They called it Operation Fortitude. A plan so audacious, so brilliantly deceptive, it changed the course of World War II… But few know the mastermind behind it all.
He was a Serbian lawyer, a charming businessman… and the most successful spy of the 20th century.
They called him Tricycle. He walked a tightrope between two worlds, betraying the Nazis while secretly working for British Intelligence. He played both sides, feeding them lies and truths, all while risking his life every single day.
But how did he do it? And what secrets did he take to his grave? Today, we uncover the untold story of Duško Popov – the man who single-handedly fooled Hitler… and may have saved the world.
This is the story of Duško Popov, the real life James Bond.
A SPY IS BORN
Dušan "Duško" Popov, born in 1912 in what is now Serbia, The son of a Yugoslav father and a German mother
He enjoyed a privileged upbringing. Details about his early life are somewhat scarce in readily available public sources, but it's known he received a solid education and pursued a career in law and business.
His cosmopolitan lifestyle and fluency in multiple languages, including German, made him a natural networker. It was this network and his sophisticated demeanor that caught the attention of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, who recruited him in 1940.
Initially, his tasks involved gathering information on Allied activities, primarily from Portugal, a neutral country at the time. This allowed him to travel freely and interact with various intelligence networks. His charm and sophisticated demeanor helped him gain the trust of German officials.
His mission from the Abwehr was to bring back a laundry list of data about American military defenses and industrial capacity.
However, Popov's personal beliefs and growing opposition to Nazism. Popov had despised Hitler even before the Germans invaded Yugoslavia.
Just a couple of years after joining the Germans, he decided to take the riskiest decision to make at that time. Which is to play for the opposition team. The MI6.
He offered his services as a double agent. This pivotal decision transformed him from a seemingly willing collaborator into a key player in the Allied war effort, using his access to German intelligence to feed misinformation and gather crucial information for the Allies.
His first mission from the British was to tip off the Americans about Japan’s sinister interest in Pearl Harbor. This is when Popov met his first big challenge.
PEARL HARBOR
On March 18, 1941, an accident took place in the crowded streets of New York’s Times Square. Normally an accident like this would not make news. After all, such things happen frequently. This incident, however, was different.
The victim, while lying on the ground, was then run over by a second vehicle, which sped away. The man died the next day in a New York hospital.
In his possession was a Spanish passport in the name of Don Julio Lopez Lido. New York police officers traced the man to the Taft Hotel in New York City.
Upon searching his room, they were shocked to find secret documents, including a report on the defenses of the U.S. Army base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and nearby Hickam Field.
This information was then turned over to the FBI. After a thorough investigation, Don Julio Lopez Lido was identified as Ulrich von der Osten, a top member of Germany’s military intelligence service, the Abwehr, who had been sent to the United States to set up a spy ring.
Unknown to the FBI was that the death of Ulrich von der Osten would lead to another spy case involving Great Britain, the United States, and Germany. It would also involve two of the most influential spymasters in the United States :
William Donovan, who would later become director of the Office of Strategic Services : the forerunner of CIA,
and J. Edgar Hoover : director of the FBI,
as well as the super-secret British XX Committee
At the center of this international spy game was Dusko Popov
With the death of van der Osten in New York in March 1941, the Abwehr decided that Popov should be sent to the United States to fill the important vacancy.
That decision by the leadership of the Abwehr was a boon for Popov and an intelligence disaster for the Germans.
Popov left for the United States in early August 1941. He carried with him $58,000 provided by the Abwehr to set up his New York espionage network.
First, he had to make a small side trip to the posh casinos in Estoril. As the dashing Popov gambled at the roulette tables and made a killing using his Nazi-provided funds,
a man stood only a few feet from him, watching his every move. That man proved to be Commander Ian Fleming of the British Naval Intelligence Service, who had been dispatched by MI-6 to watch Popov’s every move.
When Fleming created his famous fictional spy, James Bond, Agent 007, it is widely believed that he used Popov as his basis for the character. He also included a scene very much like that of Popov at the Estoril casino in his book Casino Royale.
Popov arrived in the United States on August 12, 1941.
After checking through immigration, he took a cab to the posh Waldorf Astoria Hotel, overlooking Park Avenue in New York City.
Just before he left for the United States, 29-year-old Popov had been given a vital, new piece of spy paraphernalia by the Abwehr.
It was a list of questions written on a microdot that would allow pages of information to be reduced to the size of a pinhead. The microdot was affixed to a telegram, which Popov kept on his person.
Once in New York, Popov contacted the FBI and asked that someone come to meet with him.
To his disappointment, he had to wait five long days until the Bureau responded. He was finally met by Agent James Foxworth, who was the FBI’s bureau chief in New York. Popov handed over the microdot.
As Agent Foxworth began to read its contents, he knew he had something important. The paper contained a list of questions that the Germans wanted answered for their allies, the Japanese.
Among the queries were information on American defenses at the giant naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, including the exact locations of the airbases at Hickam, Wheeler, and Kaneohe airfields, sketches of Pearl Harbor, the depths of the water inside the harbor, and the number and locations of any anti torpedo nets.
If FBI personnel had been paying any attention, they would have noticed that the material carried by Popov was the same as that found in the room of German agent Ulrich van der Osten only five months before.
Foxworth gave Popov’s questionnaire to Hoover, who did not trust Popov, believing that he was still working for the Germans. Another strike against Popov was his playboy lifestyle.
He was a flagrant womanizer who had engaged in numerous affairs, including one with French actress Simone Simon and her mother.
Some said that the nickname tricycle was inspired by his passion for the company of two women at a time : if you know what I mean.
Popov’s every move was watched closely by the FBI, The Abwehr, too, was beginning to have second thoughts about its prize agent, becoming suspicious that he might have been “turned.” But each time the Germans start questioning his loyalty he would send false intel to quiet them down.
Popov transferred the Pearl Harbor intelligence to the FBI under orders from the British MI-6. Popov now would become a pawn in the looming intelligence battle between FBI Director Hoover and his nemesis, William Donovan.
Hoover distrusted the British and their secret relationship with Donovan, and the fact that they were “loaning” Popov to the United States rankled him greatly.
When Hoover received Popov’s Pearl Harbor questionnaire, he did a curious thing.
Instead of handing it over to Bill Donovan, or more importantly, to FDR, Hoover doctored the questions, gave nothing to Donovan, and omitted the Pearl Harbor queries when he finally sent the questionnaire to the White House.
In late November 1941, under the ever watchful eye of the FBI, Popov received orders from the Abwehr, sending him to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
December 7, 1941. Japanese warplanes screamed from the sky, unleashing a fiery hell upon Pearl Harbor. Within minutes, battleships became burning tombs as thousands of American lives were lost in a surprise attack that plunged the nation into war. And all of this could’ve been avoided, if Bill Donovan had taken Popov’s intel seriously.
But the story is far from over. As Popov ultimately managed to change the course of history.
Popov returned to the United States one week after the pearl harbor attack. He was furious with the way he had been treated by the FBI and wondered why the Americans had not taken his warnings seriously.
To cut any further losses concerning Popov, the British decided he should be returned to London as soon as possible.
But that would be difficult to accomplish without blowing his cover with the Germans and possibly getting him killed.
Popov left New York and arrived in Lisbon, Portugal. He meant to meet with Ludovico von Karsthoff: his Abwehr controller.
Popov truly believed he got burned. And he was going to get into a room and never make it back.
But oddly, things went normal. Not just normal but great. Popov took a big chance and berated von Karsthoff for not providing him with the necessary funds he needed to set up his espionage network in the U.S.
and brazenly told him that he was resigning from any further work for the Abwehr.
I’m pretty sure this was the most effective form of gaslighting ever.
Karsthoff told Popov to lay low until further instructions. And in 1943, he returned to Britain. Things were about to get serious.
Faced with the 2 million German soldiers present in France, the Allies knew they would quickly be outnumbered.
The Battle of Normandy was doomed to fail. Unless.. Somehow the German command thought that there would be, later, in another place, another invasion.
For example, in the Pas-de-Calais, closer to the English coast and conducive to an offensive that would directly reach Germany. Even though the Normandy landings were the only ones planned by the Allies, it was necessary to persuade the Wehrmacht's general staff that the attack on June 6th was a diversion hiding a second landing.
This is when a risky deception operation had to be made. And this was when Dusko Popov’s skills came into play.
Popov was well aware that this operation was almost impossible to pull off on his own. He needed help. Other double agents. Among them was Eddie Chapman, a former safecracker and Elvira Chaudoir, daughter of a French diplomat.
The whole operation needed to be executed in two stages.
-The first phase was Operation Fortitude North Fortitude North: This aimed to convince the Germans that the Allies would invade Norway.
Popov and company used detectable fake radio conversations to make it appear that Norway was on the allies radar.
As Popov anticipated, the Germans swallowed the bait. It was then time for the second and most difficult phase of the plan. Fortitude North.
Popov and his crew suggested that the allies needed to create a fake army.
Something that was never tried before. The Army would be called First United States Army Group (FUSAG), which clearly didn’t exist.
They used inflatable tanks, dummy aircraft, and fake radio transmissions to make it seem like a large force was preparing for an invasion in England.
This made the allies' troops appear to be larger than they actually were. A crucial step for the next part of the plan : misinformation.
Popov and his crew of double agents kept feeding the Germans false information about the allies intention to invade Pas-de-Calais rather than Normandy.
Karsthoff doubted the integrity of the information, but those who received it in Berlin did not.
The date is June 6 1944 also known as D-day. Following the fake army operation and the misinformation regarding the allies intentions to attack Pas de Calais, the germans moved a large sum of their fleets to the supposed location.
The plan worked. The same day the allies made the infamous normandy landings
This monumental event marked the beginning of the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.
The massive amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy resulted in thousands of Nazi casualties.
An operation that ignited the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.
After the smoke cleared from World War II, Popov traded the shadows of espionage for the world of business, embracing British citizenship and a new chapter.
The man who knew too much, and whose warnings were ignored, left behind a legacy of both heroism and haunting what-ifs.
He talked about many of his adventures in his 1974 autobiography.