0:00:03 > 0:00:08On a spring morning in 1944, a glamorous young woman,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10dressed to kill and wearing too much make-up,
0:00:10 > 0:00:13cycled through the country lanes of southern England
0:00:13 > 0:00:17on a mission from her German spymaster.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Her mission was to report on the build up of Allied forces
0:00:22 > 0:00:25for the coming invasion of Europe - D-Day.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30She was building a detailed picture
0:00:30 > 0:00:32that, in the hands of the enemy,
0:00:32 > 0:00:38could destroy the Allied chances of a successful assault on occupied France.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Her German spymaster was delighted with her reports,
0:00:41 > 0:00:46congratulating her on her sterling work for the Third Reich.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50In fact, this German spy was not what she seemed.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Every word she sent was false.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55ENIGMA MACHINE BEEPS AND WHIRRS
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Her lies were part of a web of espionage that drove
0:00:59 > 0:01:03the biggest deception in military history...
0:01:03 > 0:01:06and helped ensure Allied victory on the beaches of Normandy.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13A complete web of military fiction was created.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15There were events which never took place.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22I went a few dozen times to meet the Germans.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26I never felt absolutely certain that I shall come back.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32He was really entering the lion's den.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34He could've been betrayed at any time.
0:01:34 > 0:01:35PLANE ENGINE DRONES
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I think it was overwhelmingly exciting,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40because you were playing with fire.
0:01:53 > 0:01:59On the morning of June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops
0:01:59 > 0:02:05stormed the beaches of Normandy and broke into Nazi-occupied France.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Today, we think of D-Day as a great military victory.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19But it was not just the heroic action of the brave soldiers that won the day.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24Alongside the Allied troops that day, was another unseen force.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27They fought not with guns, bombs and bullets,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29but with subterfuge and stealth,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34and a web of espionage spun from 1,000 little lies.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41Five spies whose mission was to do nothing less than invade and control
0:02:41 > 0:02:45the mind of the man at the very top of the Third Reich...
0:02:47 > 0:02:48..Adolf Hitler.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Each of them had begun their careers working for the Germans,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01but their stories would culminate in a tale of triumph and tragedy
0:03:01 > 0:03:04that nobody would've believed at the time,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06and barely seems believable now.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Throughout the war, Hitler believed he had a fully-functioning,
0:03:24 > 0:03:29highly efficient network of spies reporting on the British war effort.
0:03:29 > 0:03:35In fact, every one of those spies was acting as a double agent under British control.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Not some, not most, but ALL of them.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46Since the breaking of the German Enigma code in 1940,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50the British had been able to decipher German radio traffic.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54And that included spy traffic.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Information that would allow them to know when and where every spy
0:03:59 > 0:04:03sent by Hitler was due to arrive in Britain.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06The penalty for spying was death.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10But there was another option.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14The majority of agents gave themselves up
0:04:14 > 0:04:18or reported immediately, because they wanted to work for us.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21And so it seemed sensible when we got an agent
0:04:21 > 0:04:25to at least pretend that he was operating freely.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28And this opened the possibility of using them for deception.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38Those who chose to work against the Fuhrer now came under the control
0:04:38 > 0:04:41of department B1A -
0:04:41 > 0:04:45the division of MI5 responsible for running double agents.
0:04:46 > 0:04:52The unit's presiding genius was Lt Col Thomas Argyll Robertson,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56known to his friends by his initials - Tar.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02His nickname was Passion Pants, on account of his tartan trousers and flirtatious manner.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05He was a natural gambler with a ruthless streak
0:05:05 > 0:05:11and an uncanny knack for seeing into darker corners of the human mind.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20We were able to tell when an agent was coming over
0:05:20 > 0:05:24and was being prepared to be sent to this country as a spy.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27- So that you could welcome him? - So that we could welcome him,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30which we did in no uncertain terms, I can assure you. We generally knew
0:05:30 > 0:05:33when he was going to arrive and where he was going to arrive.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37He was a lovely man. He was frightfully good-looking.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41He sauntered into the office in his tartan trews,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45and was always very friendly with everybody,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and had a great sparkle in his eye.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55I don't think he was a scholar, particularly,
0:05:55 > 0:06:00but I think he had the certain sort of special brain that was able to
0:06:00 > 0:06:04see round corners and invent things
0:06:04 > 0:06:10that would become believable if they were put across in a certain way.
0:06:10 > 0:06:17Tar Robertson planned espionage with the top-secret Twenty, or double-cross, Committee.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21Churchill himself had assembled this group of men who could see around corners,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26because he knew that Hitler and his military tended to think in straight lines.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29The Germans' ruthless efficiency
0:06:29 > 0:06:32made them more vulnerable to deception.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37They were so proud of the fact that they'd got these agents in this country.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Therefore, they're sort of more gullible.
0:06:41 > 0:06:48The Twenty Committee now planned to gamble this pack of double agents on one great deception.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Even if this meant they could never be used again.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55D-Day was that opportunity.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Hitler's war had become the bloodiest in history.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12The Holocaust was a raging and millions were dying in Russia
0:07:12 > 0:07:13and on the Eastern Front.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19The Allied commanders knew that the war could only be won
0:07:19 > 0:07:24by invading France and driving the Germans all the way back to Berlin.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29But Hitler had constructed a zone of death to defend the coast,
0:07:29 > 0:07:30the Atlantic Wall.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34And his forces greatly outnumbered the Allies.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39Churchill knew he couldn't win by brute strength alone.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Everyone knew the invasion was coming.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45The vital question was where.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Hitler believed an attack would come in Calais,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53the nearest French port to Britain.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57And here, he massed a huge defensive force.
0:07:57 > 0:07:58It was the obvious target
0:07:58 > 0:08:02and therefore the British decided not to attack it.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Normandy was further away, but it had gently sloping beaches,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12ideal for landing thousands of troops.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15It was also less heavily defended than Calais.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21But for the invasion to succeed,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25the Allies had to ensure that the huge numbers of German troops
0:08:25 > 0:08:28around Calais stayed where they were.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Because if they moved south and reinforced Normandy,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35the breakthrough would not happen.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38And D-Day might end in a bloodbath.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46At Tehran in November 1943, the Allied leaders secretly agreed
0:08:46 > 0:08:50that Normandy would be the invasion target.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Churchill turned to Stalin and remarked,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55"The truth is so precious,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59"she must be protected by a bodyguard of lies."
0:08:59 > 0:09:01Thus was born the codename
0:09:01 > 0:09:05for the great D-Day deception, Operation Bodyguard.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09And Tar's spies would form the bodyguard of lies
0:09:09 > 0:09:13to protect the Normandy invasion.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16It did occur to me we could give them true information
0:09:16 > 0:09:20laced with a certain amount of false information
0:09:20 > 0:09:24and we were also able to build that up and introduce
0:09:24 > 0:09:29a certain amount of strategic deception.
0:09:29 > 0:09:30With his team of double agents,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Tar Robertson now went on the offensive.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37He realised he could take Hitler's prized espionage weapons
0:09:37 > 0:09:39and use them against him.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44From his stable of double agents, Tar had selected the five spies
0:09:44 > 0:09:48he knew were most trusted by the Germans.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53They would each deliver to Hitler separate pieces of the jigsaw
0:09:53 > 0:09:56to create the picture they wanted him to see,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00an imminent attack on Calais of epic proportions.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05If Robertson's gamble paid off, the prize was victory.
0:10:05 > 0:10:11But if it failed and the plot was rumbled, then disaster loomed.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21If just one of his double agents should prove a triple agent then,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23instead of deceiving the Germans,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Robertson would be leading the enemy to the truth
0:10:27 > 0:10:31and sending thousands of Allied troops to their deaths.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40In February 1944, the arch gambler Churchill gave the go-ahead.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45With three months to go until D-Day, the quintet went to war.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48One of Tar Robertson's intelligence officers observed,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51"I can't believe we'll ever get away with it."
0:10:58 > 0:11:03First out on the road was Agent Treasure.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10Her job was to cycle from town to town, collecting chickenfeed,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14a mixture of truths, half-truths and downright lies
0:11:14 > 0:11:19delivered piecemeal to her German spymaster.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22I transmit a hodgepodge of badges, vehicles, tanks, planes
0:11:22 > 0:11:25and airfields, garnished with conversations overheard,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29from which the Germans cannot fail to derive the correct conclusions.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37Her name was Lily Sergeyev. A Frenchwoman of Russian origin,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42her story begins two years earlier in a Paris cafe.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46As always, she was beautifully dressed
0:11:46 > 0:11:50and accompanied by her beloved pet, a terrier called Babs.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Facing her was Major Emil Kliemann,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58a senior officer in German military intelligence.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Vain and excitable, Kliemann was enchanted by Lily.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05She told him she wanted to spy for Germany
0:12:05 > 0:12:09and when he asked her why, her answer was enigmatic.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13"I could tell you that I love Germany or I hate the British,
0:12:13 > 0:12:14"but if I was here to spy on you,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17"do you think my answer would be any different?"
0:12:19 > 0:12:22Kliemann was intrigued and gave her the job.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26He would send her to spy in Britain, travelling via neutral Spain.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30But if he had read the diary she was secretly keeping,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34Kliemann would have discovered that she was an unstable woman
0:12:34 > 0:12:37whose only loyalty was to her pet dog.
0:12:40 > 0:12:46LILY: Babs lifts up his shaggy truffle-like nose and looks at me enquiringly.
0:12:46 > 0:12:47And I say in his pink ear,
0:12:47 > 0:12:53"It's a grand game but if we lose, we lose our lives."
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Once in Madrid, Lily knocked on the door of the British Embassy
0:12:59 > 0:13:04and immediately offered her services to the Allies as a spy.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09She claimed her hold over Kliemann would make her an ideal double agent
0:13:09 > 0:13:12once she got to Britain.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18But there was a catch. Treasure insisted that Babs must come too.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24LILY: You probably think I'm ridiculous. To you, it's just a dog.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29But to me, it's Babs. And worth more than £1 million.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33The demand ran slap into one of the most cherished institutions
0:13:33 > 0:13:37of British bureaucracy, the quarantine laws.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Babs would have to stay behind.
0:13:41 > 0:13:47Lily threw a tantrum, but in the end, a compromise was reached.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Babs would be held in quarantine in British Gibraltar,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55with the promise that the dog would join Lily later in England.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01She handed him over to a British official, said her goodbyes,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03and boarded the plane for England.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Robertson knew that Lily might be a recipe for trouble,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15but an agent with a direct link to a senior German intelligence officer
0:14:15 > 0:14:16could be priceless.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18But what was Lily up to?
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Had she always intended to work for the British
0:14:21 > 0:14:26when she became a German spy? Where did her true allegiance lie?
0:14:26 > 0:14:28And might she switch sides again?
0:14:33 > 0:14:36LILY: Tar Robertson said to me, "I think there is no doubt
0:14:36 > 0:14:39"that the German intelligence people have complete confidence in you."
0:14:41 > 0:14:45"We can pull off what is known in the trade as an intoxication."
0:14:45 > 0:14:48It's the sort of thing intelligence men dream about.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53Lily had expected life as a spy to be glamorous and exciting.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Tar Robertson quickly put her straight.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00He installed her here in a quiet block of flats in West London.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04He appointed MI5's only woman case officer to keep an eye on her.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Mary Sherer was solid, unromantic and resolutely English.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Everything that Lily was not.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Mary always had a rather stern expression
0:15:19 > 0:15:22and she would stare at you
0:15:22 > 0:15:25in a very meaningful way.
0:15:25 > 0:15:31One of her favourite expressions was, "Stupid man"!
0:15:33 > 0:15:35Mary always had a dog.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39So she would very much have been sympathetic to Lily's position,
0:15:39 > 0:15:44but I would say otherwise they were probably
0:15:44 > 0:15:46fairly diametrically opposed.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50LILY: I still cannot quite place her.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Is she my jailer or nursery governess or what?
0:15:54 > 0:15:57I don't even know what she feels about me,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00though I suppose this doesn't matter very much.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02If only I could have my Babs here.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05I have a feeling that everything will turn out all right.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08I think it's disgraceful the way they have behaved.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Agent Treasure was just one element in the grand deception
0:16:15 > 0:16:17now been laid out across the country.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21The Germans needed to be convinced that the Allied spearhead
0:16:21 > 0:16:24was pointing at Calais.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31In order to create the deception,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35a vast American army was assembled in Kent,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39poised to attack Calais across the Straits of Dover.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Had any spy planes been watching Kent,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51they would have seen a formidable invasion force gathering.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55From a distance, it would look strong enough
0:16:55 > 0:16:58to break through the Atlantic Wall.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06But close up, it was a different story.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16To bolster the illusion of strength, large numbers of inflatable tanks
0:17:16 > 0:17:20and dummy aircraft were assembled in the Kent countryside,
0:17:20 > 0:17:25which would look like the real thing to German reconnaissance planes.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44We'd created an imaginary army and we gave the Germans
0:17:44 > 0:17:48the impression that we had available almost twice the number of troops
0:17:48 > 0:17:50that were, in fact, in existence.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54To lead this bogus army, a real general was appointed,
0:17:54 > 0:17:59the legendary pistol-toting victor of the Sicilian campaign, George Patton.
0:17:59 > 0:18:05An inspired choice because Hitler regarded the American general
0:18:05 > 0:18:07as his most formidable adversary.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11One of the lessons one learns in putting over a deception plans
0:18:11 > 0:18:14is not to explain it to the Germans,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18not to detail it, but to give them a mass of information
0:18:18 > 0:18:21from apparently different sources which enables them
0:18:21 > 0:18:24to put the jigsaw puzzle together and draw their own conclusions.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27MORSE CODE
0:18:29 > 0:18:33One of Tar's agents was a Spaniard, a master of invention
0:18:33 > 0:18:36with an army of spies at his command.
0:18:36 > 0:18:42Juan Pujol had a diploma in chicken farming, an overactive imagination
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and a deep-seated hatred for Hitler.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50A natural performer and a man of many guises,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Tar Robertson codenamed him Garbo.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02He launched his campaign from an anonymous semi-detached house
0:19:02 > 0:19:04in the northern suburbs of London.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Astonishingly, he had convinced the Germans
0:19:09 > 0:19:10that he was a committed Nazi
0:19:10 > 0:19:15with access to high level British intelligence.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19And he did not act alone.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Garbo recruited no less than 27 sub agents.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27These included an Army sergeant,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29an English secretary,
0:19:29 > 0:19:31a waiter from Gibraltar,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34a travelling salesman,
0:19:34 > 0:19:35two Venezuelan students
0:19:35 > 0:19:38and a disgruntled seaman from Swansea.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44But perhaps the most extraordinary part of the Garbo network
0:19:44 > 0:19:48was the Brothers of the Aryan World Order,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51a group of fanatical Welsh fascists.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Needless to say, none of these people existed.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02All 27 had been invented by Garbo.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10Garbo, on behalf of his 27 fake subagents,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13sent more than 500 wireless messages,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15each one reinforcing the fiction
0:20:15 > 0:20:19of a vast American army assembling in Kent.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24His imaginary network spanned the country.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28The lies from each agent reinforcing the lies from the others.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33An illusion made all the more convincing after one agent
0:20:33 > 0:20:37who knew too much was suddenly eliminated from the spy ring.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42It was a massive undertaking and the stakes could not have been higher.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44One slip and the entire network
0:20:44 > 0:20:47would be revealed for the sham that it was.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Unknown to Garbo or any of Robertson's double agents,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57the German response to every message sent was being monitored
0:20:57 > 0:21:01by the Allies biggest secret, the codebreakers of Bletchley Park.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04German signals decoded at Bletchley
0:21:04 > 0:21:07revealed that many of Garbo's messages were being passed on
0:21:07 > 0:21:10word for word, all the way to Berlin.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13In German minds, the Welsh fascists and the rest of Garbo's network
0:21:13 > 0:21:18were entirely reliable and their reports were swallowed whole.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32German reinforcements poured into Calais to prepare for an invasion.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48The ruins of Hitler's Atlantic Wall
0:21:48 > 0:21:51still litter the landscape around Calais.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59A system of almost impregnable concrete casements
0:21:59 > 0:22:01that once bristled with guns.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06They were built by forced labour
0:22:06 > 0:22:10for a regime that believed it would last 1,000 years.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26The bunkers were a warren, lived in by hundreds of men.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30And deep inside these fortresses can be found a testament
0:22:30 > 0:22:34to the Nazi's belief in their invulnerability.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40Down here in the bunker, there's lots of graffiti showing
0:22:40 > 0:22:42just how confident the Germans were.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46There's one here that's addressed to WC, Winston Churchill,
0:22:46 > 0:22:52"Whoever is bad must be punished and now you must pay for the bad thing you have started."
0:22:52 > 0:22:56And there's another one over here, a sort of two-faced caricature
0:22:56 > 0:23:00of Churchill himself. On the left, he's looking very smug
0:23:00 > 0:23:04and out of his mouth is coming the word victory.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06On the right, he's looking terrified
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and the cigar has dropped out of his mouth and he is saying SOS,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12the international distress signal.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Several hundred miles to the north of Calais,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25another deception was under way.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28While Garbo was busy inventing one army,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32another was being created up on the east coast of Scotland.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38This was the work of the third of Robertson's spies, Agent Brutus.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48Roman Czerniawski was a deeply patriotic Polish fighter pilot,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52a professional soldier who had devoted himself
0:23:52 > 0:23:55to becoming an expert spy.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59A complete world of literary fiction was created.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03There were events which never took place.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Whole units, all kinds, starting from regiments
0:24:07 > 0:24:10to divisions in armies were created.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12People who never were born,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16the generals, English or American, never existed.
0:24:16 > 0:24:22Thousands of signposts were put all around, but really,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26there were no troops here, no units,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31in this beautiful, quiet countryside, like it is today.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40His espionage career began when Poland was invaded.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45He then fled to France and began working for the Resistance
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and spying for the British.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52My father would casually walk down the street,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55wearing his French beret, an overcoat,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58clutching a stick of French bread,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02and in his right-hand pocket, he had a little stubby pencil
0:25:02 > 0:25:07and a notepad and he was very, very carefully
0:25:07 > 0:25:10noting down the insignia
0:25:10 > 0:25:14on German uniforms and he would scurry home to his flat
0:25:14 > 0:25:17and then radio back to London what he was seeing.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22But he and his network were betrayed and captured.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25The Germans then offered Czerniawski a stark choice,
0:25:25 > 0:25:31spy for them on the British or see his comrades executed.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36There was a very powerful moral code
0:25:36 > 0:25:39that drove what he considered to be right or wrong conduct.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44In those crucial few months when he was negotiating
0:25:44 > 0:25:50and bargaining for his own freedom and the freedom of his agents,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54he believed overwhelmingly that what he was doing was right
0:25:54 > 0:25:58and good and in the interests of the country that he loved.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04To save the other members of his network,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Czerniawski agreed to become a double agent against the British.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11But he had another trick up his sleeve.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16When the Germans faked his escape and sent him to Britain,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21he immediately turned himself in and began working as a triple agent.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Tar named him after the ancient Roman turncoat, Brutus,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30and appointed Hugh Astor as his case officer.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35We decided that Brutus could be a principal channel for deception.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38As a cover, he took a job
0:26:38 > 0:26:42working with the Polish Army exiled in Britain.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47Occasionally, I'd send him out on an espionage mission
0:26:47 > 0:26:50to see what he could pick up. In the space of two or three days,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54he'd come back with the most extraordinary amount of information.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01He had drawn a map showing where all the different units
0:27:01 > 0:27:04were stationed, identification signs,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07very often the commanding officer's name and then I would use that
0:27:07 > 0:27:11as the basis of a report to send to the Germans,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15but changing the identity of various units which he identified.
0:27:18 > 0:27:24As a professional soldier, Brutus's reports carried weight in Berlin.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28The army he now invented in Scotland was intended to do
0:27:28 > 0:27:31precisely the same thing as the fake army in Kent.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33By threatening an invasion of Norway,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37it might keep the occupying troops bottled up there
0:27:37 > 0:27:40and away from the real battlefields in Normandy.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Brutus did not always send the messages himself.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50He had his own Polish operator who would transmit for him.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55Radio operators are always known as pianists and so his radio operator
0:27:55 > 0:28:00was codenamed Chopin, which seemed appropriate for a Polish pianist.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06Transmitting telegraphese is very much like handwriting,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08it can be identified.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12I would follow, as far as possible, his procedures
0:28:12 > 0:28:15but substituting imaginary units for the real ones.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22So now, two fake armies had been conjured into existence.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24One in Scotland and the other in Kent.
0:28:24 > 0:28:30Meanwhile, the real invasion army was beginning to mobilise
0:28:30 > 0:28:35in southern England for the biggest amphibious assault in history.
0:28:41 > 0:28:47150,000 Allied troops were secretly heading south towards Southampton.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57The entire Allied Force was to be risked in one all-out assault on France,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01to be led by the supreme commander, General Dwight Eisenhower.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05The stage is being set for the beginning of a great and crucial test
0:29:05 > 0:29:07all over the world.
0:29:07 > 0:29:13I am completely confident that the soldiers, sailors and airmen
0:29:13 > 0:29:17will demonstrate once and for all that an aroused democracy
0:29:17 > 0:29:20is the most formidable fighting machine that can be devised.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26I don't think we had a mental image of an enemy, we had a mental image
0:29:26 > 0:29:30of the Nazi party and what they were doing.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36They were the enemy. They were terribly bad people.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41And somebody'd got to stop them.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43As part of Operation Bodyguard,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Lady Dundas worked at General Eisenhower's headquarters.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50The goal was clear, but the D-Day secret
0:29:50 > 0:29:53was so precious, not even those risking their lives
0:29:53 > 0:29:56knew where the invasion would take place.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02Only the top brass could know the whole truth.
0:30:02 > 0:30:08To provide Hitler with convincing information apparently gleaned from the highest quarters,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Robertson played the most unlikely card in his hand -
0:30:12 > 0:30:14a bisexual Peruvian playgirl
0:30:14 > 0:30:21with the unimprovable name of Elvira Concepcion Josefina de la Fuente Chaudoir -
0:30:21 > 0:30:24the daughter of a guano magnate from Lima.
0:30:25 > 0:30:30An international party girl with a penchant for gambling and the high life,
0:30:30 > 0:30:31Elvira was slow to make her mark
0:30:31 > 0:30:34when recruited by British intelligence,
0:30:34 > 0:30:39who had sent her on a mission to charm her way into the German Secret Service.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44She ended up on her natural playground, the south of France,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47and then felt rather embarrassed and guilty
0:30:47 > 0:30:50that she hadn't done more work
0:30:50 > 0:30:52and she was rather enjoying sunning herself.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55And she was a great gambler and a very good card player.
0:30:55 > 0:30:56She was a great poker player.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04She was approached by a German who she'd befriended, I think, in the casinos,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08and he asked whether she'd be willing to work for him in England.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11And after a good deal of thought, she said, yes, she would.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Back in Britain, her task was to haunt the cocktail parties
0:31:22 > 0:31:25and casinos of high society London,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28and send back to Germany an intoxicating mixture
0:31:28 > 0:31:31of invented secrets and gossip,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34reporting conversations she had never had
0:31:34 > 0:31:36with people she had never met.
0:31:37 > 0:31:44Churchill had ordered that no code name should give a hint at an agent's true identity -
0:31:44 > 0:31:49a rule that the XX team cheerfully and consistently ignored.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Treasure was valuable, Garbo, a great actor.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57And Elvira, the good-time girl, was given the codename "Bronx" -
0:31:57 > 0:32:01the name of a particularly lethal cocktail.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Bronx sent her messages not by wireless, but by post -
0:32:10 > 0:32:12writing to her German spymaster
0:32:12 > 0:32:14between the lines of ordinary letters
0:32:14 > 0:32:19using a matchstick impregnated with secret ink.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Using the impregnated match, secret, invisible messages
0:32:26 > 0:32:30could be written over ordinary correspondence.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35Once in enemy hands, the ink would be chemically developed
0:32:35 > 0:32:38to reveal the key information.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44Samples of Bronx's letters have been released to the National Archives in Kew.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Tell me what we have here in this file.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Well, this is the file of Bronx,
0:32:50 > 0:32:51one of the double agents,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55and it includes a whole range of documents relating to the way
0:32:55 > 0:32:58she was controlled in the United Kingdom,
0:32:58 > 0:33:00but also some of the texts of some of the secret messages
0:33:00 > 0:33:03that she sent to her German controllers.
0:33:03 > 0:33:08- What is this, Mark?- This is a photo taken by MI5 of the secret message
0:33:08 > 0:33:13which was written underneath a cover message.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16In capital letters, she's written,
0:33:16 > 0:33:20"Last week, I saw a man unload a lorry full of foodstuffs
0:33:20 > 0:33:23"into an old empty house next to the church at Roehampton."
0:33:23 > 0:33:25It's not exactly going to change the war, is it?
0:33:25 > 0:33:29No. I mean, you're not going to give all your best stuff at once, either.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31And it's a way of stringing people along.
0:33:31 > 0:33:36There's a bit of a Boy's Own Paper ring to the idea of secret ink.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38Was it important in the Second World War?
0:33:38 > 0:33:40Yeah, and it had been since the First World War.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45But, I mean, the point about this sort of means of communication is it just took an awfully long time,
0:33:45 > 0:33:48cos it's going to take the best part of two weeks to get there, probably.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51So it's a kind of cumulative effect, her traffic?
0:33:51 > 0:33:53Yeah, and it's also making the best of what you have.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57If you don't have wireless communications, how do you do it? No mobile phones in that time.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07As the days counted down to D-Day, Bronx would need a way
0:34:07 > 0:34:10to get messages to her German spymaster much faster.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15We intercepted a movement order to a German Panzer division -
0:34:15 > 0:34:18which at that time were stationed near Bordeaux -
0:34:18 > 0:34:21to move to the Normandy area.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Which was exactly what we didn't want.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30And, really, without very much hope of success,
0:34:30 > 0:34:36I said that I'd try and use Bronx to prevent the division moving.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41The tanks would be in Normandy within days,
0:34:41 > 0:34:47unless Bronx could convince her spymasters that they were needed more urgently elsewhere.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49Now...
0:34:49 > 0:34:53secret ink was not Bronx's only way of communicating with her handler, was it?
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Oh, no, there were sort of crash messages, if you like,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00that were conveying an innocuous... A telegram, for example, conveying an innocuous message
0:35:00 > 0:35:05had a prearranged significance to her controller.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08And therefore, you could get a certain degree of immediacy to it,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11but again, you had to be very careful about what you did and didn't say.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16Because it says, "Envoyez vite cinquante livres. Besoin pour mon dentiste."
0:35:16 > 0:35:20"Send quickly £50, I need it for my dentist."
0:35:20 > 0:35:21But that actually meant...
0:35:21 > 0:35:25It actually warns there's going to be an invasion in the Bay of Biscay.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30I must confess, I was astonished, within hours,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33seeing this message relayed to Berlin.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Within 24 hours, an order cancelling the movement order for the...
0:35:38 > 0:35:40I think it was the Panzer division.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44I think it was the 13th Panzer Division, but I'm not sure.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48And so, nobody was more surprised than myself, I must confess.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58Back in England, Allied troops were making final preparations for the invasion.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03To further convince the Germans that Calais was the target,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06bombing raids on the area were stepped up.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12And Tar Robertson was feeling a deep satisfaction
0:36:12 > 0:36:15with the work of his spies.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18The elaborate hoax seemed to be working.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Operation Bodyguard was on course.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26He now felt confident enough to send a message to Churchill,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30pointing out, "My double agents have, at a critical moment,
0:36:30 > 0:36:34"acquired a value it is scarcely possible to overestimate."
0:36:35 > 0:36:37PLANE ENGINE DRONES
0:36:42 > 0:36:45But the drive home the D-Day lie, Robertson needed an agent
0:36:45 > 0:36:49brave enough to make direct, personal contact with the enemy.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Anybody who goes into the field is courageous,
0:36:54 > 0:37:00and the Germans were very rough on these people when they caught them.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02The risk of being caught was quite high.
0:37:02 > 0:37:08Lisbon, in neutral Portugal, was a hotbed of wartime espionage
0:37:08 > 0:37:11and a regular haunt of Dusko Popov -
0:37:11 > 0:37:16a flamboyant international dealmaker from Dubrovnik.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21But his business was simply a cover. He was a British double agent,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25codenamed Tricycle, working directly for Tar Robertson.
0:37:25 > 0:37:31Tricycle was just the man to inject the great deception into the heart of German intelligence.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35When I was with the Germans,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39I tried to play the part that I am a real German spy.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43Cos, in that kind of work, you're allowed one mistake,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46and that's the last one you ever make.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49He was really entering the lion's den
0:37:49 > 0:37:52on every occasion that he travelled back to Lisbon.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55He could've been betrayed at any time.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58Since he had to deliver information first-hand
0:37:58 > 0:38:03rather than use the wireless, he... I mean, charm came into this.
0:38:03 > 0:38:09He had a lot of self-confidence and he was a very charismatic person.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13He had trust in his ability to convince the Germans
0:38:13 > 0:38:16that he was loyal to them.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23He was taking a huge gamble, but it was a calculated one,
0:38:23 > 0:38:28because his German spymaster was also a British double agent.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Johnny Jebsen was a senior German intelligence officer,
0:38:33 > 0:38:38and at the start of the war, he had recruited his friend Popov to spy on the British.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41They shared a taste for parties and women,
0:38:41 > 0:38:46and indulged this to the full whenever they met up in Lisbon.
0:38:46 > 0:38:52But secretly, Jebsen also shared Popov's hatred for the Nazis.
0:38:52 > 0:38:57Jebsen was probably very similar to Dusko in his way to gamble with life.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00They were best of friends since university days,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03so I think that friendship was really key.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08But the close friendship between Popov and his German controller, Jebsen,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11was starting to worry MI5.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14It became apparent that his German controller
0:39:14 > 0:39:19knew that he was working for us, and this created a new dimension.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22I was rather gung ho at that time
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and felt that we ought to eliminate his controller,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28but wiser counsel prevailed and we didn't.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Instead, Popov told MI5 that Jebsen was anti-Nazi
0:39:32 > 0:39:35and should be brought in as another double agent.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39Jebsen was recruited as Agent Artist.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41Johnny was their best source of information
0:39:41 > 0:39:44in the German Secret Service.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48He was also able to protect Dusko.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52At one point, they became so important
0:39:52 > 0:39:55that if either of them was uncovered
0:39:55 > 0:39:59it could mean the whole deception plan would be lost.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04As Popov flew back and forth between London and Lisbon,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08Jebsen was able to provide him and the British with a wealth of information,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12secured from his position deep within the German war machine.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Secret weapons, military production,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19and the innermost workings of German intelligence.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21And he did more.
0:40:21 > 0:40:27He also revealed the identities of Germany's top spies operating in Britain -
0:40:27 > 0:40:30information that would enable the British to catch them.
0:40:32 > 0:40:38The problem was these were the very spies under Robertson's command,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42each responsible for a part of the deception.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45Only a small number of people knew the whole detail.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49I mean, some would know the place, others would know the date,
0:40:49 > 0:40:52others would know the composition of the invading force.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54But very few people knew the whole story.
0:40:54 > 0:41:00Since Robertson's spies continued to report to their German spymasters without being arrested,
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Jebsen came to the obvious conclusion -
0:41:04 > 0:41:06they were all double agents,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09and the Germans were being deceived on a MASSIVE scale.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14Jebsen was now in on the secret, and MI5 knew it.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16They were very much worried about Jebsen.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20Jebsen could have betrayed the whole deception plan.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24If he had been caught, all the others would have fallen.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29Bletchley Park intercepts also revealed that Berlin was suspicious.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Jebsen was asking too many questions and was now under investigation.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36MI5 had every reason to be alarmed.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Agent Artist knew the D-Day secret, and now,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43the Gestapo were closing in on him.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53Which left Tar Robertson with an appalling dilemma.
0:41:53 > 0:41:59If he extracted Jebsen from Lisbon and brought him to the safety of Britain,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03the Germans might realise their messages were being read.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09The secret of the Bletchley Park codebreakers had to be protected at all costs.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13But if Robertson left Agent Artist to his fate,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17there was a real risk the Gestapo would arrest him.
0:42:18 > 0:42:24Once he was in their hands, how long would he hold out before he cracked,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27and expose the entire D-Day deception?
0:42:35 > 0:42:38But then, another problem appeared...
0:42:38 > 0:42:41in the shape of a small dog.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44For months, Agent Treasure had badgered MI5
0:42:44 > 0:42:47to fulfil their promise and bring her pet dog to Britain.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52But Babs remained in quarantine in Gibraltar.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56Increasingly angry, Treasure demanded that the Royal Navy
0:42:56 > 0:42:59send a submarine to pick up her dog.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03'I admired them. I trusted them.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05'I had faith in British fair play.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07'So they promised me in Madrid,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11'but when they got me to London, they refused!'
0:43:14 > 0:43:19And then, just when it seemed that relations between MI5 and Treasure couldn't get any worse,
0:43:19 > 0:43:24news arrived that Babs had been run over by a truck.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26TYRES SCREECH AND HORN BEEPS
0:43:26 > 0:43:28CLATTERING
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Treasure was heartbroken and furious.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44She immediately accused Robertson and MI5 of murdering her pet dog,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46and perhaps she was right.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51A clue may lie in her MI5 case files.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56- LILY:- Losing Babs I find very hard to accept.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00I am alone. Absolutely alone.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08The index contains no less than nine separate items relating to Babs.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14"Letter to Treasure from Gibraltar about the welfare of her dog."
0:44:14 > 0:44:17"Note on quarantine regulations with regard to Treasure's dog."
0:44:19 > 0:44:22Every single one has been removed from the files and destroyed.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27The mystery of Babs' death may never be solved,
0:44:27 > 0:44:31but its consequences were potentially catastrophic.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35- LILY:- I can destroy the work of three years.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Just a double dash and the Germans will know that I work
0:44:38 > 0:44:40under the control of the Intelligence Service.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46Treasure had kept one vital secret from her British handlers.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Emile Kliemann, her German spymaster,
0:44:49 > 0:44:55had instructed her to insert a coded warning into her radio messages if she was caught,
0:44:55 > 0:44:59to alert him that she was being controlled by the British.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03- LILY:- This is my revenge.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05They made me a promise.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07And they didn't keep it.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12Now, I shall have them in my power.
0:45:12 > 0:45:17In Lisbon, meanwhile, events were moving with terrifying speed.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Johnny Jebsen, Agent Artist, was summoned to the offices
0:45:24 > 0:45:28of German counter-intelligence in Lisbon to receive a medal
0:45:28 > 0:45:30for his services to the Third Reich.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35But there, his luck ran out.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39He was ambushed, drugged
0:45:39 > 0:45:42and smuggled out of Portugal.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Jebsen was driven across the border to France and then on to Berlin.
0:45:53 > 0:45:58He was held at the Gestapo torture chambers
0:45:58 > 0:46:00and interrogated there.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11I wouldn't have wanted to be captured by the Germans.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14I think they were very rough.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20The number of agents who died in German hands...
0:46:20 > 0:46:22and tortured.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31Back in London, Tar received a three-word message from Lisbon.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34It was the message he had been dreading.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36"Johnny has disappeared."
0:46:38 > 0:46:42MI5 was swept by near-panic.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Tar Robertson called a crisis meeting -
0:46:44 > 0:46:48should they shut down the entire XX operation,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51or could they continue as if nothing had happened?
0:46:53 > 0:46:58It was no longer safe for Popov to act as a double agent.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00I don't think, at that point,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03he was wondering or worrying about the deception plan at all.
0:47:03 > 0:47:09I think, here was his best friend being abducted by the Gestapo.
0:47:10 > 0:47:17Most people didn't think Johnny would be able to resist interrogation.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21They all thought that he would crack under physical torture.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26People would have thought, you know, "That's it. The game is ended."
0:47:27 > 0:47:29The fate of Johny Jebsen
0:47:29 > 0:47:32and the destiny of thousands of Allied soldiers
0:47:32 > 0:47:35weighed heavily on Tar's shoulders,
0:47:35 > 0:47:40and then the ghost of Babs the dog came back to haunt him.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44And now, at the worst possible moment,
0:47:44 > 0:47:49Agent Treasure threatened to blow the entire double agent system.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Treasure finally admitted that she HAD agreed
0:47:53 > 0:47:56a secret signal with her German spymaster,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59to be inserted into her messages should she ever be caught.
0:47:59 > 0:48:05She confessed that her motive was revenge for the death of Babs.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09But she refused to say what the secret signal was
0:48:09 > 0:48:11or whether she'd already sent it.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Robertson confronted Lily and demanded to know what was going on.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27He made it very clear that if she had betrayed the cause,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30he would take the most severe action.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Agent Treasure was shut down immediately,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36but it was too late to stop the invasion.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39The troops were ready to go.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43The date was set. The target was fixed.
0:48:43 > 0:48:49All Tar and his team could do was continue to drive home the deception,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53and pray that Jebsen didn't crack too soon.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Day and night, Bletchley Park's codebreakers anxiously scanned
0:49:00 > 0:49:04hundreds of intercepted signals for any scrap of information
0:49:04 > 0:49:07that might reveal whether the Germans had found out the truth.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12The other agents flooded the Nazis
0:49:12 > 0:49:15with messages confirming an imminent attack on Calais.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21The days leading up to Overlord were very, very tense.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24We were all working a sort of 24-hour day,
0:49:24 > 0:49:26and wondering what questions
0:49:26 > 0:49:29the Germans were going to ask next, how we would answer them.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Would they be believed? Would our agents become discredited?
0:49:33 > 0:49:35It was quite tense.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40But was Hitler listening?
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Hitler's absolute control over his armed forces
0:49:45 > 0:49:49meant that his was the only decision that really mattered.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Whether or not he believed the D-Day lie
0:49:51 > 0:49:55would make or break the Allied invasion.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58Just before D-Day,
0:49:58 > 0:50:03Hitler met the Japanese ambassador, Baron Hiroshi Oshima.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07The Fuhrer was keen to talk about the invasion and his knowledge of Allied plans.
0:50:07 > 0:50:14Impressed, Oshima immediately radioed back a report of his conversation to Tokyo.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Two days later, the report, decoded and translated,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20landed on Robertson's desk.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Hitler was adamant.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27"They will come forward, all out, across the Straits of Dover."
0:50:27 > 0:50:30The target was Calais.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33HEAVY GUNFIRE
0:50:36 > 0:50:39On June 6, 1944, the Allied troops,
0:50:39 > 0:50:41under the command of General Eisenhower,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44stormed the Normandy beaches
0:50:44 > 0:50:47and took the Germans completely by surprise.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58Over 10,000 Allied troops fell on the first day of the invasion.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00It was a high and bloody price to pay,
0:51:00 > 0:51:04but a fraction of the casualties there would have been had the Germans been ready.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11By the end of the day, the Allies had their first foothold in France.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13But the job was not yet over.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16As the Allies pushed on into France,
0:51:16 > 0:51:21the unseen force of the D-Day spies fought alongside them.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24We were able, up to a point,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27to persuade them that the Normandy landings,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30when they started, were a diversionary attack.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33That the main force was still in East Anglia
0:51:33 > 0:51:36waiting to go across the Channel to Calais.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41We rather assumed that by D plus 10
0:51:41 > 0:51:45the Germans would have realised that they were having their leg pulled.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48In the event, things went much better than we'd expected.
0:51:50 > 0:51:5623 days after D-Day, Garbo received a startling message.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00The Fuhrer had decided that in recognition of his heroic efforts
0:52:00 > 0:52:02in the service of the Third Reich,
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Garbo should be awarded the Iron Cross -
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Germany's highest military honour.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11Unbelievably, the D-Day lie was still holding.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17As late as July, more than a month after D-Day,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21no fewer than 22 German divisions,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24almost a quarter of a million men,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27were still held back in the Calais area.
0:52:27 > 0:52:32In Norway, German sentries anxiously scanned the horizon
0:52:32 > 0:52:34waiting for the attack from Scotland
0:52:34 > 0:52:37that also never came.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41The hoax had been more successful than anyone would've dared predict.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44The liberation would be slow and costly.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48But after the landings of June 6, victory was in sight.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51CHEERING
0:52:54 > 0:52:57Amid the celebrations on VE Day in May 1945,
0:52:57 > 0:53:02few people raised a glass to Tar Robertson and the spies of B1A.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08The work of the XX team would remain secret for years after the war.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21But recently declassified files reveal the full impact of the deception operation.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25This captured German map showed where the Nazis believed
0:53:25 > 0:53:29Allied forces were positioned immediately before D-Day.
0:53:29 > 0:53:34The map corresponds precisely with the lies fed to German intelligence
0:53:34 > 0:53:37by the D-Day spies.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40The deception saved many thousands of lives,
0:53:40 > 0:53:45and was the equivalent to quite a large additional army force.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Their counterparts in German intelligence never guessed
0:53:49 > 0:53:54the massive hoax Tar and his team had pulled off.
0:53:55 > 0:54:00Or maybe some of them did, and just chose to ignore it.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05Let us put ourselves in the position of a German controller with an agent in England.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07Would you go to Hitler and say,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11"I've been spending millions of Deutschmarks maintaining this
0:54:11 > 0:54:15"organisation in England, and they're all a lot of dummies."
0:54:15 > 0:54:18I mean, very difficult for him to do.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23Hugh Astor carried on his work for MI5 in the Middle East.
0:54:24 > 0:54:30But Tar Robertson left in 1949 and became a sheep farmer.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36Some of the D-Day spies were recognised for their contribution,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39and awarded medals in strictest secrecy.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43Garbo was awarded an MBE -
0:54:43 > 0:54:47an unusual honour for a man who had already received the Iron Cross.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Long after his fake agents had been laid to rest,
0:54:53 > 0:54:55Garbo visited the Normandy war graves.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00I did all the things that I could...
0:55:01 > 0:55:06..to save men, but I couldn't save these men here.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11It is very sad for me to see this now.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Thousands more would lie in cemeteries like this,
0:55:14 > 0:55:19had it not been for the work of Garbo and the other D-Day spies.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24Agent Treasure had not gone through with her threat to expose the deception plan.
0:55:25 > 0:55:31Perhaps, she had only ever intended to torment MI5 at a critical moment,
0:55:31 > 0:55:34and that was a revenge for Babs.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39She lived out her days in the suburbs of Detroit,
0:55:39 > 0:55:41surrounded by dogs.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46Bronx, the bisexual Peruvian party girl,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49opened a souvenir shop in the south of France.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55Brutus remained in England, but his love for Poland never dimmed.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59He became active in Polish politics, but it was not until old age
0:55:59 > 0:56:03that he spoke openly about his wartime activities.
0:56:03 > 0:56:08I grew up with the stories of him skiing and him being a pilot,
0:56:08 > 0:56:14and anecdotes of him being parachuted into occupied France.
0:56:15 > 0:56:21It's exciting to know that the stories that I grew up with were actually true,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25and that those stories were part of a bigger story in which he was central.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27And that does make me proud.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Dusko Popov, Agent Tricycle, returned to business,
0:56:33 > 0:56:36eventually retiring to a house in the south of France,
0:56:36 > 0:56:38where he wrote his memoirs.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41I went...
0:56:41 > 0:56:45a few dozen times to meet the Germans.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50I never felt absolutely certain that I shall come back.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55And it would be lying now to tell you that I wasn't afraid.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00I was actually terrorised from the first day to the last.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02His house is still the family home.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06Popov died in 1981, wondering to the end
0:57:06 > 0:57:09just what had happened to his friend Johnny Jebsen.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13These men did extraordinary things during the war,
0:57:13 > 0:57:16and I think the war called for them to rise to that event.
0:57:16 > 0:57:22And they took chances probably people wouldn't take during peacetime,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25but the times called for it. It was war.
0:57:28 > 0:57:34The fate of Johnny Jebsen, Agent Artist, is shrouded in mystery.
0:57:37 > 0:57:44In early 1945, he was moved to one of the most notorious concentration camps in Germany.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47And two months before that camp was liberated,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50the Gestapo came to collect him.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52He was never seen again.
0:57:54 > 0:58:00Johnny Jebsen could have turned history in a different direction and survived,
0:58:00 > 0:58:02but he chose not to.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07Like many ordinary, flawed people, he didn't know his own courage
0:58:07 > 0:58:10until war revealed it.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15Agent Artist, Johnny Jebsen, was not a conventional D-Day hero,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18but he was a hero nonetheless.
0:58:40 > 0:58:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd