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A Memorable History of Deception and Spy Capers

Khalid Elhassan June 7, 2020 34 min

Operation Mincemeat - World War II — Items recovered from Major Martin and his briefcase. BBC

26. Fortune’s Favorite

Popov was born into a wealthy Serbian family. His grandfather was a rich banker who owned factories, mines, and retail establishments, and his father increased the family wealth by adding real estate to its investment portfolio. Popov, an avid outdoorsman and athlete since childhood, thus grew up in the lap of luxury, attended by servants in the family’s numerous villas, or while sailing the seas in one of the family’s numerous yachts.

Popov became a playboy at an early age. His father built his kids a huge seaside villa, and gave them generous allowances that allowed them to host lavish parties. However, Popov’s father did not simply spoil his kids rotten: he ensured that they get a top-notch education. Thus, by the time Popov was a teenager he was fluent in French, German, and Italian, in addition to his native Serbian. Those linguistic skills came in handy when he walked the roads of deception in WWII.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.