Agent Garbo

by Stephan Talty

  “I had the power to advance”: Juan Pujol, letter to Tamara Kreisler, undated.

  13. An Intimate Deception

  132 “distinctive Slav beauty”: Holt, p. 13.

  “the huge red glow of the distant flames”: “WW2 People’s War,” BBC online oral history, memories of Mrs. S. Gaylor, www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/30/a3545930.shtml.

  133 “found lodged on top of a telephone box”: Ibid., memories of Bill Clavey.

  the charred sap of trees with their bark blown off: Ibid., memories of Ken Long.

  “dust, dirty water, the cabbagey smell of gas”: Ibid., memories of Bill Clavey.

  “One by one”: News Chronicle story, exhibit at the Imperial War Museum, London.

  “sweetheart badge”: “WW2 People’s War,” memories of Ken Long.

  134 “There has been a crisis”: Liddell, p. 79.

  The Spanish embassy was a well-known nest: Harris, p. 328.

  “I am telling you for the last time”: Ibid.

  135 “She ought really to be locked up”: Liddell, p. 79.

  “anxious to assassinate the ambassador”: Ibid.

  “highly emotional and neurotic”: Harris, p. 327.

  136 “In contrast to her husband”: Ibid.

  “It is now proposed”: Liddell, p. 79.

  137 “stubborn, immoral and immutable”: Levine, Kindle location 935.

  The scheme was quickly put into action: The incident is recounted in Harris, pp. 328–31.

  138 “Was she capable of pretending”: Author interview with Tamara Kreisler.

  “This was clearly a bit of play-acting”: Liddell, p. 80.

  139 “had only avoided being arrested”: Ibid.

  “rather like Lenin”: Ibid., p. 252.

  “that the conclusion which Garbo had drawn”: Harris, p. 331.

  140 “I gather that [Pujol] is somewhat shaken”: Liddell, p. 80.

  “for whom some considerable time ago”: Ibid., p. 284.

  14. Haywire

  141 “gnawing anxiety”: Masterman, p. 127.

  From then on, it would be a pure deception exercise: PRO WO 106/4223, Encl. 34b, July 16, 1943.

  The planners went looking: Howard, p. 81.

  142 “Will someone kindly tell me what I am to say”: Brown, p. 322.

  Rain and storms meant canceled sorties: Cumming, p. 82.

  “I cannot feel,” he wrote: PRO AIR 8/1202, September 5, 1943.

  143 they were quickly formed into a second prong: Cumming, p. 26.

  “A mounting wave of desperation rose”: Howard, p. 81.

  144 “If I do just one thing”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas, Identities, Catalan TV documentary, date unknown.

  “45 torpedo boats in Dover”: Quoted in Harris, p. 142.

  “146 England and the United States will assume the offensive”: Brown, p. 323.

  A grenade detonated in Lille: “Paris Frenchmen Battle Germans,” AP report, Palm Beach Post, March 9, 1943.

  Danes trampled a German soldier: The last three incidents are from Brown, p. 323.

  The Reich’s divisions in France: Harris, p. 144.

  “Good luck to Starkey”: PRO AIR 8/1202, September 5, 1943.

  flooded with bright moonlight: WO 205 449, “Immediate Interpretation Report No. K. 1715,” September 10, 1943.

  146 dropping one bomb every eight seconds: Cumming, p. 73.

  the lone survivor was found amid: Ibid., p. 84.

  147 “We [were] waiting to die because this is inevitable”: Ibid., p. 87.

  “It was an inspiring sight to see everybody”: Howard, p. 488.

  148 “I can definitely prove the lie”: KV 2/67.

  “I do not think that the British High Command”: KV 2/67, message of September 13, 1943.

  “Their confidence in me”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas, Identities.

  149 “Your activity and that of your informants”: Quoted in Holt, p. 493.

  “Both reports are first class”: Quoted in Harris, pp. 145–46.

  150 “The movements made were rather too obvious”: Quoted in Howard, p. 30.

  “The multiplicity of the at-times utterly fantastic reports”: Quoted in Brown, p. 494.

  “[He] watched and shook his head”: Quoted in Holt, p. 501.

  151 “Violence is contrary to all my ideas”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas, Identities.

  The Allied planners produced an in-depth report: HW 13/215, “German reaction to Starkey,” 1/8/43–9/9/43, page 1, in file “Western Europe Situation Reports,” nos. 1–20.

  15. The Interloper

  153 On December 20, 1943: See Kahn, pp. 479–81.

  “The danger in the east remains”: Quoted in Delmer, p. 148.

  154 Finally, the Führer announced: Ibid., p. 149.

  “the location of the defenses better”: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 37.

  “It would be good”: Quoted in Kahn, p. 479.

  southeastern England is closer: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 29.

  bolstered by 16-inch guns: Farago, p. 760.

  155 There was only one panzer division: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 73.

  “This cannot be”: Quoted in Kahn, p. 187.

  green scrambler telephones: Perrault, p. 101.

  156 When the Allies attacked the heavily defended coast: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 41.

  Casualty rates were predicted to be 90 percent: Perrault, p. 5.

  the Germans had fifty infantry: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 41.

  “Well, there it is”: Quoted in D’Este, p. 32.

  “I see the tides running red with their blood”: Quoted in Ambrose, D-Day, p. 129.

  157 “it had become a hopelessly depressing document”: Quoted in Holt, p. 505.

  “The plan has to be just close enough”: Quoted in Breuer, p. 13.

  158 “no large scale cross-Channel operations”: Harris, p. 174.

  “were proving themselves to be by far”: Hesketh, p. xvi.

  “I have read in the English press”: KV 2/67, message of January 5, 1944.

  “Conversation with a friend”: KV 2/67, message of January 21, 1944.

  159 The Abwehr’s sources reported that artesian wells: Hesketh, p. 60.

  “News from various sources”: KV 2/67, message of January 5, 1944.

  “For tactical reasons one must assume”: KV 2/67, message of January 14, 1944.

  “Numerous reports of the alleged postponement”: Quoted in Hesketh, p. 157.

  people joked that you could walk: Perrault, p. 114.

  “They came by land, by train, bus, truck”: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 151.

  160 campfires were forbidden: Ibid., p. 152.

  “The work Tommy Harris and I did”: Pujol and West, p. 226.

  161 “What evidence there is”: Masterman, p. 187.

  “hated the British like death”: KV 2/65, message of April 24, 1943.

  the minister believed that Germany: KV 2/67, message of January 21, 1944.

  “She emphasized one point above all”: KV 2/67, message of January 24, 1944.

  162 “an impossible and insufferable enfant terrible”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle location 2867.

  “‘I was not a much loved person’”: Unpublished transcript, Thaddeus Holt interview with David Strangeways, August 26, 1992.

  Although a wonderful speaker: From Strangeways’s obituary, Independent, August 17, 1998.

  Strangeways spied an abandoned Thames barge: Ibid.

  163 MI6 knew that Gibraltar hotel employees: Wheatley, p. 86.

  “the most all-containing brain”: Quoted in Holt, p. 14.

  where he’d placed his office below a brothel: Levine, Kindle location 255.

  “He was certainly the most unusual Intelligence officer”: Quoted in Holt, p. 14.

  It could even dye a man brown: Ibid., p. 29.

  164 The battle for Tunis: From Strangeways’s obituary, Independent.

  165 “He was … so beautifully turned out”: Quoted in Holt, p. 334.

 
“Put it this way”: Thaddeus Holt interview with David Strangeways.

  166 “It gave maximum offense”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle position 2902.

  “Everybody was furious”: Quoted in Holt, p. 537.

  “the beau ideal of an English country squire”: Roger Hesketh’s obituary, Telegraph, December 27, 2004.

  “one of the best claret cellars in England”: Quoted in Holt, p. 478.

  “a few new ideas” thrown in: Unpublished transcript, Thaddeus Holt interview with Christopher Harmer.

  One day soon after his pronouncement: The account of Harmer’s conversation with Hesketh is from Thaddeus Holt’s interview with Harmer.

  16. The Ghost Army

  167 “putting a hooped skirt”: Quoted in Holt, p. 504.

  “flatly refused to believe that it would be possible”: Howard, p. 506.

  “But we are not going to land”: Quoted in Holt, p. 524.

  168 “After the initial shock”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle location 2934.

  “true to the tradition of English eccentricity”: Brown, p. 2.

  “awful, ghastly staff procedures”: Quoted in Holt, p. 69.

  “We got away with murder”: Unpublished transcript, Thaddeus Holt interview with David Strangeways, August 26, 1992.

  Tate was a Danish spy: Hesketh, p. 55.

  170 “The enemy will probably succeed”: Quoted in D’Este, p. 116.

  171 “I’m not Jewish or Polish”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas, Identities, Catalan TV documentary, date unknown.

  “It would be of the greatest interest”: KV 2/68.

  so much traffic was flowing: Harris, p. 179.

  The Abwehr in Madrid: Macintyre, p. 164.

  “By the main road between Leatherhead and Dorking”: KV 2/68, message of March 6, 1944.

  172 “There are two or three American camps”: KV 2/69, message of March 19, 1944.

  “You don’t take a great big silver salver”: Holt, p. 75.

  “[German commanders] know we do not wish to see”: KV 2/67, message of February 23, 1944.

  173 “German troops are now evacuating French territory”: KV 2/67, included with message of February 23, 1944.

  It ordered them to find out: Perrault, p. 31.

  17. The Backdrop

  174 “goddamned natural-born ham”: Quoted in Macdonald, p. 101.

  “See you in the Pas de Calais!”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle location 3226.

  the barge’s captain and crew were arrested: Ibid., location 3284.

  172 The deception planners hoped that Luftwaffe night raiders: Breuer, p. 161.

  All his staff officers got fake promotions: Holt, pp. 85–86.

  The Allies requisitioned a wind machine from a British movie studio: Breuer, p. 115.

  176 “Here is your bird”: Ibid.

  Map 51, of course, covered the Pas de Calais: Ibid., p. 117.

  Entire books and technical journals were written: Ibid., p. 163.

  In March, Churchill visited a sham armored division: Ibid., p. 114.

  177 received checks that were five times the pay: Holt, p. 136.

  The result of the last invention: Ibid., p. 84.

  Battle sounds were recorded: Ibid., p. 86.

  178 Coastal areas from Land’s End: Levine, Kindle location 3541.

  There were the “Bunsen burners”: Holt, p. 87.

  179 Prisoners of war in German concentration camps: Hesketh, p. 40.

  Insignia were invented for Garbo’s phantom armies: Holt, p. 897.

  A single wireless truck impersonated: Hesketh, p. 36.

  In January 1944, Roenne estimated: Ibid., p. 169.

  180 The Americans contributed: Holt, p. 504.

  the Royal Air Force flew dummy aircraft: Hesketh, p. 70.

  “80 Div. request 1,800 pairs of crampons”: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 81.

  “Reliably reported soundings”: Hesketh, p. 166.

  181 Hitler decided to keep 250,000 badly needed troops: Pujol and West, p. 166.

  “Standing with his stiff fat neck”: Quoted in Phillips, p. 46.

  “on the theory that the Second Front”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle location 3676.

  182 “Eagerly he turned to the Colonial Secretary”: Ibid., Kindle location 3690.

  When they had wanted the Germans: Holt, p. 78.

  “Then, having allowed the person to look”: Wheatley, p. 146.

  183 the deception planners also looked into: Holt, p. 500.

  “The world of make-believe”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle location 3119.

  “I created them. They were my children”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas, Identities.

  184 By May, Roenne counted: Hesketh, p. 179.

  “From now on we have to exaggerate”: Kahn, p. 496.

  “Tangle within tangle”: Quoted in David Jablonsky, Churchill, the Great Game and Total War (New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 55.

  Every single message: Harris, p. 190.

  185 “The movement and regrouping”: Ibid.

  18. The Buildup

  186 “I am for bringing all our strength”: Holt, p. 574.

  On May 2, the deputy of General Jodl: Kahn, p. 487.

  “A partial success by the enemy”: Holt, p. 573.

  187 “The situation as explained to me”: KV 2/67, message of April 9, 1944.

  188 The blunder reinforced his growing belief: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 86.

  189 “4 has displayed the ability of a simpleton”: KV 2/68.

  “We here, in the very small circle”: KV 2/70, message of December 12, 1944.

  “You should give him more encouragement”: KV 2/68.

  In May, the French resistance reported: Perrault, p. 146.

  There were rumors that other panzer divisions: D’Este, p. 108.

  190 A squad of writers eavesdropped: Levine, Kindle location 3327.

  until IBM invented a machine: Holt, p. 91.

  The Third Army’s wireless network in the west: Hesketh, p. 91.

  A card catalog was even kept: Levine, Kindle location 3409.

  191 “The 6th American Armored Division”: Quoted in Hesketh, p. 176.

  “The main enemy concentration”: Delmer, p. 160.

  Garbo flashed sightings from his subagents: Pujol and West, p. 156.

  “Present aircraft production 300 per month”: KV 2/68, message of February 18, 1944.

  192 “What I was clearly able to get out of it”: Hesketh, p. 133.

  “It seems to me preposterous”: Quoted in Levine, Kindle location 4074.

  193 Pilots flew sorties and blew out the bridges: Hesketh, p. 118.

  After arriving, von Cramer rushed: Levine, Kindle location 3574.

  194 Churchill was reading reports of Garbo’s successes: Liddell, p. 93.

  Heinrich Himmler sent a personal note: Harris, p. 74.

  “It is a unique case of an agent’s report”: Ibid., p. 190.

  195 “Speaking of the Second Front”: Quoted in Hesketh, p. 193.

  196 “a blond, monocle, very bad black teeth”: KV 2/854.

  19. The Prisoner

  197 His real name was Johann “Johnny” Jebsen: Jebsen’s story is drawn from Popov’s memoir Spy, Counterspy and from Miller.

  201 The agency even considered: Andrew, Defend the Realm, p. 297.

  “The whole Tricycle set-up might collapse”: Liddell, p. 151.

  202 Jebsen was ordered: Pujol and West, p. 154.

  if the SD wanted to spirit him out of the country: Harris, p. 155.

  203 “Under interrogation,” wrote J. C. Masterman: Masterman, p. 154.

  “Tommy is still extremely apprehensive”: Liddell, p. 192.

  “the agents should be used”: Ibid.

  205 “They told him about what had happened”: Author interview with Andreu Jaume.

  atormentado, tormented: Author interview with José Antonio Buces.

  he was giving him the Nazi salute: Harris, p. 136.

  “I am not certain whether I am being carried aw
ay”: KV 2/67, message of February 23, 1944.

  “His mother was Spanish and Gypsy”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas, Identities.

  206 “Whichever way you look at this case”: Liddell, p. 193.

  20. The Hours

  207 “I am particularly interested to know”: KV 2/67.

  “He says that the 52nd Division is at present in camps”: KV 2/67.

  208 He was stripped of his rank: Perrault, p. 147.

  “I could cheerfully shoot the offender myself”: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 84.

  A young British officer told his parents: Perrault, p. 131.

  And when the planners opened: Ibid., p. 148.

  209 URGENT AP NYK FLASH: Ibid., p. 220.

  “Surprised by the news in the papers”: KV 2/69, message of June 4, 1944.

  “appalling slip-up”: Liddell, p. 205.

  “I hope to God”: Quoted in D’Este, p. 527.

  210 “From the moment I set foot in England”: Pujol and West, p. 223.

  “The Division is destined for an attack”: KV 2/69, message of June 5, 1944.

  At 2000 hours, the German propaganda broadcaster: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 192.

  “very depressed”: The words of Eisenhower’s driver, Kay Summersby, quoted in D’Este, p. 519.

  211 “modest but beautifully prepared meal”: Delmer, p. 178.

  212 These false “echoes”: Breuer, p. 176.

  213 “I am very disgusted”: KV 2/69, message of June 7, 1944.

  an American GI named William Funkhouser: Funkhouser interview, Virginia Military Institute, John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis, Military Oral History Project, www.vmi.edu/uploadedFiles/Archives/Adams_Center/FunkhouserW/FunkhouserW_interview.pdf.

  214 “I remember thinking that the American beaches”: “The Spy Who Saved Europe,” Mail on Sunday, June 3, 1984.

  “Not a single unit”: Delmer, p. 514.

  215 The diversion helped convince the chief of staff: Levine, Kindle location 3792.

  “On 5 June 1944”: Ambrose, D-Day, p. 91.

  “We feared a massive counterattack”: “The Spy Who Saved Europe.”

  216 “I today lunched”: KV 2/69, message of June 9, 1944.

  “It is clear that Hitler and his entourage”: Hesketh, p. 204.