Joan Pujol Garcia (14 February 1912 – 10 October 1988), also known as Joan Pujol Garcia, was a Spanish spy who acted as a double agent loyal to Great Britain against Nazi Germany during World War II, when he relocated to Britain to carry out fictitious spying activities for the Germans.
After an argument with a teacher, he decided that he no longer wished to remain at the school, and became an apprentice at a hardware store. Pujol engaged in a variety of occupations prior to and after the Spanish Civil War, such as studying animal husbandry at the Royal Poultry School in Arenys de Mar and managing various businesses, including a cinema. His father died a few months after the Second Republic's establishment in 1931, while Pujol was completing his education as a poultry farmer.
Pujol's father left his family well-provided for, until his father's factory was taken over by the workers in the early stages of the Spanish Civil War. == Spanish Civil War == In 1931, Pujol did his six months of compulsory military service in a cavalry unit, the 7th Regiment of Light Artillery.
Pujol was managing a poultry farm north of Barcelona in 1936 when the Spanish Civil War began.
He managed to desert to the Nationalist side during the Battle of the Ebro in September 1938.
His reports were intercepted by the British Ultra communications interceptions programme, and seemed so credible that the British counter-intelligence service MI5 launched a full-scale spy hunt. In February 1942, either he or his wife (accounts differ) approached the United States after it had entered the war, contacting U.S.
He was moved to Britain on 24 April 1942 and given the code name "Bovril", after the drink concentrate.
In November 1942, just before the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, Garbo's agent on the River Clyde reported that a convoy of troopships and warships had left port, painted in Mediterranean camouflage.
In 1943, responding to German requests for speedier communication, Pujol and Harris created a fictitious radio operator.
Eventually the Germans were funding a network of 27 agents, all fictitious. Pujol had a key role in the success of Operation Fortitude, the deception operation intended to mislead the Germans about the timing, location and scale of the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
Having both the original text and the Enigma-encoded intercept of it, the codebreakers had the best possible source material for a chosen-plaintext attack on the Germans' Enigma key. === Operation Fortitude === In January 1944, the Germans told Pujol that they believed a large-scale invasion in Europe was imminent and asked to be kept informed.
He sent over 500 radio messages between January 1944 and D-Day, at times more than twenty messages per day.
Special arrangements were made with the German radio operators to be listening to Garbo through the night of 5/6 June 1944, using the story that a sub-agent was about to arrive with important information.
He returned to duty a few days later, now having a "need" to avoid London, and forwarded an "official" letter of apology from the Home Secretary for his unlawful detention. The Germans paid Pujol US$340,000 to support his network of agents, which at one point totalled 27 fabricated characters. == Honours == As Alaric, he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class on 29 July 1944, for his services to the German war effort.
The Iron Cross was presented via radio. As Garbo, he received an MBE from King George VI, on 25 November 1944.
Wells is a fictionalised retelling of the story of Juan Pujol (Agent Garbo), double agent with MI5, from the Spanish Civil War to 1944; Quicksand (1971), a song by David Bowie on the Hunky Dory album makes reference to him ("I'm the twisted name on Garbo's eyes"). ===Film and television=== The Spy (El Espía).
With the help of MI5, Pujol travelled to Angola and faked his death from malaria in 1949.
By 1984, Pujol had moved to his son Carlos Miguel's house in La Trinidad, Caracas. In 1971, the British politician Rupert Allason, writing under the pen name Nigel West, became interested in Garbo.
He then moved to Lagunillas, Venezuela, where he lived in relative anonymity running a bookstore and gift shop. Pujol divorced his first wife and married Carmen Cilia, with whom he had two sons, Carlos Miguel and Joan Carlos, and a daughter who died in 1975 at the age of 20.
By 1984, Pujol had moved to his son Carlos Miguel's house in La Trinidad, Caracas. In 1971, the British politician Rupert Allason, writing under the pen name Nigel West, became interested in Garbo.
Allason's investigation was stalled from that point until March 1984, when a former MI5 officer who had served in Spain supplied Pujol's full name.
Pujol and Allason finally met in New Orleans on 20 May 1984. At Allason's urging, Pujol travelled to London and was received by Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, in an unusually long audience.
Joan Pujol Garcia (14 February 1912 – 10 October 1988), also known as Joan Pujol Garcia, was a Spanish spy who acted as a double agent loyal to Great Britain against Nazi Germany during World War II, when he relocated to Britain to carry out fictitious spying activities for the Germans.
The 90-minute Spanish documentary retitled and narrated in English, shown as part of the Storyville series, first shown on BBC Four, 22 February 2011. Secret D-DayUS television, 1998portrayed by French actor Sam Spiegel. Garbo-Master of Deception.
Production: Ikiru Films, Colose Producciones, Centuria Films, Spain 2009. The Man Who Fooled the Nazis.
The 90-minute Spanish documentary retitled and narrated in English, shown as part of the Storyville series, first shown on BBC Four, 22 February 2011. Secret D-DayUS television, 1998portrayed by French actor Sam Spiegel. Garbo-Master of Deception.
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