Garbo

At The Cinema                            Garbo “ Like many of you, uh - senior agents,  I have immersed myself in WWII history. Like oil from a sunken freighter,  there's a seemingly endless supply of new stuff seeping out.   New to me, anyway.  For some time NetFlix has been pushing the film "Garbo" on me. I really enjoyed "Garbo Talks," and I love biographies, so today I queued it up.  This Garbo, however, turned out to be one Juan Pujol Garcia.. This Spaniard, and a double agent during WWII,  more than anyone else  allowed the Normandy invasion to be carried off properly.  A real pistol. Early on he went to the British embassy in Madrid and offered his services, in any capacity.  He was turned down.  So, he went to the Germans and told them he had ties in Britain, and offered his services to them.  They took him up on it.  Garcia (later named Garbo by the Brits, because he was the best actor they'd ever seen) set about setting up a network of spies all over Europe, and passing info to the Abwher (Nazi intelligence).  Except, all it was made up.  Everything.  He told them he was in London, but he'd never set foot in England, and was instead living in some Spanish fishing village, inventing  the agents, the information- all of it.  The Germans bought into it lock stock and barrel.  He tried three more times to work for the Allies, telling them that he was a trusted German spy, but was turned away.  What finally made them sit up and take notice was a false report he sent the Germans about a massive convoy launched from England to break the siege of Malta. The Germans countered with a huge convoy to intercept this non-existent armada and,  finally, the Brits thought, holy crap!  This guy could be useful.  It made me giggle like a school girl to watch how this played out.  The money the Germans payed him actually funded British intelligence during the war.  I love happy endings. ”