Yesterday we heard the story of the most important of the double agents; Garbo. In the climax of a series of posts from a mystery contributor, we find out how Garbo saved D-Day...
The phoney intelligence put out by the Double Cross agents was all designed to persuade the Germans that the D-Day landings would take place around Calais and so weaken the German defences in Normandy, the scene of the real landings. But Garbo was always less sure of that than the intelligence produced by his fellow double agents suggested.
In the early hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944, as allied forces poured across the English Channel, Garbo tried repeatedly to warn Berlin that the allied forces were on their way to Normandy. It was too late for the Germans to do anything about it, but it ensured they still saw Garbo as their most brilliant spy and set up the climactic success of the Double Cross operation.
Three days later, with allied forces struggling to break out of the foothold they had established in Normandy, and two German armoured divisions on their way to force the allies back into the sea, Garbo sent his most important message. Three of his agents were reporting troops massed across East Anglia and Kent and large numbers of troop and tank transporters waiting in the eastern ports, he said. The Normandy landings were simply a diversion. The German intelligence officers had been right all along. The real landings were to be in Calais.
Garbo’s warning went straight to Hitler, who ordered the two armoured divisions back to Calais to defend against what he now expected to be the main invasion thrust. This ensured the success of the allied invasion. Had the two divisions continued to Normandy, the allies might well have been thrown back into the sea. The story of how this happened is so exciting it deserves to be read in Garbo's own words, and the only place you can do that is in the Dialogue Espionage Classic Operation Garbo: The Personal Story Of the Most Successful Spy Of World War II.
But don't forget the other Biteback books.
Snow: The Double Life of a World War II Spy explains how Double Cross was set up.
Dilly and The Bletchley Park Codebreakers explain how Dilly Knox made that critical break into the Abwehr Enigma, without which it would not have been possible to mount the D-Day deception.
Operation Garbo tells you how he made all the critical moves that led to the success of that D-Day deception, earning himself the Iron Cross First Class in the process!
And our very own Michael Smith, editor of the Dialogue Espionage Classics, describes the entire Double Cross operation from every angle in one of the chapters of The Bletchley Park Codebreakers and in yet another brilliant Biteback book, his definitive account of the work of the codebreakers The Secrets of Station X: How the Bletchley Park Codebreakers Helped Win the War.
N.B. I hope you've enjoyed the story of how Britain won World War II's intelligence battle. You can read the entire story here:
SNOW: the first of the great double cross agents
Dilly breaks the German Secret Service Engima Cipher
Garbo: the most important of the double agents
p.s. The Secrets of Station X: How the Bletchley Park Codebreakers Helped Win the War is on special offer at £4.99!