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Juan Pujol Garcia was a vivacious fellow. In the beginning, he was a poultry farm manager in Barcelona but when the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, his personal life was devastated. Both his mother and sister were charged for being counter-revolutionaries and his brother-in-law was taken by republican forces. He eventually joined the republican army and through his military experience, he learned to realize that he immensely hated both totalitarianism and fascism. So when World War II began in 1939, Juan, who was now working as a hotel manager in Madrid, decided to quit and become a spy to stop the spread of fascism.
He approached the British embassy and offered his services as a spy but was immediately rejected. This didn’t faze Garcia though; mere rejection did not overpower his mass hatred for totalitarianism and fascism. After his rejection and posing as a Nazi, he offered his services to Germany to be a spy. By claiming he was in London and sending convincing false reports to Germany, he convinced the Nazi party that he was the head of a network of spies in Britain. In reality, Garcia was pretending to be 27 different Nazi spies. The Nazi party soon began funding and relying heavily on Garcia’s reports.
In 1942, Garcia approached the British officials again and gave them all the information he had on Germany. He soon began working for Britain. The day before D-day, Garcia commenced his magnum opus. On June 5, Garcia informed Germany that he would send out an urgent message on June 6 at 3 am. The German radio failed to access the message which contained accurate information about the Allies’ attack. The message was heard after the attack. Garcia allegedly scolded his German contacts for ignoring his report and soon gained credibility for his information. Garcia continued to give false reports to the Germans, with one of these false reports being a completely made-up invasion. One of the German generals began to doubt the existence of it and advised to relocate but the Commander-in-Chief overruled his proposal to move the German army.
Even with all his false reports, he was still trusted in the German army. He was given the Iron Cross by Hitler himself on July 29, 1944. This award was usually only dedicated to those found in the front lines. At the same time, he also was awarded the ‘Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.’
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