Duško Popov | |
|---|---|
 Duško Popov, 1940 | |
| Born | Dušan Popov (1912-07-10)10 July 1912 |
| Died | 18 August 1981(1981-08-18) (aged 69) Opio, Alpes-Maritimes, France |
| Alma mater | University of Belgrade University of Freiburg |
| Occupations | Lawyer, businessman,intelligence officer |
| Spouse(s) | Janine Ducasse(1946–1961; divorced) Jill Jonsson(1962–1981; his death) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) | Milorad Popov, Zora Popov |
| Awards | Iron Cross Order of the British Empire |
| Espionage activity | |
| Allegiance |  Yugoslavia United Kingdom |
| Service branch | VOA,MI6,Abwehr |
| Service years | 1940–1945 |
| Codename | Duško |
| Codename | Ivan |
| Codename | Tricycle |
| Codename | Scoot |
| Operations | World War II |
Dušan "Duško" PopovOBE (Serbian Cyrillic:Душко Попов; 10 July 1912 – 10 August 1981) was aSerbian intelligence agent, lawyer and businessman who served as adouble agent forMI6 duringWorld War II. Feigning to be an asset of the GermanAbwehr, he passed offdisinformation to Germany as part of the BritishDouble-Cross System while occasionally using cover as a diplomat for theYugoslav government-in-exile inLondon.
Popov was born into a wealthy family and was practicing law at the start of the war. He held a great aversion toNazism, and in 1940, infiltrated theAbwehr, Germany'smilitary intelligence service, which considered him a valuable asset due to his business connections in France and the United Kingdom. Popov provided the Germans with misleading and inaccurate information for much of the war.
Deceptions in which he participated includedOperation Fortitude, which sought to convince German military planners that theAllied invasion of Europe would take place inCalais, notNormandy, thereby diverting hundreds of thousands of German troops and increasing the likelihood thatOperation Overlord would succeed.
Popov was known for his lifestyle and courted women during his missions, including the French actressSimone Simon. Apart from MI6 and the Abwehr, he also reported to the Yugoslav intelligence service, which assigned him the codenameDuško. His German handlers referred to him by the codenameIvan. He was codenamedTricycle by the British MI5 because he was the head of a group of three double agents.[1]
In 1974, he published an autobiography titledSpy/Counterspy, in which he recounted his wartime exploits. Popov is considered one ofIan Fleming's primary inspirations for the character ofJames Bond.[2][3] He has been the subject of a number of non-fiction books and documentaries.
Dušan "Duško" Popov was born to aSerb[4] family inTitel, Austria-Hungary on 10 July 1912.[5][6][a] His parents were Milorad and Zora Popov.[7] He had an older brother namedIvan ("Ivo") (who also became an agent, codenamed Dreadnought)[8] and a younger brother named Vladan.[9] The family was exceedingly wealthy and owed its fortune to Popov's paternal grandfather, Omer, a wealthy banker and industrialist who founded a number of factories, mines, and retail businesses.[6] They hailed from the village of Karlovo (nowNovo Miloševo). Records from as early as 1773 describe them as the most affluent family there.[10] Popov's father expanded the family's business interests to include real estate dealings.[6] When Popov was an infant, the family left Titel and permanently relocated to their summer residence inDubrovnik, which was their home for much of the year.[11] They also had a manor inBelgrade, where they spent the winter months.[6]
Popov's childhood coincided with a series of monumental political changes in theBalkans. In November 1918,Austria-Hungary disintegrated into a number of smaller states, and its Balkan possessions were incorporated into theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). The newly established, Serb-led state was plagued by political infighting among its various constitutive ethnic groups, particularly Serbs andCroats, but alsoHungarians andGermans. The young Popov and his family enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle and were far removed from the political turmoil in the country. They boasted a sizeable collection ofvillas and yachts, and were attended by servants, even on their travels.[12] Duško and his brothers spent most of their formative years along theAdriatic coast, and were avid athletes and outdoorsmen.[6]
Popov's father indulged his sons, building a spacious villa by the sea for their exclusive use where they could entertain their friends and host expensive parties. He was also insistent that they receive a quality education. Apart from his native Serbian, Popov was fluent in Italian, German and French by his teenage years.[11] Between the ages of 12 and 16, he attended alycée inParis.
In 1929, Popov's father enrolled him intoEwell Castle, a prestigiouspreparatory school inSurrey. Popov's stint at the school proved to be short lived. After only four months, he was expelled following an altercation with a teacher.[11][13] He had previously endured acaning at the teacher's hands after being caught smoking a cigarette. Another caning was adjudicated after Popov missed adetention, and so as to evade furthercorporal punishment, Popov grabbed the teacher's cane and snapped it in two before his classmates. Popov's father subsequently enrolled him atLycée Hoche, a secondary institution inVersailles, which he attended for the following two years.[11]
At the age of 18, Popov enrolled in theUniversity of Belgrade, seeking anundergraduate degree in law. Over the next four years, he became a familiar face in Belgrade's cafes and nightclubs, and had the reputation of aladies' man.[14] "Women ... found him irresistible,"Times columnist Ben Macintyre writes, "with his easy manner, loose, sensual mouth ... and green ... bedroom eyes."[15] In 1934, Popov enrolled in theUniversity of Freiburg, intent on securing a doctorate in law.Germany had only recently come under the rule ofAdolf Hitler and theNazi Party, but at the time, Popov paid little regard to politics. He had chosen Freiburg because it was relatively close to his native country and he was eager to improve his German-language skills. Germany was already the site ofmass book burnings, the firstconcentration camps had been established and the systematic persecution ofJews had commenced.[14]
Popov began his studies at the University of Freiburg in the autumn of 1935, and in subsequent months, began showing greater interest in politics and voiced his political opinions more vigorously.[16] Around the same time, he befriended a fellow student, Johnny Jebsen, the son of a German shipping magnate. The two grew close, largely due to their raucous lifestyle and a shared interest in sports vehicles.[15] In 1936–37, Popov began participating in debates at theAusländer Club, which were held every other Friday evening. He was disappointed that many foreign students appeared to be swayed by the pro-Nazi arguments espoused there. Popov discovered that the German debaters were all hand-picked party members who chose the subject of each debate beforehand and vigorously rehearsed Nazi talking points. He persuaded Jebsen, then the president of the club, to inform him of the debate topics in advance and passed this information along to the British and American debaters. Popov himself delivered two speeches at the club, arguing in favour of democracy.[17] He also wrote several articles for the BelgradedailyPolitika, ridiculing the Nazis. "Duško despised Nazism," biographer Larry Loftis writes, "and since he wasn't German, he believed he owed no allegiance to Hitler or the state."[16]
In the summer of 1937, Popov completed his doctoral thesis, and decided to celebrate by embarking on a trip to Paris. Before he could leave, he was arrested by theGestapo, who accused him of being acommunist. His movements had been tracked by undercover agents beforehand and his acquaintances questioned. Popov was incarcerated at the Freiburg prison without formal proceedings.[18] When Jebsen received news of his friend's arrest, he called Popov's father and informed him of what had occurred. Popov's father contacted YugoslavPrime MinisterMilan Stojadinović, who raised the issue withHermann Göring, and after eight days in captivity, Popov was released. He was ordered to leave Germany within 24 hours, and upon collecting his belongings, boarded a train forSwitzerland.[19] He soon arrived inBasel and found Jebsen waiting for him on the station platform. Jebsen informed Popov of the role he played in securing his release. Popov expressed gratitude and told Jebsen that if he was ever in need of any assistance he needed only ask.[20]
Upon his return to Dubrovnik in the fall of 1937, Popov began practicing law.[21] In February 1940, he received a message from Jebsen, asking to meet him at the Hotel Serbian King in Belgrade. Popov was shocked to find Jebsen a nervous wreck, chain smoking and drinking exorbitantly. He told Popov that he had joined his family's shipping business after graduating from Freiburg and explained that he needed a Yugoslav shipping license to evade theAllied naval blockade atTrieste. Popov agreed to help Jebsen, and the latter travelled back toBerlin to collect the required documentation.[22] Two weeks later, Jebsen returned to Belgrade, and informed Popov that he had joined theAbwehr, German'smilitary intelligence service, as aForscher (researcher).
Jebsen's ability to travel across Europe on business trips would remain unimpeded so long as he submitted reports detailing the information he had received from his business contacts. He told Popov he joined theAbwehr to avoid being conscripted into theWehrmacht.[23] Jebsen said military service was not an option because he suffered fromvaricose veins.[24] The news came as a surprise to Popov, as his friend had previously expressed anti-Nazi views.[23]
Popov informed Clement Hope, apassport control officer at the British legation in Yugoslavia. Hope enrolled Popov as a double agent with the codename Scoot (he was later known to his handler as Tricycle), and advised him to cooperate with Jebsen.[25] Once accepted as a double agent, Popov moved toLondon. His international business activities in an import-export business provided cover for visits toneutralPortugal; its capital,Lisbon, was linked to the UK by a weekly civilian air service for most of the war. Popov used his cover position to report periodically to his Abwehr handlers in Portugal. Popov fed enoughMI6-approved information to the Germans to keep them happy and unaware of his actions,[26] and was well-paid for his services. The assignments given to him were of great value to the British in assessing enemy plans and thinking.[26]
His most important deception[citation needed] was convincing the Germans that theD-Day landings would be inCalais, notNormandy, and was able to report back to MI6 that they fell for this deception, which corroboratedBletchley Park's decryption ofLorenz cipher machine messages.[citation needed] Popov was famous for his playboy lifestyle, while carrying out perilous wartime missions for the British.[27]
In 1941, Popov repeatedly travelled to Portugal during his missions. He stayed inEstoril, at the Hotel Palácio, in January and March 1941, then again between 29 June and 10 August 1941.[28] During his stay, he metIan Fleming, at the time working for the British Royal Navy. They both shared a mission atCasino Estoril, and it is believed that Popovserved as inspiration for the character ofJames Bond in Fleming’s novels.[29]
After this last stay, he was dispatched to the United States by the Abwehr to establish a new German network.[30] He was given ample funds and an intelligence questionnaire (a list of intelligence targets, later published as an appendix toJ.C. Masterman's bookThe Double Cross System). Of the three typewritten pages of the questionnaire, one entire page was devoted to highly detailed questions about US defences atPearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island ofOahu. He made contact with theFBI and explained what he had been asked to do.
During a televised interview, Duško Popov related having informed the FBI on 12 August 1941 of the impendingattack on Pearl Harbor. Either the FBI chiefJ. Edgar Hoover did not report this fact to his superiors[31] or they, for reasons of their own, took no action.
Hoover distrusted Popov because he was a double agent although MI6 had told the FBI inNew York City that he would be arriving. Popov himself said Hoover was quite suspicious and distrustful of him and, according to author William "Mole" Wood, when Hoover discovered Popov had brought a woman fromNew York State to Florida, threatened to have him arrested under theMann Act if he did not leave the US immediately.
Popov borrowed £10,000 from his lover the French film actressSimone Simon in late 1942 (equivalent to £600,000 in 2025) shortly before he left for Portugal. He did not repay her when they broke up in 1943.[32]
In 1944, Popov became a key part of the deception operation codenamedFortitude, which was when the Allies were trying to convince Germany that they (the Allies) were going to storm Calais and not Normandy. At the time of the operation, he was staying in Portugal. He stayed inEstoril once again, at the Hotel Palácio, between 31 March and 12 April 1944.[28] When Jebsen was arrested by the Gestapo in Lisbon, the British feared Popov had been compromised and ceased giving him critical information to pass along to the Germans. It was later discovered that the Abwehr still regarded Popov as an asset and he was brought back into use by the British. Jebsen's death at the hands of the Nazis had a profound emotional impact on Popov.
In 1972,John Cecil Masterman publishedThe Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, an intimate account of wartime British military deception. Before its publication, Popov had no intention of revealing his wartime activities, believing that the MI6 would not allow it. Masterman's book convinced Popov that it was time to make his exploits public. In 1974, Popov published an autobiography titledSpy/Counterspy, "a racy account of his adventures that read like aJames Bond novel."Russel Miller described it as "fundamentally accurate, if occasionally embellished". Several of the events described in the book were either entirely fictional, such as a fistfight Popov claimed to have had with a German agent, exaggerated for dramatic effect, or could not be substantiated through subsequently declassified intelligence records.[33] Popov's wife and children were apparently unaware of his past until the book's publication.[34]
By the early 1980s, years of chain smoking and heavy drinking had taken a toll on Popov's health. He died inOpio on 10 August 1981, aged 69.[35] His family said his death came after a long illness.[36] He was predeceased by his brother Ivo, who died in 1980.[35] Shortly after Popov's death, MI6 began declassifying documents that pertained to Allied intelligence-gathering and disinformation activities during the war, thereby verifying many of his claims.[34]
Duško Popov is considered one of the main inspirations forIan Fleming's James Bond novels. He was the subject of a one-hour television documentary produced byStarz Inc. andCinenova, titledTrue Bond, which aired in June 2007. Two other documentaries recounting Popov's exploits,The Real Life James Bond: Dusko Popov andDouble Agent Dusko Popov: Inspiration for James Bond, have also been produced.[37] Popov has also been the subject of several biographies, notably Miller'sCodename Tricycle (2004) and Loftis'Into the Lion's Mouth (2016).[38][39]
He is the subject of numerous podcasts, including the opening season ofWondery'sThe spy who,The spy who inspired 007 (2024).
