Juan Pujol García

Juan Pujol García, a man whose real life read more like a John le Carré novel than, well, real life, managed to convince the Germans he was their most valuable spy, all while working for the British. His motivation? A profound distaste for fascism after witnessing atrocities in the Spanish Civil War. Apparently, some people just prefer the good guys to win, and are willing to invent an entire phalanx of non-existent agents to make it happen.

Operating initially from Lisbon with little more than a map and a boundless imagination, Pujol constructed an elaborate phantom network of 27 sub-agents across Britain. He fed the Abwehr (German military intelligence) a steady diet of expertly crafted, plausible but ultimately useless information, even going so far as to blame a fictional agent's "illness" for missing a crucial report, adding a touch of verisimilitude.

His crowning achievement, however, was Operation Fortitude, the D-Day deception. Pujol convinced the Germans that the main invasion force would land at Pas-de-Calais, not Normandy, tying up vital German divisions and ensuring the Allied landings were less fiercely opposed. For his troubles, he received both the Iron Cross from Germany and the MBE from Britain. Talk about playing both sides of the fence, and winning.

Despite a somewhat unremarkable start in life as a chicken farm manager, Pujol proved that all you need to change the course of history is a typewriter, a good imagination, and a complete lack of moral qualms about lying to Nazis. If that's not kvell-worthy, what is?