How a Nerdy Double Agent Fooled Hitler

Juan Pujol Garcia didn’t look much like a secret agent. “He was no James Bond—he was a balding, boring, unsmiling little man,” one former associate says. Yet his double-agent exploits helped end World War II. A new document, published yesterday for the first time by the BBC, shows that the Nazis bought hook, line, and sinker into counterintelligence Garcia delivered indicating that the Normandy invasion was a mere diversion for a larger attack headed for Pas de Calais.

The Nazis kept valuable forces at Pas de Calais, and hence away from Normandy. Perhaps even more critical for the allies was that they knew their ruse had worked, thanks to an intercepted communiqué deciphered by Polish code breakers. It’s that critical memo that’s just been uncovered; volunteers found it while rooting through old archives “It was like turning up a crock of gold,” says one volunteer. “It was absolutely wonderful.” (More World War II stories.)