Pas de Calais was the smart choice for an invasion by the Allies in 1944 - it had a port that could easily be used for the largest ships and was a short distance to England.
A BBC story details how Juan Pujol Garcia ("Alaric Arabel"), a Spanish businessman who was one of the war's most effective double agents, had the Nazis believing he ran a spy network inside the UK. Combined with the Enigma codebreakers, who could intercept and decipher German messages confirming they believed a spearhead would still arrive at Calais, thus preventing them from reinforcing the Normandy coast as the actual D-Day invasion happened, and the BBC story shows for the first time a recently discovered document detailing the deception and how well it worked, even after the landings had occurred.
