Agent Garbo (40 page)

82 “Lighting, Scenery, Costumes”: Ibid., p. 80.
Over his career: For a discussion of Pujol’s earning power, see Harris, “Appendix III: Financial Arrangements,” p. 335.
breaking for meals: Holt, p. 212.
entering into a new logbook: Pujol and West, p. 119.

83 “realistic enough to create a clear picture”: Harris, p. 78.
To flesh out the lives: Hesketh, p. 45.
their KLM pilot-courier: Harris, p. 87.
all of Pujol’s outgoing messages: The Pujol MI5 files at the National Archives at Kew retain the color codings.

84 “an extremely indiscreet”: Liddell, p. 40.
“and knew how to use it”: Holt, p. 232.
The code name might also confuse the Germans: Harris, p. 87.
“The beach here is mined”: KV 2/64, letter of October 24, 1942.
“Several large hangars”: KV 2/64, letter of October 18, 1942.

“The small port of Irvine”: KV 2/63, letter of September 4, 1943.

85 “You moisten a sheet of paper”: KV 2/65.
“Obviously, as an affectionate brother”: KV 2/64, letter of July 11, 1942.
“I have been asked”: KV 2/64, letter of November 30, 1942.

86 “the greatest burden of the work”: Harris, p. 77.
“It is . . . true to say”: Ibid., p. 79.
“according to him”: KV 2/63, letter of February 16, 1942.
“suited for the passing”: Hesketh, p. 51.

87 “If these two conditions exist”: Quoted in Holt, p. 58.

88 “Exact details and sketch”: Quoted in Masterman, p. 80.
“Can you get hold of a gas mask?”: KV 2/63, letter no. 14.
clearly the Germans wanted: KV 2/64, message of August 13, 1942.
“3¾ oz of Plain Nut Charcoal”: KV 2/64, message of August 28, 1942.
“I have been passing through a long period”: KV 2/64, page 13 of undated letter, allocated on August 28, 1942.

89 “pass from the notional”: Harris, p. 98.
Dream was a currency scheme: Plan Dream is outlined in Harris, pp. 98–100, and in the MI5 file K 2/64, especially the outgoing letter (no. 99) of September 29, 1942.
“I have a message”: KV 2/64, letter of September 9, 1942.

9. The Debut

91 “ten-hour second front”: Kahn, p. 471.
“The job I am going on”: Letter to Frederick Ayer, Patton, p. 92.
92 “If the assault failed”: Wheatley, p. 100.
“For him to remain there”: Harris, p. 105.
Tommy Harris had consulted a physician: Delmer, p. 100.
93 “Although I cannot confirm the rumor”: KV 2/64, message of November 10, 1942.
“There were also about the town”: KV 2/64, message of November 23, 1942.
“All radiators to be drained”: KV 2/64, message of September 23, 1942.
“Second front! Very important!!”: KV 2/64, message of October 14, 1942.
“No. 6 tells me that rumors are circulating”: KV 2/64, message of October 11, 1942.

94 “None of the troops with Arctic uniforms”: KV 2/64, message of October 29, 1942.
“It was impossible for me”: KV 2/64, message of November 1, 1942.
“Your last reports are all magnificent”: KV 2/64, message of November 26, 1942.
“We didn’t even dream of it”: Brown, p. 232.

95 “
GERBERS.
November 19 at Bootle”: Harris, p. 107.
“the poor girl is very broken up”: KV 2/66, message of July 15, 1943.
“Think about me a lot”: KV 2/63, message of May 25, 1942.
“She was alone with a new baby”: Author interview with Maria Kreisler.

96 “‘liquidate’ some of our agents”: Quoted in Macintyre, p. 83.
Harris obtained an 80-watt: Harris, p. 341. Harris indicates the radio was a 100-watt set, but the Abwehr suitcase sets given to its South American agents were typically 80 watts.

97 Madrid sent the cipher plan and codes: Pujol and West, p. 121.
By August 1942, all reports: Ibid., pp. 128–29.
Garbo and the operator: For ciphering, see Harris, Appendix XXXIII, “Cyphers and Transmitting Plans,” p. 343.

10. The Blacks and the Santa Clauses

98 formed the biggest: Farago, p. 205.
working under the auspices: Kahn, p. 278.
the Fakir of Ipi: Farago, p. 205.
They hired deaf-mutes: Brown, p. 205.
“What is that?”: Kahn, p. 277.

99 the staples in a typical Russian passport: Ibid., p. 283.
“very brilliant and lively”: Perrault, p. 55.
“In many ways”: Ibid., p. 57.

100 Worked into the beautiful mahogany desk: Ibid., p. 66.
To divine the whereabouts: Ibid., p. 127.
There was a running joke: Breuer, p. 20.
“must found itself upon a race”: Quoted in Kahn, p. 270.

101 “The Germans consider espionage”: Perrault, p. 153.
“ostracized officers who dealt with spies”: Kahn, p. 532.
He claimed he would never shake the hand: Farago, p. 17.
“In the future, you will use Jews”: Perrault, p. 136.
“No one among the staff”: Ibid., p. 167.

102 It was the Führer: Ibid.
“dumb as a carp”: Cameron and Stevens, p. 293.
“Everything you’ve written is pure nonsense”: Perrault, p. 166.
“He closed his mind against the truth”: Speer, p. 261.

“I don’t want any wretched spies”: Farago, p. 94.

103 “Send them into England as quickly as possible”: Ibid., p. 297.
“Arrived safely, document destroyed”: Ibid., p. 303.

104 “he looked like the man”: Ibid., p. 651.

105 “It is known that [he] is trembling”: KV 2/102, “Extract from Camp 020 interim report on the case of Ledebur.”
“His characteristic German lack of sense of humor”: Harris, p. 70.
“We are separated from England”: Cameron and Stevens, p. 101.
Roenne was the descendant of an old family: Breuer, p. 39.

106 “impossible to make friends with”: Holt, p. 100.
“the Western allies would protest”: Macintyre, p. 240.

107 Listening stations would write “Z reports”: Kahn, p. 181.
“worthless,” “swindle”: Ibid., p. 366.
“The fact,” Canaris boasted: Farago, p. 772.

11. The Rehearsal

109 “We should never resort to it”: Quoted in Holt, p. 72.

110 In a message marked “Urgent”: Harris, pp. 106–12.

111 the RAF had initiated: Ibid., p. 122.
“I saw my cannon shells”:
Evening News
(London), March 15, 1943.
others, veering away:
Daily Sketch
(London), February 8, 1943.
“The Germans’ tactics are apparently to shoot up”: Liddell, p. 47.
112 “my experience when traveling”: KV 2/65, message of February 23, 1943.
“It displeases me very much”: KV 2/65, message of February 27, 1943.
“I have been able to estimate”: KV 2/66, message of August 2, 1943.
“We beg you not to be impatient”: Quoted in Harris, p. 108.
His dispatches began showing up: Harris, p. 75.
from methylene blue to “tetra base”: Liddell, p. 110.
113 the spy had to cut his finger: Kahn, p. 290.
“the most important development in the case”: Harris, p. 132.
“Denys Page tells me that the information”: Liddell, p. 71.
No. 3 drove a hard bargain: KV 2/65, message of March 14, 1943.
“left [the] last days of January”: Harris, p. 130.
The dog was a toy: Liddell, p. 167.

114 the two
t
’s in Odette: KV 2/65, message of March 4, 1943.
“Inside the cake you will find”: KV 2/66, message of June 9, 1943.
“We have received the cake”: KV 2/66.
“he had an agent in England”: Ibid.
“I would never have had the nerve”: Levine, Kindle location 470.
“[The] activity of Arabel”: Quoted in Harris, p. 75.

115
LESLIE HOWARD IS LOST
: Quoted in the documentary
Garbo the Spy.

116 Plan Bodega was a “most complex and elaborate” scheme: Bodega is described in detail in Harris, pp. 115–20.

117 From that, the Germans could deduce: In the MI5 files, Bodega is covered in KV 2/65, message of May 3, 1943, and many other reports of the period.

118 “He would ... have been allowed”: Harris, p. 118.
“It was explained that by blowing up one of the trains”: Ibid., p. 117.

12. The Dry Run

124 “an elaborate camouflage and deception scheme”: Quoted in Holt, p. 477.
“a major amphibious feint”: Pujol and West, p. 137.
There was also a provision: PRO WO 106/4223, Encl. 29A COSSAC 43, dated May 24, 1943.
squadrons of seaborne commandos: Cumming, p. 6.
an “Armageddon-of-the-Air”: Ibid., p. 9.

125 These unfortunates were to be executed: Helm, p. 81.
condemned to have their necks placed on the block: Perrault, p. 78.
“I have now completed arrangements”: Andrew,
Defend the Realm,
p. 257.
“If there is any danger”: Ibid.

126 Back in Le Portel: Cumming, p. 48.

127 Some of them had been shanghaied: Ibid., p. 50.
“The effects of these operations”: AIR 20/4557 Annex, Final Draft, July 8, 1943.

128 “All the northern part of Southampton Common”: KV 2/66, message of August 12, 1943.
“where the enemy was known to be operating”: Harris, p. 150.

129 “This makes her all the more accessible”: KV 2/67, message of September 25, 1943.
“You must let me know”: Ibid.
“It appears that the situation has become worse”: KV 2/66, message of August 26, 1943.
“Agent 1b in Portsmouth reported”: KV 2/66, message of August 12, 1943.

130 Forty thousand tents were erected: Cumming, p. 27.
Notices were slapped on the walls: Ibid.

131 The French Committee of National Liberation told its members: Brown, p. 323.
“I had the power to advance”: Juan Pujol, letter to Tamara Kreisler, undated.

13. An Intimate Deception

132 “distinctive Slav beauty”: Holt, p. 13.
“the huge red glow of the distant flames”: “WW2 People’s War,” BBC online oral history, memories of Mrs. S. Gaylor, www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/30/a3545930.shtml.

133 “found lodged on top of a telephone box”: Ibid., memories of Bill Clavey.
the charred sap of trees with their bark blown off: Ibid., memories of Ken Long.
“dust, dirty water, the cabbagey smell of gas”: Ibid., memories of Bill Clavey.
“One by one”:
News Chronicle
story, exhibit at the Imperial War Museum, London.
“sweetheart badge”: “WW2 People’s War,” memories of Ken Long.

134 “There has been a crisis”: Liddell, p. 79.
The Spanish embassy was a well-known nest: Harris, p. 328.
“I am telling you for the last time”: Ibid.

135 “She ought really to be locked up”: Liddell, p. 79.
“anxious to assassinate the ambassador”: Ibid.
“highly emotional and neurotic”: Harris, p. 327.

136 “In contrast to her husband”: Ibid.
“It is now proposed”: Liddell, p. 79.

137 “stubborn, immoral and immutable”: Levine, Kindle location 935.
The scheme was quickly put into action: The incident is recounted in Harris, pp. 328–31.

138 “Was she capable of pretending”: Author interview with Tamara Kreisler.
“This was clearly a bit of play-acting”: Liddell, p. 80.

139 “had only avoided being arrested”: Ibid.
“rather like Lenin”: Ibid., p. 252.
“that the conclusion which Garbo had drawn”: Harris, p. 331.

140 “I gather that [Pujol] is somewhat shaken”: Liddell, p. 80.
“for whom some considerable time ago”: Ibid., p. 284.

14. Haywire

141 “gnawing anxiety”: Masterman, p. 127.
From then on, it would be a pure deception exercise: PRO WO 106/4223, Encl. 34b, July 16, 1943.
The planners went looking: Howard, p. 81.

142 “Will someone kindly tell me what I am to say”: Brown, p. 322.
Rain and storms meant canceled sorties: Cumming, p. 82.
“I cannot feel,” he wrote: PRO AIR 8/1202, September 5, 1943.

143 they were quickly formed into a second prong: Cumming, p. 26.
“A mounting wave of desperation rose”: Howard, p. 81.

144 “If I do just one thing”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas,
Identities,
Catalan TV documentary, date unknown.
“45 torpedo boats in Dover”: Quoted in Harris, p. 142.

“146 England and the United States will assume the offensive”: Brown, p. 323.
A grenade detonated in Lille: “Paris Frenchmen Battle Germans,” AP report,
Palm Beach Post,
March 9, 1943.
Danes trampled a German soldier: The last three incidents are from Brown, p. 323.
The Reich’s divisions in France: Harris, p. 144.
“Good luck to Starkey”: PRO AIR 8/1202, September 5, 1943.
flooded with bright moonlight: WO 205 449, “Immediate Interpretation Report No. K. 1715,” September 10, 1943.

146 dropping one bomb every eight seconds: Cumming, p. 73.
the lone survivor was found amid: Ibid., p. 84.

147 “We [were] waiting to die because this is inevitable”: Ibid., p. 87.
“It was an inspiring sight to see everybody”: Howard, p. 488.

148 “I can definitely prove the lie”: KV 2/67.
“I do not think that the British High Command”: KV 2/67, message of September 13, 1943.
“Their confidence in me”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas,
Identities.

149 “Your activity and that of your informants”: Quoted in Holt, p. 493.
“Both reports are first class”: Quoted in Harris, pp. 145–46.

150 “The movements made were rather too obvious”: Quoted in Howard, p. 30.
“The multiplicity of the at-times utterly fantastic reports”: Quoted in Brown, p. 494.
“[He] watched and shook his head”: Quoted in Holt, p. 501.

151 “Violence is contrary to all my ideas”: Juan Pujol, interview with Josep Espinas,
Identities.
The Allied planners produced an in-depth report: HW 13/215, “German reaction to Starkey,” 1/8/43–9/9/43, page 1, in file “Western Europe Situation Reports,” nos. 1–20.

15. The Interloper

153 On December 20, 1943: See Kahn, pp. 479–81.
“The danger in the east remains”: Quoted in Delmer, p. 148.

154 Finally, the Führer announced: Ibid., p. 149.
“the location of the defenses better”: Ambrose,
D-Day,
p. 37.
“It would be good”: Quoted in Kahn, p. 479.
southeastern England is closer: Ambrose,
D-Day,
p. 29.
bolstered by 16-inch guns: Farago, p. 760.

155 There was only one panzer division: Ambrose,
D-Day,
p. 73.
“This cannot be”: Quoted in Kahn, p. 187.
green scrambler telephones: Perrault, p. 101.

156 When the Allies attacked the heavily defended coast: Ambrose,
D-Day,
p. 41.
Casualty rates were predicted to be 90 percent: Perrault, p. 5.
the Germans had fifty infantry: Ambrose,
D-Day,
p. 41.
“Well, there it is”: Quoted in D’Este, p. 32.
“I see the tides running red with their blood”: Quoted in Ambrose,
D-Day,
p. 129.