In a conflict involving so many millions of people, in which so many died, it seems frivolous, perhaps, to boil it all down to one or two men, a mere handful whose words and decisions changed the course of history. Other factors could also have had a decisive effect on the success of D-Day – the weather in the Channel over those crucial few days in early June, for example. And others also played their part – not least the soldiers who landed on the beaches, risking their lives to begin the slow process of liberating Europe from the Nazis. And yet the importance not only of the deception operation, but of Garbo’s role in it, seems incontrovertible, as Eisenhower himself acknowledged to Harris.
‘You know,’ he told Harris after the war, ‘your work with Mr Pujol most probably amounts to the equivalent of a whole army division. You have saved a lot of lives.’
So we turn to the even greater question: What if, in the absence of Garbo, Overlord had failed? What if the Allies had been pushed back into the sea, as so many commanders and politicians – including Churchill himself in his darker moods – predicted? What would the history of the Second World War read like today? What kind of world, even, would we be living in?
We are moving into the realms of extreme speculation here, but it is useful in order to understand the significance of Garbo, and more importantly, it is fun, an intellectual game – because we know what really happened.
The first thing to point out is that even in a scenario where the Allies failed successfully to invade France, Germany would still have been defeated in the Second World War. It was already too late for the Nazi State to survive unless Hitler could have found some way to arrange peace or an armistice of sorts with Stalin. The two dictators had managed to find common cause with the Nazi–Soviet Pact of August 1939, so there was a precedent. But by this stage, and with so much blood spilled on the Eastern Front, it is hard to imagine Stalin agreeing to anything short of the annihilation of his ideological nemesis. Hitler had duped him once before, breaking their pact by invading the Soviet Union in June 1941. Pragmatic though Stalin could be, he was unlikely to let that one go unavenged.
So the Red Army keeps pushing towards Berlin. In the west the Allies have failed to establish a bridgehead on the beaches of Normandy, and it will take them a long time to prepare another assault, so now Hitler can focus the vast majority of his forces to fight the Soviets. This would have slowed them down, but would not have stopped them. The fall of Berlin, Hitler’s suicide in the bunker – these events are still likely in a Garbo-less world, but perhaps at a later date.
And then what? It seems probable that Stalin does not stop in Germany, but pushes on into France. The whole of Europe might well fall into Soviet hands.
‘It should not be forgotten that D-Day began the liberation of the western half of the European continent; a liberation without which the Red Army would surely have appeared on the banks of the Rhine – if not the Atlantic Coast – with profound consequences for the post-war world,’ Roger Moorhouse argues.
And what are the Allies doing while all this is happening? With a disaster in Normandy, the US might well shift its focus to the Pacific, where its war really started. Yet would it really stand by, and watch as Europe falls to Communism?
‘A climax would have come late in the summer of 1945,’ Stephen Ambrose suggests, ‘with atomic bombs exploding over German cities. What a finish that would have been.’
The Red Army marching over the entire continent, whole areas devastated by terrifying new weapons, perhaps a new war involving Britain and America against the Soviets. Today we look at the footage from the end of the war of crumbling towns and cities, of piles of corpses and of a world emerging from a conflict of mythical proportions and unimaginable brutality. And we shudder at the unspeakable grimness of it all, thankful that we have not had to live through such horror.
Yet it could have been much, much worse.
Nobody changes the world by sticking to the rules. Through Garbo, Pujol performed a great service by drawing on a sense of playfulness and mischief and by seeing beyond everyday ideas about ‘good’ and ‘bad’. In this he drew on a long tradition in Spanish culture of the lovable rogue, the pícaro who deftly weaves his way through the world, smart, wily and slippery like mercury.
In common with the leading character in Lazarillo de Tormes, the classic picaresque novel of the sixteenth century, Pujol was a trickster and an adventurer. In other circumstances he might well have ended up in jail. Certainly the Germans would have killed him without hesitation had they had any inkling of what he was really up to.
Yet by taking advantage of the bizarre opportunity provided by the war, and by joining with Harris to create Garbo, he also became a magician, a Prospero-like character, returning a happy order to the world through the power of words and thought. Somehow, thanks to his wit and skill, he managed to slip through the nets that might otherwise have caught him, and survived.
Untruths told in the service of a greater truth. We owe the world that we live in today in large part to Garbo’s ingenuity, imagination and sense of fun.
And that’s the truth.
Appendix I
The Flow of Deception Material from the Allies to the Germans through Garbo (June 1944)
Most of the communications on the German side are being decrypted by Bletchley Park and fed back into the Allied intelligence system, creating a loop.
Appendix II
The 29 Names
Below, in CAPS, are listed the 29 names that made up Pujol’s network of agents, along with their code names and numbers as used by MI5, and Pujol’s personal group of informants (known as J’s network).
Juan Pujol, known as:
1. GARBO by the British
2. ALARIC by the Germans (head of the Arabal/Arabel spy network)
J’s network:
3. J(1) – THE COURIER: official on the regular Lisbon–UK flight during the war, carrying Garbo’s letters to Lisbon, thereby avoiding the British censors. German codename: Smith.
4. J(2) – THE AVIATOR: RAF officer who provided Garbo with his first piece of ‘genuine’ intelligence passed on to the Germans from London.
5. J(3) – THE WORK COLLEAGUE: Garbo’s boss at the Spanish Department of the Ministry of Information. In time the Germans were led to believe that THE WORK COLLEAGUE was W.B. McCann, the real head of the department. German codename: Ameros.
6. J(4) – THE CENSOR: employee at the Ministry of Information who passed on ‘Stop’ and ‘Release’ press notices to Garbo.
7. J(5) – THE MISTRESS: secretary in the Secretariat of the Ministry of War with whom Garbo started an affair in September 1943. Pujol described her as the most important member of the Garbo network. German codename: Amy.
8. Agent 1 – Senhor CARVALHO, the Portuguese: Pujol’s first invented spy, based in Newport. A ‘commercial traveller’, he mostly reported on south-west England.
9. Agent 2 – William Maximilian GERBERS: German-Swiss living in Bootle, Liverpool; reported on shipping movements in the Mersey.
10. 2(1) – Mrs Gerbers THE WIDOW: after her husband’s death, Mrs Gerbers moved to London and became Garbo’s assistant, firstly as a housekeeper and later as an encriptor.
11. Agent 3 – PEDRO the Venezuelan: last of the spies invented before Pujol left Portugal for England. An independently wealthy man who had studied at the University of Glasgow. He became Garbo’s deputy and effectively ran the spy ring towards the end of the war, when his role was played by Tomás Harris.
12. 3(1) – THE RAF NCO: drunkard and gambler based in Glasgow who passed on information to PEDRO.
13. 3(2) – THE LIEUTENANT in the 49th Infantry Division: talkative officer whom PEDRO met on a train; passed on information about troop movements in Scotland.
14. 3(3) – THE GREEK SEAMAN: communist deserter from the Merchant Navy who gave information to PEDRO because he believed he was working for the Soviets. German codename: Ben.
15. Agent 4 – FRED the Gibraltarian: waiter who had
been evacuated from the Rock and resettled in England. He was sent to work in the Chislehurst Caves for a while before ending up in the NAAFI on the south coast. German codename: Camillus.
16. 4(1) – THE OPERATOR: left-wing wireless technician who sent Garbo’s radio messages to the Germans believing that he was communicating with Spanish Republicans. He was played by MI5 radio operator Charlie Haines.
17. 4(2) – THE GUARD: working at the Chislehurst Caves, this man passed information on to FRED about who was allowed in and out.
18. 4(3) – THE AMERICAN NCO: Franco-sympathiser who befriended FRED in Soho in order to practise his Spanish. Usefully for Garbo, he was happy to show off how much he knew about US formations and their battle plans. German codename: Castor.
19. Agent 5 – THE BROTHER: PEDRO’s sibling, also of independent means. Initially based in Glasgow, he moved to Toronto, where his role was played by Ciril Mills. German codename: Ahorn or Moonbeam.
20. 5(1) – CON: Agent 5’s cousin, a commercial traveller based in Buffalo who collected intelligence on the US. German codename: Prescot.
21. Agent 6 – DICK: anti-communist South African of independent means who introduced Garbo to J(3) at the Ministry of Information.
22. Agent 7 – STANLEY: Welsh nationalist in the Merchant Navy, first introduced to Garbo by FRED. German codename: Dagobert.
23. 7(1) – THE SOLDIER: member of the 9th Armoured Division.
24. 7(2) – DAVID: former merchant seaman and founder of the pro-Nazi Welsh nationalist group ‘The Brothers in the Aryan World Order’. German codename: Donny.
25. 7(3) – THERESA JARDINE: English secretary of ‘The Brothers in the Aryan World Order’ and the mistress of RAGS. Her role was eventually played by Peter Fleming in Ceylon. German codename: Javelin.
26. 7(4) – RAGS: Indian poet and lover of THERESA JARDINE, with a fanatical belief in the superiority of the Aryan race. German codename: Dick.
27. 7(5) – THE RELATIVE: member of DAVID’s family and also of ‘The Brothers in the Aryan World Order’. German codename: Drake.
28. 7(6) – THE LOW GRADE SPY: office worker in South Wales, also a member of ‘The Brothers in the Aryan World Order’, who only worked half-heartedly as a spy. German codename: Drommond.
29. 7(7) – THE TREASURER: leading member of ‘The Brothers in the Aryan World Order’, later stationed in the Harwich-Ipswich area to report on troop movements.
Private Jack Poolton was lucky to survive the disastrous Allied strike against the Normandy coast.
Juan Pujol, aged 21, during his military service in 1933. His commanding officer in the light artillery regiment used to beat Pujol until he learnt how to ride a horse.
Barcelona was one of the first European cities to suffer major aerial bombardment. Here, bombs explode over the Eixample and Raval districts during a Civil War raid in 1938.
Pujol and Araceli married in April 1940, having met in the Francoist capital Burgos during the final weeks of the Spanish Civil War.
The German Embassy in Madrid, from which Kühlenthal and other Abwehr officers used to operate during the Second World War.
The cottages at Bletchley Park, where Dilly Knox had his team. This was where Mavis Batey and Margaret Rock first broke into the Abwehr Enigma in December 1941.
Half-Spanish half-Jewish, Tomás (Tommy) Harris was a talented artist and MI5 officer. He took over the running of Pujol as a British double agent in the spring of 1942 and they became close friends.
Pujol collaborated enthusiastically with the British. By the summer of 1942 Araceli had joined him in London and they lived with their two boys in Hendon.
35 Crespigny Road, the MI5 safe house in Hendon run by Mrs Titoff, where Pujol was taken to be debriefed.
55 Elliot Road, a two-minute walk from Crespigny Road. Pujol and Araceli lived here until early 1944.
Pujol’s handwriting was almost as flamboyant as his prose style. This is a letter he wrote supposedly from Madrid to Araceli in London as part of his elaborate cover story towards the end of the war.
A young Joachim Peiper on an official visit to Spain as Himmler’s adjutant in October 1940. Peiper is to the left of Himmler, glancing over towards Franco’s group.
Joachim (‘Jochen’) Peiper in 1943 wearing the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross that he won on the Eastern Front.
Tiger Tanks of the 1st SS Panzer Division LAH on manoeuvres through northern France, March 1944. Allied tank commanders feared and envied the Panthers and Tigers that their inferior machines had to face.
The text of Garbo’s crucially important D+3 message.
The Berghof, Hitler’s Alpine home. Here Hitler read the intelligence report based on Garbo’s disinformation. His decision to reroute his Panzer reserves changed the course of the Battle of Normandy.
V-1. The first V-1 flying bomb hit London on 13 June 1944. As more rained down on the capital, Pujol’s German handlers asked for information about where they were landing.
In Madrid, Kühlenthal was using very out-of-date maps to chart the V-1 strikes. It took several days for the Garbo operation to find something that both sides could use, which bought them valuable time.
Sherman tanks of the 23 Hussars set off to attack enemy lines during Operation Goodwood, 18 July 1944. Large numbers were ‘brewed up’ by Peiper’s forces and the operation ended two days later having only advanced seven miles.
The front page of the Paris newspaper Libération announcing the arrival of the first Allied forces in the capital. The soldier on the right is the Spaniard Amado Granell.
As part of his cover story, Pujol had to pretend that he was in hiding from the British, and changed his appearance. This is how he appeared for the secret ceremony awarding him an MBE in December 1944. Guy Liddell of MI5 thought the beard made him look like Lenin.
One of Tomás Harris’s self-portraits showing a mysterious and imaginative side to Garbo’s case officer. Harris was as much a story-teller as Pujol, and ‘Garbo’ was a double act where each man was as important as the other.
After the war, Harris moved to Spain, where he returned to his artwork and collecting. Pujol and other friends remembered Harris as ‘always smiling’.
Pujol died in October 1988 and was buried in Choroní, Venezuela.
Notes
The page references in this notes correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the notes, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
With the exception of Chapter 13, I have quoted direct speech verbatim wherever possible from the various sources available.
Prologue
pages 1–4 Poolton’s story is told in Destined to Survive
1. England 1941–2
page 8 ‘a face like a pang of hunger’: Batey p. 111
page 9 ‘endearingly eccentric’: ibid. p. 111
page 9 ‘We’re breaking machines’: ibid. p.110
page 9 ‘Which way do the hands’: Sebag-Montefiore p. 119
page 11 ‘On Christmas Day 1941’: Trevor-Roper
page 11 There were rumours: Elliott p. 95
page 13 ‘Lack of imagination’: Philby p. 46
page 13 ‘to avoid needless trouble’: ibid. p. 43
page 14 ‘This sounds very odd’: Bristow p. 19
page 16 cracking his swagger stick: Philby p. 49
page 18 ‘back-room boy’: Masterman, Chariot p. 222
page 18 Birmingham police force: Elliott p. 49
page 18 ‘At some point during this period’: ibid. p. 52
2. Spain, Autumn 1941
page 23 his grandmother on his mother’s side: Arne Molfenter, conversation with author
page 24 ‘Elcar’: Dienz website: http://www.dienz.de/Inhalt/dasbekleidungsha.html
page 24 But shortly afterwards he was back in Madrid: KV 2/102
page 24 a brown French coupé: ibid.
page 25 ‘no legal authority’: ibid.
3. Lisbon, Decembe
r 1941
page 29 She had certain airs: Talty says there were members of her family who claimed descent from Alfonso XI: Talty p. 22
page 30 Theodore Rousseau: Mark Seaman, introduction to Harris p. 15. Seaman gives his first name as ‘Edward’.
page 32 ‘Here you are’: Harris p. 65
page 32 Later, Benson passed the information: Pujol and West p. 101
4. Southern England, April 1942
page 33 ‘He was ebullient and vibrant’: Juliet Wilson-Bareau
page 34 ‘He was a wonderful raconteur’: ibid.
page 34 ‘Tommy was a very, very strong personality’: Dick Kingzett, quoted in Carter p. 95
page 34 ‘Tomás was one of the most complete’: Blunt
page 34 Before the war he had been: http://www.circopedia.org/index.php/CyrilMills
page 35 But ‘Bovril’ had been used: Liddell Vol. I p. 243
page 38 ‘sly rabbit’: Interviú 439
5. Spain, 1912–39
page 43 His birth certificate: Juárez p. 39
page 44 who worked for them as a cleaning lady: Javier Juarez interviewed in RNE documentary
page 45 his estranged wife’s death: Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona
page 45 on 3 November 1915: ibid.
page 45 ‘the most honest’: Pujol and West p. 10
The Spy with 29 Names Page 29
