Tricycle (World War II)
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Tricycle was the codename of both Dusko Popov (Душко Попов), and the spy network with which he was involved. According to the National Enquirer, author Ian Fleming patterned James Bond 007 after him.
Fleming worked in British naval intelligence during World War II and was detailed to trail the charismatic spy, who was eventually recruited to work as a double agent for the British.
Dusko Popov was a young, wealthy Yugoslav businessman, who managed to continue a playboy existence while carrying out perilous wartime missions for the United Kingdom.
Signed up as a spy by the Nazis early in the war, Popov, who hated them, immediately offered his services to the United Kingdom. He was accepted as a double agent (codenamed Tricycle) and came to live in London.
His international business activities provided cover for visits to neutral Portugal, which was linked to the United Kingdom by a weekly civil air service for most of the war.
There Popov fed enough MI5-approved information to the Germans to keep them happy, and was well paid for his services.
The assignments they gave him were of great value to the British in assessing enemy plans and thinking.
Popov was despatched to the United States by the Abwehr to gather information. He made contact with the FBI and explained what he had been asked to do. One of the items on their list was information about Pearl Harbor.
Unfortunately the FBI chief, J. Edgar Hoover, disliked him and ignored the information.
Popov was a worthy predecessor to the fictional spy James Bond. He stayed at the best hotels, ate at top restaurants, visited smart casinos, and was a compulsive womaniser.
Popov died in 1981 aged 69, leaving behind a widow and three sons.
Dusko Popov published his memoirs "Spy, Counterspy" in 1974.
See also
External links
- A Yugoslavian spy inspired Fleming to create Bond? (http://www.mi6forums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=17840)