Garbo & The Ghost Spies of WWII

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2022

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

When the Allied forces hit the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, in June of 1944, everyone was well aware of the importance of success. Gaining a foothold on the beaches was the first step in the liberation of France, placing a force on the ground that would go on to steamroll to Berlin, ending the war outright. The plan was vast. multi-faceted and was as audacious as it was complicated, hinging on the cooperation of every level of the joint military system. Included in this system was a man named Garbo, a man who, squirrelled away in a London office, not only had the job of convincing the Nazis that the invasion force didn’t exist but of also conjuring an entirely fictional force one million strong from thin air and presenting them as living and breathing, flesh and blood. Of course, one man could not hope to do such a thing alone, fortunately, Garbo had 27 spies under his command to help him. That was the story as far as the Nazis were concerned at least. In truth, Garbo's agents were only as real as the stories that he, himself created for them. Out of sight, in his small office, Garbo weaved a cast of characters into a plausible tapestry of espionage that, even years after the war had ended and the truth was out, many of the people involved struggled to believe. SOURCES Talty, Stephen (2012) Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, eccentric secret agent who tricked Hitler and saved D-Day. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, USA. West, Nigel & Pujol, Jean (1985) Operation GARBO: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Double Agent of World War II. Random House, London, UK. Liverpool Daily News (1942) Deaths. Liverpool Daily News, 24 Nov. 1942, p.4. Liverpool, UK. ---------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When the Allied forces hit the Beechs of Normandy on D-Day in June of 1944,
0:06.1	Ephraim was well aware of the importance of success.
0:09.1	Gaining a foothold on the Beechs was the first step in the liberation of France, placing
0:14.1	a force on the ground that would go on to steam rail to Berlin, end in the war outright.
0:19.3	The plan was vast, multifaceted, and was as audacious as it was complicated, hinging
0:24.6	on the cooperation of every level of the joint military system.
0:29.0	It was a man named Garbo, a man who squirreled away in a London office, not only had the job
0:36.8	of convincing the Nazis that the invasion force didn't exist, but of also conjuring an entirely
0:43.1	fictional force, one million strong, from thin air and presenting them as living, breathing,
0:48.7	flesh and blood.
0:49.7	Of course, one man could not hope to do such a thing alone.
0:54.0	Unfortunately, Garbo had 27 spies under his command to help him.
0:59.1	That was the story as far as the Nazis were concerned at least.
1:02.3	In truth, Garbo's agents were only as real as the stories that he himself crazyed for
1:08.0	them.
1:09.0	Out of sight in his small office, Garbo weaved a cast of characters into a plausible tapestry
1:14.3	of espionage that, even years after the war had ended and the truth was out, many of the
1:18.8	people involved still struggled to believe.
1:22.1	This is Dark History's, where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:29.9	Hello and welcome to Dark History's season six episode seven.
1:33.4	I've been the host as always, and it's good to be back.
1:36.5	It's good to be at the microphone again for the second time this week.
	...

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