Double-Edged Sword (Kindle Single) [Kindle Edition]

Steve Anderson (Author)

Book Description

This concise, fast read tells the true story of a self-made double agent who bluffed his way into the most ambitious Allied deception operation of WWII.

In 1942, German military intelligence believed the Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia was running a formidable spy network for them inside enemy Britain. In reality their man in London was making it all up, from Portugal.

Pujol had fooled the Germans all on his own after the British embassies in Madrid and Lisbon rejected his services repeatedly. But soon British intelligence would smuggle the dogged double agent to London and build up his subterfuge under the code name Garbo. In 1944, Pujol aka Garbo took the lead on an elaborate Allied deception campaign that fooled Hitler and his generals about the D-Day invasion — and surely saved thousands of lives.

Double-Edged Sword focuses solely on the most crucial moments of an epic double cross that Pujol was so uniquely built to pull off. It equals about 70 print pages in length.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Spies and double agents seem to be the stuff of movies. Indeed, Juan Pujol Garcia would make a memorable film character: a chicken farmer from Barcelona, he offered to spy for the British in World War II. When he was refused, he worked as a spy for the Nazis with the sole goal of becoming a British double agent, dreaming up dozens of imaginary subagents along the way. And yet, Juan Pujol was a real man, driven by his desire to use his intellect to help the Allied war effort in any way possible--even if that meant pretending to be a Nazi sympathizer. Steve Anderson is an expert guide in the ever-twisting world of the double agent, introducing readers to the many players in Pujol's deception, including gullible Nazis and Pujol's wife Araceli, who helped him cement his place as a double-agent but also became the biggest threat to his entire operation. Double-Edged Sword uses firsthand documents and text from secret messages to examine the double agent's motivations and aspirations, as well as snippets of imagined dialogue to bring Pujol's story to vivid life. --Malissa Kent

From AudioFile

Product Details

• File Size: 219 KB
• Print Length: 75 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008BWKQ4Y
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,570 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #25 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > History
  • #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > The World Stage
  • #36 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Page-turning Narratives

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing tale of World War II espionage June 19, 2012

By J. Chambers TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Steve Anderson has become a first rate author of little-known stories of World War II. His earlier "The Losing Role" (fiction) and "Sitting Ducks" (nonfiction) were fascinating treatments of Germany's Operation Greif, a secret plan to infiltrate the Allied lines during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.

"Double-Edged Sword" is the story of Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia, who ran a sham espionage network with the code name "Garbo." For more than three years, double agent Pujol and his network of phony subagents fed false information to the German Abwehr, culminating in a massive deception about the D-Day invasion. It's an absorbing story that the author chose to narrate as "creative nonfiction," where he used meticulously researched facts, filling in the blanks with actions and dialogues that could be reasonably surmised. As such, the story reads much like a novel.

Pujol's motivation was his hatred of fascism. After seeing the fascist regime of Francisco Franco emerge after the Spanish Civil War, he was repulsed at the thought of Europe being dominated by fascist Germany. Offering his services to Great Britain, he was repeatedly rebuffed and dismissed, but eventually he was accepted and proceeded to begin operations. To his Abwehr handlers, he was agent "Arabel." For the next three years, he posted or radioed a staggering amount of misleading information to the Germans.

The story is full of remarkable tidbits of history. Most amazingly, although the Germans thought he was operating from London, for the first few months of operation, he was actually in Lisbon, Portugal. Eventually, the British brought him to London, and the Abwehr never caught on to the deception. Another interesting piece of the story was the role of Pujol's wife Araceli, who with enthusiastic complicity, prodded him to approach the British with his double agent scheme.

Kudos to author Steve Anderson for another superb treatment of a little-known operation of World War II.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Kindle Single Story June 29, 2012

By 19933

Format:Kindle Edition

I enjoyed Mr. Anderson's "Sitting Ducks" and decided to give this title a try. "Double-Edged Sword" is Mr. Anderson's telling of Juan Pujol Garcia, a spy during WWII, who single-handedly duped the Germans causing them to be unprepared for the Allies D-Day landing in Normandy. Impressively he did this without the aid of a single weapon.

Juan Pujol Garcia hated fascism and approached the Allies to do his part. He ended up fabricating a deception, with no government sponsor, to show his value to the Brits who were skeptical of his usefulness. Juan Pujol Garcia wouldn't take "no" for an answer and ended up putting together an intriguing fantasy network of spies that baited his German handlers like ants to honey.

I highly recommend "Double-Edged Sword." Mr. Anderson has done a great job researching Juan Pujol Garcia and packed a lot of details into this fascinating Kindle Single story. I'm really becoming a fan of Kindle Singles. Sometimes I don't want to read 500 pages on a subject and this format has been a great opportunity for me to try new genres (in a 100 pages or less).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Historic, at times suspensful and funny September 16, 2012

By Laura Dobbins

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a good story about real events during WWII overseas. There's enough historic background to engage readers that like stories from that era or that lived through those times to keep them interested. But the author uses enough suspense and humor to keep the story moving and on track - staying true to the plot so that anyone who likes any type of spy story will also enjoy this short book.

More About the Author

Steve Anderson is the author of The Losing Role and the Kindles Singles Double-Edged Sword and Sitting Ducks. Anderson was a Fulbright Fellow in Germany, and has written short stories and screenplays. He lives in Portland, Oregon. http://www.stephenfanderson.com