March 6, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, counterespionage - it's what's for winners! Defeating the Nazi menace would take more than strength and tactics. It required the Allies giving them lots of completely accurate Allied secrets, for years.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. Stephen Ambrose is
one of America's leading biographers and historians. Ambrose passed in
two thousand and two, but his epic storytelling accounts can
now be heard here at Our American Stories, thanks to
those who run his estate. On June sixth, nineteen forty four,
the largest invasion in military history occurred. It was D Day,
(00:33):
and some one hundred and fifty six thousand Allied soldiers
landed in Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe.
Here's Stephen Ambrose with a story about the spies who
set the stage for Operation Overlord.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The Allies knew that the Germans regard of Patent as
the best officer in the Allied camp, and if they
were certain Patent would lead the attack on France, that
was a judgment with which George S. Patten Junior heartily agreed.
He certainly thought of himself as the best general the
Allies had. In some ways he was, but not at all.
(01:13):
And Eisenhawer thought for the set piece battle that was
going to be D Day, Bradley was superior, and Eisenower
had put Bradley in command of the American forces for
D Day, but he used the German perception of patent
to put Patent in command of this fictitious army group. Now,
how do you build a fictitious army group? One way
(01:34):
was to assign divisions to it that wouldn't be coming
into France until later. They weren't scheduled for the first
day or even the first week. Another way was to
just invent divisions for the Germans edification. Germany had a
string of spies in England who they thought were the
(01:54):
best spies in the world. They did not realize that
every single one of those spies had been turned by
the British Secret Service, and that they were now working
as they poundered away on their Morris code tap tap
tap to send the messages over to their controller in Hamburg,
that there was a British officer sitting beside him, literally
with a gun at their head, sending the messages that
(02:17):
the British told them to send. The most important of
these agents, there were a couple of dozen of them.
The most important was his code name was Garbo. Garbo
was not an ideolog. He wasn't in this because he
hated Nazism or anything like that. Garbo was after the money.
And when he was parachuted into England, as he was
(02:37):
a Spaniard to work for the Germans, he was picked up.
Thanks to the Enigma, the British always knew when these
guys were arriving, picked up and given a choice, and
he took the obvious choice rather than die sure, I'll
work for you guys. Garbo became the German's favorite spy.
(03:00):
He sent messages out for three and a half years
and he never lied. Every single piece of information that
Garbol sent to Hamburg was authentic. This was a very delicate,
very tricky game the British would send on information. It
had to have a number of qualities to it. It
had to impress the Germans Jiz, he must be a
(03:21):
hell of a spy to have found that out. It
always absolutely had to be accurate. It always had to
arrive just a little bit too late to make any difference.
And for three and a half years these messages went
out and Garbo's reputation went up and up and up
with the ab there to the point that the British
(03:41):
Secret Service in the Second World War paid its bills
with German gold. Because Garbo had convinced his controllers that
he had dozens of sub agents working for him, and
they were all in it for the money, and they
were always asking for more money. So Garbo was always
asking for more, more money. And the Germans would arrange
(04:02):
to ship gold bars via Spain into Portugal and from
Portugal to England. And that's how the Bridge Secret Service
paid their bills during the war with German gold. Now
as the Bridge displayed remarkable patients here, that was a
bad first three and a half years of war for them,
(04:23):
But they never utilized this asset of these turned spies,
the double cross system they called it, until the spring
of forty four, and then they sprang the trap. Garbo
and the other agents in England started sending messages to
the Adverta saying things like I saw a softball game
yesterday outside Dover between men who were wearing the patch
(04:44):
of a new division, the one hundred and thirty first
Infantry Division, and men were from another new division, one
hundred and twenty ninth. There were any such divisions, they
were entirely fictitious. Through that method, the Allies and Operation
Fortitude were able to build up in the German mind
(05:04):
a reading of Eisenhower's order of battle, the credited Ike
with twice as many divisions as he actually had, three
times as much landing craft as he actually had, and
they reinforced this with again utilizing the movie set people
to have these paper mache tanks and these rubber tanks
and wooden airplanes all around Dover and Patten very much
(05:30):
in the spotlight. Patten dashed around southern England and eastern England,
making speeches, talking to troops, getting his name in the paper.
And they remember in Berlin they got the London papers
that night, because they went down to Portugal and they
went over to Ireland and from there they got back
over to Germany. So it was known that Patten was there,
(05:50):
was known that this great force was building up, and
the best part of the deception of all the Allies
that convinced the Germans that they were twice as strong
as they actually were. Eisenhower, by way of contrast, had
an almost exact reading on Romel's order of battle thanks
to the Ultra system and thanks to Allied control of
(06:11):
the air, which meant that the Allies could fly thousands
and thousands of reconnaissance missions and take tens of thousands
of photographs, while the Germans could sneak a plane through
every once in a while to take photographs of the
build up in England. The deception plan was fabulously successful.
The Germans kept building up their forces across from Dover
(06:34):
and the Potta Calae and in a relative sense, neglecting
their defenses down in Normandy.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And a terrific job on the editing by our own
Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Stephen Ambrose, whose
stories are here on account of the marvelous people who
run his estate. He passed in two thousand and two,
but his storytelling is still with us. And what a
story he told about the importance of spycraft, and my goodness,
(07:00):
the patience it required to develop confidence in this spy.
Over three and a half years, this Germans favored spy,
as Ambrose put at Garbo, always providing accurate intelligence, but
just a little too late, until finally, finally the great
deception could be had. The story of American spycraft in
(07:23):
World War Two. One great example here on our American Stories,
Liehabibe here, the host of our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
great country stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
(07:45):
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramerican Stories dot com and click the donate button. Give
a little, give a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and give
And we continue with our American Stories. Stephen Ambrose is
one of America's leading biographers and historians. Ambrose passed in
two thousand and two, but his epic storytelling accounts can
now be heard here at Our American Stories, thanks to
those who run his estate. On June sixth, nineteen forty four,
the largest invasion in military history occurred. It was D Day,
(00:33):
and some one hundred and fifty six thousand Allied soldiers
landed in Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe.
Here's Stephen Ambrose with a story about the spies who
set the stage for Operation Overlord.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The Allies knew that the Germans regard of Patent as
the best officer in the Allied camp, and if they
were certain Patent would lead the attack on France, that
was a judgment with which George S. Patten Junior heartily agreed.
He certainly thought of himself as the best general the
Allies had. In some ways he was, but not at all.
(01:13):
And Eisenhawer thought for the set piece battle that was
going to be D Day, Bradley was superior, and Eisenower
had put Bradley in command of the American forces for
D Day, but he used the German perception of patent
to put Patent in command of this fictitious army group. Now,
how do you build a fictitious army group? One way
(01:34):
was to assign divisions to it that wouldn't be coming
into France until later. They weren't scheduled for the first
day or even the first week. Another way was to
just invent divisions for the Germans edification. Germany had a
string of spies in England who they thought were the
(01:54):
best spies in the world. They did not realize that
every single one of those spies had been turned by
the British Secret Service, and that they were now working
as they poundered away on their Morris code tap tap
tap to send the messages over to their controller in Hamburg,
that there was a British officer sitting beside him, literally
with a gun at their head, sending the messages that
(02:17):
the British told them to send. The most important of
these agents, there were a couple of dozen of them.
The most important was his code name was Garbo. Garbo
was not an ideolog. He wasn't in this because he
hated Nazism or anything like that. Garbo was after the money.
And when he was parachuted into England, as he was
(02:37):
a Spaniard to work for the Germans, he was picked up.
Thanks to the Enigma, the British always knew when these
guys were arriving, picked up and given a choice, and
he took the obvious choice rather than die sure, I'll
work for you guys. Garbo became the German's favorite spy.
(03:00):
He sent messages out for three and a half years
and he never lied. Every single piece of information that
Garbol sent to Hamburg was authentic. This was a very delicate,
very tricky game the British would send on information. It
had to have a number of qualities to it. It
had to impress the Germans Jiz, he must be a
(03:21):
hell of a spy to have found that out. It
always absolutely had to be accurate. It always had to
arrive just a little bit too late to make any difference.
And for three and a half years these messages went
out and Garbo's reputation went up and up and up
with the ab there to the point that the British
(03:41):
Secret Service in the Second World War paid its bills
with German gold. Because Garbo had convinced his controllers that
he had dozens of sub agents working for him, and
they were all in it for the money, and they
were always asking for more money. So Garbo was always
asking for more, more money. And the Germans would arrange
(04:02):
to ship gold bars via Spain into Portugal and from
Portugal to England. And that's how the Bridge Secret Service
paid their bills during the war with German gold. Now
as the Bridge displayed remarkable patients here, that was a
bad first three and a half years of war for them,
(04:23):
But they never utilized this asset of these turned spies,
the double cross system they called it, until the spring
of forty four, and then they sprang the trap. Garbo
and the other agents in England started sending messages to
the Adverta saying things like I saw a softball game
yesterday outside Dover between men who were wearing the patch
(04:44):
of a new division, the one hundred and thirty first
Infantry Division, and men were from another new division, one
hundred and twenty ninth. There were any such divisions, they
were entirely fictitious. Through that method, the Allies and Operation
Fortitude were able to build up in the German mind
(05:04):
a reading of Eisenhower's order of battle, the credited Ike
with twice as many divisions as he actually had, three
times as much landing craft as he actually had, and
they reinforced this with again utilizing the movie set people
to have these paper mache tanks and these rubber tanks
and wooden airplanes all around Dover and Patten very much
(05:30):
in the spotlight. Patten dashed around southern England and eastern England,
making speeches, talking to troops, getting his name in the paper.
And they remember in Berlin they got the London papers
that night, because they went down to Portugal and they
went over to Ireland and from there they got back
over to Germany. So it was known that Patten was there,
(05:50):
was known that this great force was building up, and
the best part of the deception of all the Allies
that convinced the Germans that they were twice as strong
as they actually were. Eisenhower, by way of contrast, had
an almost exact reading on Romel's order of battle thanks
to the Ultra system and thanks to Allied control of
(06:11):
the air, which meant that the Allies could fly thousands
and thousands of reconnaissance missions and take tens of thousands
of photographs, while the Germans could sneak a plane through
every once in a while to take photographs of the
build up in England. The deception plan was fabulously successful.
The Germans kept building up their forces across from Dover
(06:34):
and the Potta Calae and in a relative sense, neglecting
their defenses down in Normandy.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And a terrific job on the editing by our own
Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Stephen Ambrose, whose
stories are here on account of the marvelous people who
run his estate. He passed in two thousand and two,
but his storytelling is still with us. And what a
story he told about the importance of spycraft, and my goodness,
(07:00):
the patience it required to develop confidence in this spy.
Over three and a half years, this Germans favored spy,
as Ambrose put at Garbo, always providing accurate intelligence, but
just a little too late, until finally, finally the great
deception could be had. The story of American spycraft in
(07:23):
World War Two. One great example here on our American Stories,
Liehabibe here, the host of our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this
great country stories from our big cities and small towns.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
(07:45):
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramerican Stories dot com and click the donate button. Give
a little, give a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and give
Host
Lee Habeeb
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