Europe and, in order to support them, he needed around US$340,000 a year (around US$4,000,000 in today’s money)! Because the Germans trusted him, they gave him the money.
This network was also his cover up. For every wrong or delayed information he was providing to the Germans, he would blame his local contact. For instance, he once needed to provide excuse on why his Liverpool agent didn’t say anything about a major fleet movement. His excuse was that his fabricated spy had fallen ill just before the operation so he couldn’t have known. He would even declare his agents dead and place obituary in the local newspaper as a further proof. Oh, the best part: the Germans were so convinced, they even paid pension to the widow of the agent!
The most important contribution of Juan Pujol García to WWII though, was the false information he provided for D-Day. Orchestrated by MI5, he told Hitler that D-Day would happen at the Strait of Dover, earning him the German Iron Cross. It was actually carried out at Normandy, earning him the British MBE.
Trolling at its best!
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: Who Was “The Man Who Never Was” That Made It Possible For The Allies To Invade Sicily?
Photo: Hitler Parody Wiki / Creative Commons
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
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