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Juan Pujol García

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spanish double agent for the British in World War II

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Pujol and the second or maternal family name is García.

Juan Pujol García<br>MBE<br>Born14 February 1914[1]<br>Barcelona, Spain<br>Died10 October 1988(1988-10-10) (aged 74)<br>Caracas, Venezuela<br>SpousesAraceli González Carballo<br>Carmen Cilia Alvarez

Awards<br>Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

Iron Cross, Second Class

Espionage activity Allegiance United KingdomService branchSecurity Service (MI5)Service years1942–1944CodenameGarboGerman codenameAlaricOperationsOperation Fortitude

Juan Pujol García (Spanish: [ˈxwan puˈʝol ɣaɾˈθi.a]; 14 February 1914 – 10 October 1988), also known as Joan Pujol i García (Catalan: [ʒuˈan puˈʒɔl i ɣəɾˈsi.ə]), was a Spanish spy who worked as a double agent loyal to the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany during World War II, when he relocated to Britain to carry out fictitious spying activities for the Germans. He was given the codename Garbo by the British; their German counterparts codenamed him Alaric and referred to his non-existent spy network as "Arabal".[2][3]

After developing a loathing of political extremism of all sorts during the Spanish Civil War, Pujol decided to become a spy for Britain as a way to do something "for the good of humanity."[4] Pujol and his wife[5] contacted the British Embassy in Madrid, which rejected his offer.

Undeterred, he created a false identity as a fanatically pro-Nazi Spanish government official and successfully became a German agent. He was instructed to travel to Britain and recruit additional agents; instead he moved to Lisbon and created bogus reports about Britain from a variety of public sources including a tourist guide to Britain, train timetables, cinema newsreels, and magazine advertisements.[6]

Although the information would not have withstood close examination, Pujol soon established himself as a trustworthy agent. He began inventing fictitious sub-agents who could be blamed for false information and mistakes. The Allies finally accepted Pujol when the Germans expended considerable resources attempting to hunt down a fictitious convoy.[7] Following interviews by Desmond Bristow of Section V MI6 Iberian Section, Pujol was taken on. The family were moved to Britain and Pujol was given the code name "Garbo". Pujol and his handler Tomás Harris spent the rest of the war expanding the fictitious network, communicating to the German handlers at first by letters and later by radio. 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. The false information Pujol supplied helped persuade the Germans that the main attack would be in the Pas de Calais, so that they kept large forces there before and even after the invasion. Pujol had the distinction of receiving military decorations from both sides of the war – being awarded the Iron Cross and later becoming a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Early life<br>[edit]

Pujol was born in Barcelona to Joan Pujol, a Catalan who owned a cotton factory, and Mercedes García Guijarro, from the Andalusian town of Motril in the Province of Granada.[8][9] The third of four children, Pujol was sent at age seven to the Valldemia boarding school[10] run by the Marist Brothers[11] in Mataró, twenty miles (32 km) from Barcelona; he remained there for the next four years. The students were only allowed out of the school on Sundays if they had a visitor, so his father made the trip every week.[12]

His mother came from a strict Roman Catholic family and took Communion every day,[13] but his father was much more secular and had liberal political beliefs.[14] At age thirteen, he was transferred to a school in Barcelona run by his father's card-playing friend[15] Monsignor Josep, where he remained for three years.[15] 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.[16]

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.[14][15][17][18][19]

His father died a few months after the Second Republic's establishment in 1931, while Pujol was completing his education as a poultry...