
A Chicken Farmer Spy Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day - DoreenMichele
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/agent-garbo-the-brilliant-eccentric-chicken-farmer-spy-who-tricked-hitler-saved-d-day.html
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NeedMoreTea
Was enjoying that until we got to the D-Day deception.

 _" Pujol did such a good job that when the invasion happened on June 6,
Hitler was convinced it was a diversion"_

Makes it sound like he achieved the deception single handedly. It was a _tiny_
bit more involved than that. Operation Fortitude[0], included creating an
entire dummy army group (1st Army Group, commanded by Patton) with regiments
of inflatable tanks, landing craft and squadrons of dummy aircraft in the
right locations for a Calais invasion. Also significant fake radio and
telephone traffic to be noticed and intercepted. It was a huge, ongoing,
disinformation campaign and enormously successful.

Pujol was a fascinating tale, and played his part, but it was a small one.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude)

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meowface
It's incredible how comprehensively they constructed the ruse. The Allies
really outsmarted the Axis in every way. Successful operation ruses, cracked
ciphers, complete control over the intelligence networks.

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al_chemist
> The Allies really outsmarted the Axis in every way.

History written by the victors. On our side bright minds and heroic hearts and
on their side cowards and dunderheads. /s

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meowface
Good point, but from what I've read of the war, it seems like the Allies
absolutely dominated the intelligence (as in espionage) aspect in an objective
sense. I think the Germans admitted post-war they got outplayed. Clearly the
Axis was better at certain other things than the Allies, though, otherwise
they wouldn't have taken over so much territory.

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toomanybeersies
> Pujol is, therefore, the only one to have received awards from both sides
> for his services in WWII.

I would be surprised if there weren't some Italians who managed to win awards
fighting for both sides in the Second World War.

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Gatsky
I like to think that fascist regimes could never produce such a figure...

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w4tson
Garbo is referenced in one of my favorite David Bowie songs “Quicksand”.

    
    
      “I'm the twisted name on Garbo's eyes
      Living proof of Churchill's lies, I'm destiny”

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obscurantist
Was this guy the inspiration for Mr. Bean?

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sohkamyung
The first paragraph sounded very weird: he was awarded the Iron Cross by the
Nazis for deceiving the Nazis? This isn't cleared up until the end of the
article.

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shusson
I thought it was obvious that the Nazis did not know they were deceived.

