The underdog spy who conned the Nazis
Read the wild and all-true WW2 tale about the ingenious and madcap Agent Garbo, plus a podcast interview and a sale
If I wrote this story as fiction, you’d probably think it was farfetched if not a farce.
In 1942, as WWII raged on, German military intelligence believed that Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia was running a formidable spy network for them from inside enemy Britain.
In reality, the Nazis’ man in London was making it all up — from his little apartment in Portugal.
Juan Pujol was driven to help the Allied war effort in any way possible — even if it meant masquerading as a Nazi sympathizer. And he was doing it all on his own.
The wily Pujol would make a great movie character: a chicken farmer from Barcelona with no connections, he first offered to spy for the British. But when the British embassies in Madrid and Lisbon kept rejecting his services, he had the moxie to offer himself to the Nazis instead, and they took the bait. Soon he was dreaming up dozens of imaginary subagents — all with the end goal of becoming a British double agent after all.
Quite the self-starter, our Pujol.
Eventually British intelligence saw the true worth of this gung-ho unknown con man. They smuggled the dogged double agent to London, where they trained him and set him up to keep building his subterfuge under the code name Garbo.
Like a novelist himself, Pujol continued making up his elaborate network of spies, with a wholly fictitious cast of characters and long letters and secret messages and more. German intelligence ate it up.
In 1944, Agent Garbo took the lead on an elaborate Allied deception campaign. His grand ruse of a story helped fool Hitler and his generals about the D-Day invasion — and surely saved thousands of lives.
The Nazis never knew they’d been taken for a ride. They were so impressed, they even awarded Garbo — who they codenamed Alaric — the Iron Cross Second Class in July of 1944, an honor that Hitler personally authorized.
Only months later, the British awarded Garbo the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or MBE for short. But that was top secret at the time, too.
Because of the secrecy involved, no one knew about Pujol’s true exploits for decades.
"A man struck me in the face," he began. "A Nationalist officer. A Spanish fascist." It had been the final straw, a realization building up for years, he told Harris.
His father, also a Catalonian named Juan Pujol, laid the foundation from early on:
“My father was the most honest, noble and unbiased man I have ever known. He belonged to no political party. He taught me to respect the individuality of human beings, their sorrows and their sufferings. He abhorred oppression. He despised war and the despot, the authoritarian, those all too bent on taking advantage of others.”
Back in 2011-12, I got a jump-start as a published writer when Amazon Publishing contacted me to write a two nonfiction Kindle Singles, which became brief bestsellers.
The second of these, Double-Edged Sword, tells the wild and all-true story of legendary underdog Pujol aka Garbo.
I introduce readers to the many players in Pujol's ever-twisting world of deception, including his enterprising British handlers and more than one gullible Nazi.
There’s also Pujol's wife Araceli, who helped him make his mark as a double agent — but who became the biggest threat to the entire operation and to the D-Day invasion itself.
The British had brought her to London along with her husband, but she grew frustrated with their life there, feeling neglected and homesick. At one point she threatened to expose Garbo by going to the Spanish Embassy. After a series of outbursts and incidents, British intelligence was forced to intervene.
Working together, Pujol and MI5 resorted to their own cocky and special ruse to get Araceli back on track.
For this former history grad student, researching this story was a joy. I was able to use firsthand documents from archives in London and text from secret messages to examine what motived and inspired Pujol. You’ll also get snippets of imagined dialogue that help bring Pujol's story to vivid life.
Double-Edged Sword focuses on the most crucial moments of the epic double cross that Pujol was so uniquely built to pull off.
It’s available as a Kindle ebook, but you can get it in audiobook at most other retailers beyond Amazon. The ebook’s always only $1.99 (or “free” on Kindle Unlimited) and usually under six bucks in audiobook.
A concise, short read, it equals about 70 print pages in length or just under three hours in audio.
I hope you’ll find that it reads like an espionage thriller despite being all true.
I love this story about a true underdog and always thought it would make a compelling movie or series. The true underdog Pujol deserves it, if nothing else. I’ll keep crossing my fingers for him.
The other Kindle Single, Sitting Ducks, tells the true story of Germans impersonating US soldiers on the front lines in WWII. It’s the same tale I fictionalize in my novels The Losing Role and Under False Flags. Sitting Ducks is available in audiobook everywhere and as a Kindle ebook (also in German).
And now, on to other news…
The latest podcast interview
It was a genuine pleasure doing a recent interview with author and podcaster Marie Sutro. Marie had thoughtful questions about my latest release Show Game and the issues the story touches on. Plus my cats have a rare cameo, sort of. Check it out.
Ebook sale: Show Game
I’ve just learned that my latest release Show Game is on sale in ebook for a limited time — through October 25 in both the US and UK. It’s only 2.99 in the US and 1.99 in the UK wherever you buy ebooks.
In this psychological thriller, a mysterious vigilante abducts powerful abusers and exposes them. This is a great deal, so grab it while you can.
If you like my books, here’s how you can help
Some of you have asked me what helps my books find more readers. One single thing helps more than anything:
A review or rating at your favorite online book retailer
If you’re so inclined, please consider giving any (or all) of my books an honest review or just a rating. Many retailers such as Amazon let you leave a simple star rating without having to write anything.
Every single positive review or rating on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble and other review-based sites helps us authors a ton.
Please also consider following me on my Amazon Author page and Facebook Author page.
That’s it for now. I hope you’re enjoying the fall weather.
Steve
You've got a layout for a Movie 🎥 here, Steve?! You sucked me into the plot after the first paragraph. Terrific Job this morning ☕ and will reStack ASAP 💯👈💙🌊