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The Spy Who Led an Army to its Doom With Fake Newspapers and Letters

Khalid Elhassan December 5, 2021 37 min

The execution of captured American spy Nathan Hale. Painting and Frame

Spy Facts - Dusko Popov and a friend — Dusko Popov and a friend. Tricurioso

4. The Serb Spy and the D-Day Deceptions

Eventually, Dusko Popov’s relationship with the FBI grew toxic, and as J. Edgar Hoover stewed over the double agent’s antics, things threatened to get worse. So British intelligence recalled their spy to London, where he continued to feed the Abwehr false information. His biggest contribution to the eventual downfall of the Nazis came in the intricate Allied deception plans, collectively known as Operation Bodyguard. Their ultimate aim was to mislead the Germans about the planned invasion of France, scheduled for the summer of 1944.

Operation Bodyguard had three goals. First, conceal the actual date and time of the invasion. Second, convince the Germans after the Allies landed in Normandy that those landings were just diversions intended to juke the Germans out of the Pas de Calais, where the real Allied invasion would land soon thereafter. Third, convince the Germans after the Normandy landings to maintain a strong defense in the Pas de Calais for at least two weeks, rather than send its defenders to reinforce Normandy. Popov played a key role in a sub-plan of Bodyguard, known as Operation Fortitude, which revolved around a fictitious First US Army Group (FUSAG) in southeast England under the command of General George S. Patton.

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.