They Met in Casablanca or the White House?

You probably have heard the story....In January, 1943 FDR, Churchill, and DeGaulle met in Casablanca to discuss the war. With part of Morocco being under control of Spain, there were a number of locals who spoke Spanish. Nazi spies who spoke Spanish were in Casablanca and found out about the conference ahead of time. They wired Berlin so that Berlin could take whatever action necessary to swoop in and bomb, or assassinate the 3 leaders.

Only problem is the wire was sent to Berlin in Spanish, and Berlin, in reading the note, interpreted Casablanca in its English form- White House. Thinking that the leaders were all meeting in Washington DC the Nazis did nothing, and lost a great opportunity to disrupt the war by cutting off the heads of the decison-makers.

Now I have searched online where I found that no one is certain whether it is true or not, and I saw it on a forum in here described as a joke. But 25 years ago, before the internet, a veteran who was in the OSS in WW2 first told me the story, and swore it was accurate.

So I don't really know. Can anyone vouch for its truth or falsehood?

Thanks in advance.

 

I am eagerly awaiting an answer now as well. Good question and good story whether true or not.

 

Plotters seeking to assassinate the leaders of the United Nations faced the tiny problem that Morocco was occupied by the US Army under the command of Patton, with a mission to protect the world leaders.

With foreknowledge the Germans could have intercepted Churchill and his entourage in one of his many flights around the world, including flying to Moscow around the Caucasus and Stalingrad battlefields. Probably the easiest place would have been over the Bay of Biscay where Ju88 fighters occasionally intercepted transport flights. The actor Leslie Howard the star of "First of the Few" was killed when his aircraft was shot down..