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An astonishing tale of espionage.
Too late, doh!
The Ben Macyntire book about it is superb.
Watched the 1956 film at the weekend. Seemed to be pretty accurate, with a bit of artistic embellishment. Actually quite good, especially given that a lot of the files would still be secret.
Worryingly I genuinely thought the psa was an expose into the corona virus response.😐
In terms of clever bits of deception I've always thought the role of Joan Pujol in Operation Fortiude (the campaign to hide operation Overlord) would make a great movie.
He was a unique example of a double agent who had always intended to be a double agent. He began operating as a spy for Germany in the UK but was actually in Lisbon making up reports based on tourist pamphlets. He also invented a whole team of operatives that the germans were also funding - even paying a pension to the made up widow of a made up agent that had died. Non of the information he was providing was of any real use but he German military were acting on it - chasing round trying to intercept British fleets that weren't there
Once he was taken on by the British he and his 'team' would flood his German handlers with information - most made up, but also lots of genuine information about British plans timed to arrive just too late to be useful.
He was so trusted that on his intelligence that the Germans were convinced the Alied landings would be at Pas de Calais and placed a large portion of their force there.... and even kept it there during the invasion believing it would still be the main focus of the attack - convinced the Normandy landing were a diversion. Two month after D Day there were still more troops in Calais the Normandy.
Two month after D Day there were still more troops in Calais the Normandy.
My guess is that there weren't any Germans left in Normandy two months after D-Day.
Agent Zig Zag is another of his books, the books are riveting! Couldn't put them down.
My guess is that there weren’t any Germans left in Normandy two months after D-Day.
It took 2 months to capture Caen 6th June - 6th August. I assume what was meant was that that there were more troops in the Pas de Calais than had been in Normandy on June 6th.
Double Cross also by Ben Macyntire a great book giving an overview of all the deception and spying going on.
RIP Glyndwr Michael, a man whose difficult life and sad and lonely end saved thousands of other young men
Agent Zig Zag is another of his books, the books are riveting! Couldn’t put them down.
The TV version was on last week, should be on iPlayer.
I've read the books several times, still love the way Macintyre tells the stories both in print and on screen.
A book on a slightly different theme but related to the Normandy landings is Das Reich by Max Hastings
It tells the story of the Das Reich 2nd SS Panzer Division marched north through France to reinforce the Normandy defences. They were attacked all the way from Montauban in southwest France and made many horrific reprisals.
The most (in)famous of these was Oradour-sur-Glane which is featured in the opening sequence of the "World at War" series. We've got a house down in southwest France and have visited a few of the place they "visited". Very sobering.
role of Joan Pujol
What I find surprising is that after the Greece/Sicily bluff they fell for it again, helped by Pujol's disinformation, the dummy radio chatter and fake boats/tanks assembled in the East.
The drive to Scotland must have been a feat, with no motorways and few or no bypasses around towns and villages.
I read the book in the 70s/80s- can't remember if there was any reference to Bletchley. What's good about such programs these days is that they can reference the German military response and show how the bait is taken.
Thanks OP enjoyed that.
MacIntyre’s usually very good; A Spy Amongst Friends is well written, but I found The Spy and the Traitor a bit poor.
He was so trusted that on his intelligence that the Germans were convinced the Alied landings would be at Pas de Calais and placed a large portion of their force there…. and even kept it there during the invasion believing it would still be the main focus of the attack – convinced the Normandy landing were a diversion.
The Dambusters, 617 Squadron, had a small but interesting part in that around D Day. 🙂
MacIntyre’s usually very good; A Spy Amongst Friends is well written, but I found The Spy and the Traitor a bit poor.
Interesting, I thought The Spy and the Traitor was one of his best. I got a bit bored with his WW2 stuff, a lot of repetition between the books on the characters in MI6 etc.
A Spy Amongst Friends was fascinating, a open communist sympathiser dropping hints left right and centre about being a spy and no one took any notice because he'd been to public school and was 'one of them'. Good to see nothing has changed looking at the clueless idiots in power today.....
Well I got as far as the submarine last night before I fell asleep and missed the rest. Thought I would finish watching it just now on I-player but barely got to the autopsy before I fell asleep again. Damn, that bloke is boring!
So did it work. I can't face watching it again.
So did it work. I can’t face watching it again.
Yeah, we won
Interesting, I thought The Spy and the Traitor was one of his best.
I felt it was a bit of a sop to the spooks after exposing their failings in Spy Amongst
The zig zag one was good too, they had clips of an interview with him, what a life he had