Double Cross was published by Bloomsbury in 2012. Operation Fortitude — the deception plan that ensured the success of D-Day — depended on five double agents controlled by MI5’s B1(a) section. Each agent was real; each had been “turned” to work for the British while their German controllers believed they remained loyal.
The five: GARBO (Juan Pujol Garcia, a Catalan who invented an entire network of fictitious sub-agents); BRUTUS (Roman Czerniawski, a Polish fighter pilot and former Resistance leader); TRICYCLE (Dusko Popov, a Serbian playboy and lawyer); TREASURE (Lily Sergeyev, a French-Russian woman who nearly blew the entire operation); and BRONX (Elvira Chaudoir, a bisexual Peruvian socialite). Together, they convinced German intelligence that Normandy was a diversion and the real invasion would come at the Pas-de-Calais.
The result: for seven critical weeks after D-Day (June 6, 1944), Hitler held his Panzer reserves at Calais, waiting for an invasion that never came. The deception saved thousands of Allied lives and may have made the difference between success and failure in Normandy.
Collecting Double Cross
First edition (Bloomsbury, London, 2012): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $15–$30
- Signed first: $30–$60