Juan Pujol Garcia was a Spanish double agent during WWII, acting as a spy for both the
Axis and the Allies.
Born in 1912 in Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, Pujol had a variety of careers during his
younger years, studying animal husbandry for a time and managing various businesses.
In 1931, at the age of 19, Pujol completed six months of mandatory military service in
a Spanish artillery unit.
He did not enjoy his time in the military stating that he lacked the “essential qualities
of loyalty, generosity, and honor.”
Five years later, when the Spanish Civil War broke out between Republican and Nationalist
forces in 1936, Pujol was managing a poultry farm north of Barcelona.
During the course of the war, Pujol served with both Republican and Nationalist forces
in limited capacities, but took pride in the fact that he never fired a single shot on
either side.
Pujol’s experiences during the Spanish Civil War left him with an extreme dislike of both
fascism and communism.
This dislike extended to Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union.
He was married around this time and had one child.
In 1940, during the early stages of WWII, Pujol decided that he wanted to make a contribution
“for the good of humanity.”
Pujol offered his services to the British three different times, but was turned down
repeatedly.
He decided to become a German agent instead before reapproaching the British to offer
his services as a double agent.
Pujol created a fake identity as a Spanish government official with Nazi sympathies with
the ability to travel to London on government business.
He created a fake diplomatic passport by fooling a printer he worked for the embassy in Lisbon,
Portugal.
German Intelligence accepted his offer to work for them as an agent and they trained
him in secret writing, providing him a bottle of invisible ink, a codebook, and 600 pounds
for expenses.
He was to move to London and establish a network of British agents there.
Pujol moved to Lisbon instead of London and using a tourist’s guide to England, books
from the Lisbon public library, and newsreels he saw at cinemas, he wrote reports back to
the Nazis that seemed to be coming from London.
He even submitted traveling expenses based on fares listed in a British railway guide.
Pujol created a whole network of fictitious agents that he claimed to have recruited across
Britain.
His reports were so credible that when the British intercepted some of them they launched
a counter-intelligence spy hunt for him through MI5.
In 1942, after the United States entered the war, Pujol contacted an American naval officer
in Lisbon who recognized Pujol’s potential.
The Americans contacted their British counterparts in support of Pujol.
Pujol was relocated to Britain in April 1942 and was later provided the code name of Garbo.
Pujol and a Spanish speaking MI5 agent, Tomas Harris, maintained Pujol’s fictitious spy
network that he had created, writing over 300 letters to the Germans.
Nazi intelligence made little effort to recruit additional spies in the United Kingdom during
the war because of this.
The information they delivered included real information of little military value, valuable
information intentionally delayed, and bits of complete fiction.
Pujol later began communicating with the Germans via radio.
His codename within the German intelligence service became Arabel and the sophisticated
encryptions they provided him were in turn supplied to British codebreakers.
In early 1944, the Germans informed Pujol that they believed a large scale invasion
of Europe was approaching and wanted him to discover information about its planning.
He became an integral part of Operation Fortitude, a code name for the Allies’ military deception
strategy in the build up to the Normandy landings.
Pujol sent over 500 radio messages between January 1944 and D-Day in June to mislead
the Germans about where the landing would be occurring.
Pujol’s transmissions were carefully delayed on D-Day, so that the real information he
sent arrived too late.
Three days after D-Day, Pujol sent a message to the Nazi high command that reached Adolf
Hitler.
He provided the Allied order of battle, showing exaggerated numbers of soldiers still in England
ready for an additional invasion.
The deception was supported by inflatable tanks and bogus radio chatter.
The deception paid off and the German high command trusted Pujol’s reports.
After the war, it was discovered that no less than 62 of Pujol’s reports were included
in German military high command intelligence summaries.
The Germans had paid their agent, Arabel, $340,000 U.S. dollars to support his spy network.
Adjusted for inflation, this comes out to over $4.5 million in 2015.
At the height of his reports, Pujol’s fictitious spy network totaled 27 individuals.
In July 1944, the Germans awarded Pujol, as Arabel, the Iron Cross for his services to
the Nazi war effort.
This award was one of great honor and required Hitler’s personal authorization.
He was presented the award via radio and later received the physical medal after the war
had ended.
As Garbo, Pujol received a Member of the Order of the British Empire from King George VI
in November 1944 for his service as a double agent.
The Nazis never realized during the war what Pujol was really doing.
Pujol, or Garbo, was one of the very few people to have received decorations from both the
Axis and Allied powers during WWII.
After the war, Pujol traveled to Angola and faked his death from malaria in order to avoid
revenge attacks by surviving Nazis.
He later divorced his first wife and married a second, having two sons and a daughter with
her.
He lived in Venezuela, running a bookstore and gift shop there.
In 1971, a British military historian, Rupert Allason, became interested in Garbo and for
over a decade attempted to discover the individual’s real identity.
Finally, a former MI5 agent revealed Pujol’s name in 1984 and Allason and Pujol met in
New Orleans later that year.
With his identity finally revealed, Pujol was honored with an audience at Buckingham
Palace and met with former colleagues.
On June 6, 1984, the 40th anniversary of D-Day, Pujol traveled to Normandy to tour the beach
and pay his respects.
Juan Pujol Garcia died in Caracas, Venezeula in 1988 and is buried in a small town near
the Caribbean Sea.
In 2009, a Spanish documentary called Garbo: The Spy was created about Pujol’s role in
WWII.
Be sure to check the film out for a much more detailed account of Pujol’s incredible story.
You can watch a trailer for the film at garbothemovie.com
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