GREAT PEOPLE FORGOTTEN BY HISTORY

Real-life007 - Dusan Popov

James Bond, agent007, spy,  intelligent, charming  playboy was created by Ian Fleming in 1953. But who was the inspiration for this imaginary character? Is there a man like James Bond in reality? The answer is yes - Dusan Popov! 

This is one of the most interesting spy stories from WWII. 

Early life – education

Dusan Popov was born in Titel in 1912 in wealthy, serbian family. He grew up in Dubrovnik where he started his education. As a teenager he moved to England, then he continued his studies in Paris.  In 1936 he earned his doctorate degree in law in University of Freiburg. At te age of 25 he had already fluently spoken English, French, Italian and German. Dring his studies in Germany he met one very special man - Johann Neilsen-Jebsen. Johann  and Dusan shared anti-nazi sympathies. Just one day after finishing his Phd studies Dusan got arrested, but with  Yugoslav government intervention he was realised from prison and bunished from Germany. Dusan returned to Dubrovnik and started his lawyer company. 

Abver, 1940.

When Battle of Britain  stared , German intelligence service needed more men for spy activities. Johhan joined  Abver and recommended his friend Dusan as a potential agent, so Nazis  sent him  to Belgrade for meeting  Dusan. Popov was surprised with his’s offer, but it took one sentence  to convince Popov to join Abver : ‘’The  best way to beat Nazis is being in their team’’.  Dusan went straight to British embassy in Belgrade and offered his services to  british intelligence service.  He was living on a relation Lisabon – London.  He gained   full  trust of Nazis very quickly and  managed to convince them  of having a lot of spies  in Britain who worked for him. So Germans started giving money for nonexistent agents. All that money (worth about today’s 2 000 000$ ) was actually going to Britains. In return Nazis were supplied  with false reports of british army.   

America  - Perl Harbour

In 1941 the Abver had sent Dusan to America. His task was to investigate and gather information about  Perl Harbour. Popov had meetings with FBI chief, Edgar Hoover, and tried to warn him about Japan’s plan of attacking  that american port. Unfortunately,  Hoover doubted in Popov’s double agent Job and didn’t take those warnings  seriously.

Day D 

The  huge military operation like  Overlord demanded serious  preparations in all aspects. The secret operation called ‘’Fortitude’’ was a plan for mass deception behind Overlord. Allies didn’t want  Hitler to know where   will the invasion  take its place. So they tried to assure him that possible places for attack will be Cale or even Norway.  Popov’s has continued to give  information about Nazi plans to Allies, and supplied Germans with false information. Because of Popov’s reports just a few weeks before the attack German troops moved about 250 000 soldiers to Cale .

Playboy

Popov was very intelligent man with great personality and charm. He was real cosmopolit. He lived  in a lot of Eurpoean and American cities. Popov’s remarkable life  was filed with a lot of women. He was much the stereotypical international playboy with two or three girlfriends in every city he lived. Especialy interesting was his releationship with Holiwood actress Simon Simon. He was  also smoking and drinking a lot, as James Bond does in Fleming’s books. In fact, Fleming’s description of James Bond in the books is very similar to how Dusko Popov looked.

In 1974, Popov published an autobiography titled Spy/Counterspy He died in Opio on 10 August 1981, aged 69.

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