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

1. A Spy Rides Off Into the Sunset

The Allies took advantage of the breather afforded them by the success of the Operation Bodyguard and Operation Fortitude deceptions to build a powerful beachhead in Normandy. From there, they eventually broke out to liberate France and Western Europe. After Paris was freed from the Nazi yoke, Dusko Popov was sent to the French capital to help establish a British intelligence network. When Yugoslavia turned communist after the war, there was no future for the playboy Popov back in his home country, so he decided to stay put in the West.

Popov was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his wartime exploits – a nice accompaniment to the medals given him by the Germans during the conflict – and eventually became a British citizen. He prospered as a businessman and had no intention to reveal his wartime activities. In 1972, however, John Masterman published The Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, a deep dive into British wartime intelligence. That convinced Popov to write up his own account, and in 1974 his autobiography, titled Spy Counter-Spy, was published. A playboy to the end, he died in 1981, after years of heavy smoking and drinking, and many, many, women.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Cook, Andrew – On His Majesty’s Service: The True Story of Sidney Reilly, Ace of Spies (2002)

Encyclopedia Britannica – Benjamin Tallmadge: American Continental Army Officer

Encyclopedia Britannica – George Sidney Reilly

Encyclopedia Britannica – Karl Schulmeister

History Collection – These Well-Known People Were Also Spies or Intelligence Agents

Lockhart, Robert Bruce – Ace of Spies (1967)

Loftis, Larry – Into the Lion’s Den: The True Story of Dusko Popov, World War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration For James Bond (2016)

Macintyre, Ben – Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies (2012)

Madeira, Victor – Britannia and the Bear: The Anglo-Russian Intelligence Wars, 1917-1929 (2014)

Maude, Frederic Natusch – The Ulm Campaign, 1805 (1912)

Misencik, Paul R. – The Original American Spies: Seven Covert Agents of the Revolutionary War (2013)

New England Historical Society – A Spy For a Spy: John Andre Hanged

New York Times, December 15^th, 1985 – Remembering a Master Spy at Home

Popov, Dusko – Spy Counter-Spy (1974)

History Collection – 8 True-Life Spy Stories Beyond Any Imagination

Rose, Alexander – Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s first Spy Ring (2007)

Rowan, Richard Wilmer – The Story of Secret Service

Russell, Miller – Codename Tricycle: The True Story of the Second World War’s Most Extraordinary Double Agent (2014)

Study dot Com – The Role of New York in the American Revolution