First of all, their main job was to get false information to Adolf Hitler — rather than to steal Nazi secrets.
And, secondly, some of these spies didn’t actually exist — they were completely made-up creations of British intelligence.
But World War II would see a dramatic expansion of the offensive use of counterspies — not simply to prevent the enemy from knowing things but to actively deceive the enemy by planting disinformation.
I also met the man who came up with the D-Day deception, Roger Fleetwood Hesketh, who was a trained architect.
He told me that for the D-Day deception, codenamed Fortitude South, he had drawn on different talents.
Persons:
Tim Naftali, Adolf Hitler —, didn’t, Counterespionage, —, Juan Pujol García, Garbo, Greta Garbo, ” —, Juan Pujol Garcia, Keith Waldegrave, ANL, ”, George Patton, Hitler, ” Hitler, Roger Fleetwood Hesketh, Alan Turing, counterspies, Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby, ’, Oleg Gordievsky, counterespionage, Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, Hanssen, Ames, Mikhail Gorbachev
Organizations:
CNN, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Tim Naftali New York University, Allied, Nazi, Army, Pas des Calais, Facebook, Strategic Services, German Wehrmacht, US National Archives, British, Soviets, US, Soviet Union, USSR
Locations:
France, Pas des, Pas des Calais —, Belgium, British, Berlin, Spanish, United Kingdom, Britain, Buckingham, Calais, Normandy, Tokyo, German, England, Liverpool, Europe, counterespionage, USSR, London, Washington, America, Soviet, Soviet Union