Nicholas Rankin

Pujoling a Fast One

The Spy with 29 Names: The Story of the Second World War’s Most Audacious Double Agent

By

Chatto & Windus 322pp £16.99 order from our bookshop

Juan Pujol García, code-named GARBO by British MI5 and ARABEL by the German Abwehr, was the Spanish ‘double-cross agent’ who won both an MBE from the British and an Iron Cross from the Germans. The British knew the spy network of 27 subagents he ran was wholly fictional; German intelligence believed them real and trusted their information entirely. This meant that his message of 9 June 1944 suggesting the Normandy landings were a feint and the real attack was coming against the Pas de Calais persuaded Adolf Hitler to hold back his reserves for several weeks. Thus Pujol became the ‘spy who saved D-day’.

Pujol’s second great claim to fame

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'The physical courage he demonstrated as a young man [...] gave way to intellectual power; radical thought, gifted… ,
    • 'While Jane Austen didn’t perhaps achieve the full recognition that she deserved in her lifetime, even then she out… ,
    • 'All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And t… ,
    • 'You are interested in a particular subject; basic research hardens this interest into an obsession, after which th… ,
    • 'Keynes predicted that future generations would enjoy such an improved standard of living that they might work just… ,
    • 'Various dislocations ... emerge, iceberg-like, out of a troubled sea of unconscious motivation and confront Eisenb… ,
    • Today is the first today of the – they've got some excellent events coming up over the next two weeks.… ,
    Follow Us