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The Ace of Spies and Other Significant Espionage Figures

Khalid Elhassan December 20, 2019 33 min

Detective - Mystery — Throughout history, spies have aroused mixed feelings of fear, loathing, and admiration. Mixed Matches

9. The Double Cross Pays Off

Juan Pujol’s carefully crafted lies, coupled with other Allied deception measures whereby a fictional First US Army Group, under the command of George Patton, was massed across the English Channel opposite the Pas de Calais, worked. The Germans were convinced during the crucial weeks of June, 1944, to keep powerful formations in that region, rather than rush them to Normandy to help destroy the vulnerable Allied beachhead.

By the time the Pas de Calais formations were finally released, it was too late. The Allies had amassed sufficient forces in Normandy to not only defeat German attacks, but to then go on the offensive, break out of the beachhead, and sweep across and liberate France within a few months.

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.