A Plan to Be Captured: How Three American Commandos Deceived Their Nazi Captors Before D-Day

In the spring of 1944, three elite commandos parachuted into Hungary. The country was aligned with Nazi Germany, and these men intended to be captured in what was meant to look like a failed operation. Their real mission was to help Hungary switch to the Allied side. But three days later, Germany launched a preemptive invasion. The men were captured by the Nazis, imprisoned, and interrogated. They used their interrogation as a chance to fool Adolf Hitler into thinking an Allied invasion would come from southeastern Europe, drawing German troops away from Normandy ahead of D-Day. Author Jason Bell unravels this daring and untold story in his new book, Operation Sparrow.

Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/@sasha-ingber 

For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: ⁠https://www.spymuseum.org/⁠

And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at ⁠spycast@spymuseum.org⁠.

This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.