Juan Pujol Garcia – The Fake World War II Secret Service Agent

A lot of peculiar things happen during wartime.  One such story is of a man by the name of Juan Pujol Garcia who wanted so badly to become a British double agent that he faked it.  What makes his story so compelling is he was so good at faking his espionage abilities that he became a very real double agent who made a tremendous impact for the Allied side during the D-Day invasion.

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Espionage of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE)

On July 19, 1940, the branch of the British military that was devoted to clandestine operations, espionage and sabotage that was necessary to fight the Axis powers in World War II established the British Special Operations Executive or SOE for short.  Agents of the SOE were important in executing a wide variety of spy activity against the enemy including destruction of bridges and other important German military infrastructure and directing the destruction of factories and military installations needed to support the war for the Germans.

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M I 5 Used Spies to Hunt Down Spies

It is no doubt because of the tremendous popularity of the James Bond stories that “Her Majesties Secret Service” has become well known.  Many covert agencies have developed a tremendous legend and mystic including the CIA and the secret service of the United States.  Throughout World War II, these exceptional agencies of spies made a big difference in the outcome of the war by working together.

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Operation Mincemeat – How a Dead Secret Agent Made the Invasion of Sicily Possible

Allied intelligence strategists during World War II began to plan the invasion of Europe toward the end of the North Africa campaign.  The first strategic initiative of this next big phase of the way was to neutralize the German defenses in the island of Sicily.  This was no small task because the island was difficult to approach the Germans were well entrenched on the island so it was well defended by land, sea and air.

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Breaking the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park

Of the many top secret operations conducted by secret service agents in World War II, there is no doubt that the breaking of the German Enigma code was the one that gave the Allies the greatest strategic advantage in the war.  But the task of finally decoding this highly complex system was not without a lot of effort of the finest minds that could be put against the task.  It was a massive operation at times requiring the services of over 500 people all working in absolute secrecy at Bletchley Park in Great Britain.

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