For the first Fleming Friday, we are going to talk about the inspiration for 007 himself, James Bond. Codenamed TRICYCLE by MI6, this spy was not a British debonair, but a former lawyer Serbian triple agent working for Britain (MI6), Yugoslavia(YDR), and Germany (Abwehr) during World War II.
Recruited while a student activist to the Abwehr by Johnny Jebsen he was put to work as a Nazi spy shortly before WWII. As time went on, Popov became deeply disturbed by the way Hitler was carving up Europe, as well as the way he was dealing with dissent inside Germany. Making a decision that changed his life, he volunteered to MI6 as a double agent. He later recruited Jebsen (later known as ARTIST) for the Allied cause.
Like the fictitious Bond, Popov was known to live a promiscuous womanizing life. Described as having ‘heavy green eyes,’ Popov was known to carry on many affairs, as well as was married twice. One of these affairs included wooing the French actress Simone Simon. According to author Ben McIntyre, in his book Double Cross, after what was viewed as a successful mission, the head of the Abwehr, delighted:
threw a dinner party in Popov’s honor and invited Jebsen, Aloys Schreiber (the new head of counterintelligence), and their secretaries. It was a bizarre occasion. Two of the guests were German intelligence officers, and two others were secretly working for British intelligence; Jebsen was sleeping with Schreiber’s secretary, who was spying on her boss; the married von Karsthoff was having an affair with his secretary, Elizabeth Sahrbach, while ripping off the Abwehr. Popov was conducting at least six love affairs.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
While on an intelligence gathering trip, Popov was escorted by Ian Fleming, who was an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Navy at the time, in Estoril, Portugal. While there this real life Bond and his British Felix Leiter worked an intelligence mission together at the Casino Estoril, likely giving background to the first Bond novel, Casino Royale.
The story of this first mission, called Operation Midas, is told differently by both Popov and Fleming. The undisputable facts were that the German’s trusted Popov enough to give him $50,000 to fund a spy network in America. Popov told the British and they sent Fleming to meet him in Portugal. Where the story differs is that Popov lays out an extraordinary account of laying it down ‘all or nothing’ against a prideful Lithuanian businessman. Surprised by this offer, the businessman withdrew his hand and sulked off. According to Fleming, Popov bet some of the money gambling with some Germans and won. Nevertheless, Fleming’s view of Popov shaped many of the aspects of James Bond.
He went on to be assigned by the Abwehr to gather information on US defenses at Pearl Harbor in March 1941 and made contact with FBI who he informed about his mission and the possible attack. J. Edgar Hoover, who Popov met with and delivered the message to, was highly suspicious of this double agent and did not give credence to his message. After learning Popov had brought a woman from New York to Florida, he gave Popov two options: be arrested under the Mann Act (which prohibited interstate transportation of woman for “debauchery or prostitution”) or leave the country immediately. Popov chose the later.
Later in 1943, Popov was again in Estoril, staying at the Hotel Palacio, where he helped plant fake information, along with several other double agents around the German footprint in Europe, that led the German's to believe that the coming Allied invasion was at Pas de Calais, not Normandy. This act of informational espionage was known as Operation Fortitude.
This operation was not without it’s losses, however. While also in Portugal, Johnny Jebsen was captured by the Gestapo, tortured, and then sent to a Concentration Camp where he was believed to die before the war’s end. Ben McIntyre, again in his book Double Cross, wrote of Jebsen:
Jebsen, former international playboy turned dodgy businessman; a young man of cynicism, black humor, deep intellect, and physical frailty; the chain-smoking Anglophile dandy who took up spying in order not to fight, but who defied the Nazis because he believed, above all, in friendship. He was unable to resist worldly temptations, but he resisted his Gestapo torturers to the end. Like many ordinary, flawed people, he did not know his own courage until war revealed it. [He] might easily have turned history in a disastrous direction to save his own skin, and he chose not to. Agent Artist was not a conventional D-Day hero, but he was a hero nonetheless.
MI6 fearing the compromise of the whole network immediately ceased contact with Popov. This heroic act played a major part in the success of June 6th landing for Operation Overlord. The death of Jebsen, however, haunted Popov for the rest of his life.
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After the War, Popov moved to France where the rest of his life was lived in relative obscurity. In the 1970s, Popov wrote a book called "Spy/Counterspy" and retired to Opio, France, where he died in 1981. Shortly after his death many documents were released by MI6 that verified his claims and gave credence to his incredible life story.