A double secret agent

Sounds amazing during World War II, the unthinkable happened! Japanese planes attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii! Prior to this, no one believed that the United States could be attacked on its territory and thus drawn into World War II ... i.e. no one but this man!

Dusko Popov was a Yugoslav spy during World War II. Popov was also a professional gambler, a well-known womanizer, and his paths intersected with Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.

In the world of elite espionage, intrigue and "real" secret agents in which little is known with certainty, one name is still regularly mentioned and cited as a role model - Dusko Popov. He was the most successful spy during World War II, a double agent trusted by both Churchill and Hitler, and a likely role model for the famous 007 agent James Bond, created by writer Ian Fleming.

He was born in Titel in southern Bačka, in a rich family. He lived in the center of Belgrade, but the family moved to Dubrovnik in the 1930s.

He attended the best schools, and in 1936 he completed his law studies in Freiburg. There he met Johann Jebsen - a man who would become his best friend, but also change his life forever.

Duško Popov spoke excellent Italian, German, French and English. He despised the Nazis and looked with disgust at their rise to power and the later discrimination they perpetrated against the Jews.

However, at the beginning of 1940, when the Second World War was already in full swing, but Yugoslavia still managed to remain neutral, it was Jebsen who invited him to join Abwehr, the German intelligence service.

"Dusko was surprised and stunned because he knew that Johnny was against Nazism. I think Johnny told him something crucial: "The best way to beat someone is to be on that team."

- said Marko Popov, the son of a secret agent in the documentary "Secrets of War: Double Agent Tricycle".

However, Dusko's friend's plan was even bolder - he suggested that they become "double agents" who would work for the Germans, and actually collect information for the allies.

And so the secret agent Popov was born… For the Germans code-named "Ivan", for the British "Tricycle".

Dusko Popov's life was a life full of danger, on the route Lisbon (which was the seat of European espionage at the time) - London (where he regularly reported to the British on German plans and received false information that was to be submitted to the Reich).

Somewhere in that communication, Popov came into possession of an incredible piece of information - in 1941 the Japanese planned to attack the US naval base in Pearl Harbor with bombers, and he was given the task by "Abwehr" - German intelligence, to go to the US and gather information about the port of Pearl Harbor.

Upon his arrival in America, Popov went to the FBI headquarters and told them that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor. However, his warnings were not taken seriously, and the director of the agency - John Edgar Hoover, showed open hostility towards Popov.

- Hoover was an extraordinary man in many ways. He was probably gay, he hated strangers, and especially Duško. He hated playboys and everything related to Dusko - said Russell Miller, a British author and journalist who researched the life of an agent from Yugoslavia.

Because of all of the above, Popov's admission to the FBI was cold, and Hoover did not believe his story.

A few months later, on December 7, 1941, he probably repented. But it was too late.

By the end of the war, Popov had managed to extract over $ 2 million in value from the Germans for the needs of the "secret network of Nazis in Britain" which he had in fact passed on to the Allies.

Also, his role in “Day D” was crucial. He managed to draw the attention of the Nazis from Normandy to inflated tanks and fake military troops strategically deployed in other parts of the coast with false reports. This action was called "Fortitude".

Real James Bond?

The legend of James Bond probably originated in the casino of the Lisbon hotel "Palacio". A British secret service agent in charge of tracking Popov watched as Popov invested $ 80,000 to force his opponent to give up.

That agent was Ian Fleming, and his first novel about Agent 007 was called “Casino Royale” and it contained an identical scene.

The real agent Popov had other characteristics of his fictional double - he loved drinks, expensive cars and above all - women! At one time, he was in a relationship with the famous French actress and beauty of the time Simon Simon.

When Ian Fleming became famous for his novels about a secret agent in "Her Majesty's Service", Publishers Weekly wrote: "That charming, enchanting young Yugoslav playboy who served as a role model for Jan Fleming to create the character of James Bond was incredibly brave. and successful ”.

After the war, Popov ventured into business waters and was quite successful in international trade. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for war services, and after the veil of secrecy was removed from war intelligence operations in 1972, in 1974 he published the autobiography "Spy-Counter-Spy" (translated as "Spy called a tricycle" in our country). .

He died in a family circle at his villa on the Cote d’Azur in 1981, at a very old age, from spinal cancer - the same disease from which Ian Fleming died. It certainly wasn’t the only inspiration to Fleming for the character of secret agent James Bond, but it’s also undeniable that he was one of the main inspirations for the famous 007.

Several books and documentaries have been written about Popov, especially the short film about Duško Popov, made by the young Bjelovar director Igor Pečenjev in 2015 as a graduate of the Prague Film Academy and graduated with him as the best in class. With this excellent film, Bjelovar also took its place in the legend of a man named Popov, Duško Popov