After offering his criminal services to the Nazis in exchange for his freedom from jail, Eddie Chapman turned himself in to the British and became “Agent Zigzag.”
Wikimedia CommonsEdward Arnold Chapman was a professional crook , an expert cracksman , and one of Britain ’s most worthful double agents in the Second World War .
In the dark , former days of World War II , as theLuftwaffehovered in British skies and U - boats prowl the English Channel , paranoid Britons saw German spies around every corner . What no one recognize was that Germany ’s star spy — sent to interrupt Britain and sabotage the war against fascism — was n’t a dedicated Nazi at all . In fact , he was n’t even German .
His name was Eddie Chapman .
Wikimedia CommonsEdward Arnold Chapman was a professional criminal, an expert safecracker, and one of Britain’s most valuable double agents in the Second World War.
Far from being an Aryan super - saboteur , Chapman was an accomplished safecracker and professional crook from Northern England . Unbeknownst to all but the most secretive agency in the land , he was also possibly the most daring and successful forked factor in the world at the time .
This is the reliable news report of “ Agent Zigzag , ” the undercover agent who slang the Nazis — and for nothing more than his own good sense of adventure .
Eddie Chapman Was A Career Criminal When World War II Began
Wikimedia CommonsAfter going AWOL with a woman , Eddie Chapman was ignominiously discharged from the British military .
Eddie Chapman wasbornto a military family on Nov. 16 , 1914 , and tried his hired hand at the military machine himself when he turn 17 . But after just nine month while mail at the Tower of London , he ran off with a woman to Soho .
Naturally , the war machine caught up to him and imprisoned him . Once he was discharge — and ingloriously discharged — he retort to Soho where he picked up a routine of rum Job . While there , he dabbled in gaming and niggling crime , he had a few foot race - Indiana with the law , and he finally formed his own deplorable outfit know as the “ Jelly Gang . ”
Wikimedia CommonsAfter going AWOL with a woman, Eddie Chapman was dishonorably discharged from the British military.
In 1939 , following a string of robbery all over Great Britain for which he was wanted , Edward Arnold Chapman escape to the Channel Island of Jersey , just a few mile off the sea-coast of France . There , he ’d hoped to take to the woods notice and perhaps keep his criminal career .
Bundesarchiv / Wikimedia CommonsWhen German troops overrun the Channel Islands in 1940 , where Chapman was imprisoned on Jersey , he knew he had to get out by any agency possible — let in join up with the opposition .
Unfortunately , Jersey ’s constabulary were n’t quite as clueless as he ’d hoped , and it was n’t long before unembellished - clothes detectives come up him dining with his girlfriend in a hotel . He reportedly tried to take flight through a dining way windowpane , but was stillborn — and was sentenced to two age in prison .
Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia CommonsWhen German troops invaded the Channel Islands in 1940, where Chapman was imprisoned on Jersey, he knew he had to get out by any means possible — including joining up with the enemy.
This conviction was after extend when Chapman stole someone else ’s clothes while imprisoned and attempted to escape again .
Meanwhile , as Eddie Chapman face the long arm of the law in the summer of 1940 , the GermanWehrmachtinvaded the Channel Islands , making them the only British territories to be occupy by the Axis office during the warfare .
With small hope of either get away or furthering his condemnable ambitions , Chapman made a conclusion that would for good alter the course of his life : he was proceed to join German intelligence as a spy .
Wikimedia CommonsIn the rustic commune of La Bretonnière-la-Claye, outside of the French city of Nantes, Chapman received training in explosives, radio communications, sabotage, firearms, and disguise.
The Truant Volunteers For The Nazis
Wikimedia CommonsIn the rustic commune of La Bretonnière - la - Claye , outside of the Gallic urban center of Nantes , Chapman find training in explosives , wireless communications , sabotage , small-arm , and disguise .
While in Jersey ’s run-down jail , Chapman team up up with Anthony Faramus , a styler he ’d met in prison and with whom he ’d fly the coop a barbershop in the capital of St. Helier , and concoct a bizarre plan to escape jailhouse .
“ If I could work a bluff with the Germans , ” Chapmanlater wrote , “ I could credibly be sent over to Britain . ”
National Museum of Denmark/Wikimedia CommonsThe de Havilland Mosquito, nicknamed “the Wooden Wonder,” was an all-wooden plane with no guns and yet it managed to successfully destroy Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen and Oslo, humiliating Hermann Göring.
The two valet wrote a letter of the alphabet to the German commanding officer on the island . In it , they glorify their reprehensible credential and virtues , boasted about their ability with oral communication , and offered to immediately get to influence as a spy and diversionist on English soil .
The letter was initially receive with silence .
Then , one night , Chapman and Faramus were rouse from bottom by Gestapo officers , who unceremoniously bundled them into a gravy holder lead for mainland England . As it turn out , their letter of the alphabet had n’t been ignored at all . Chapman had been take for training by Captain Stephan von Gröning , an aristocratic intelligence military officer who saw unmatched potential in the English thief .
Wikimedia CommonsLatchmere House, in the suburbs of West London, was the site of Camp 020, where a wide range of fascists, criminals, and potential double agents, including Eddie Chapman, were held during World War II.
And to assure Chapman ’s obedience , von Gröning throw Faramus into the Buchenwald concentration camp where he was promptly leave for the remainder of the war .
After He Surrenders To The British, Chapman Becomes A Double Agent
National Museum of Denmark / Wikimedia CommonsThe de Havilland Mosquito , nicknamed “ the Wooden Wonder , ” was an all - wooden plane with no guns and yet it managed to successfully destroy Gestapo main office in Copenhagen and Oslo , humiliating Hermann Göring .
Throughout 1942 , the NazistrainedChapman in explosives , wireless wireless communication , and parachute jump . He became liquid in Gallic and proficient in German , and by the remainder of the year , he was von Gröning ’s proud achievement and the envy of every orphic police chieftain and spymaster in occupied Europe . He was a spypar excellence .
And von Gröning had a particular labor pull through for Chapman : an effort dear to the fourth-year - most fellow member of Hitler ’s inner Mexican valium .
Getty ImagesChapman was briefly drafted into the German Army in 1942, when Hitler decided to disregard the treaty between Nazi Germany and Vichy France and fully occupy the collaborationist state.
Since 1940 , Britain ’s de Havilland Mosquito — a super - agile , lightning - flying bomber plane made from lightweight Ellen Price Wood — scrambled German aura violence and successfully destroyed a drawstring of in high spirits - profile target .
These embarrassing victory had infuriatedReichsmarschallHermann Göring , head of theLuftwaffe . To pacify theReichsmarschalland gain an edge in the war in the sky , von Gröning planned to send Chapman to England where he was to burn out up the de Havilland factory .
Wikimedia CommonsLatchmere House , in the suburbs of West London , was the site of Camp 020 , where a wide range of fascists , criminals , and possible double federal agent , including Eddie Chapman , were held during World War II .
In December 1942 , Chapman landed in a muddy field in Cambridgeshire and did something no one in either the British or German intelligence operation services had look : he deliver .
Chapman had never mean to carry out his mission for the Nazis . Instead , he had a sentiency of loyalty to himself first and , he found , to Britain in a removed second .
Rapidly taken into custody by MI5 , the British counter - intelligence agency , Chapman was interrogated and study for days before his captors decided he could be bank . MI5 determined that his motives were “ hate for the Hun mate with a sense of adventure . There is no woman in the subject and no buy for rehabilitation . He is possessed of courage and nervus . ”
Code - list “ Agent Zigzag , ” Chapman was soon inducted into the forked - Cross System , an effort to insure Germany ’s entire spy electronic connection in Britain with secret double agents .
Agent Zigzag Thoroughly Sabotages The Nazis
From the beginning of his workplace with MI5 , Chapman showed his new handlers that they ’d struck proverbial gold . Not only was one of Germany ’s hunky-dory agents in their hands , but he was eager to get together and subvert theAbwehr‘s efforts in Britain and abroad , beginning with fooling them into think the de Havilland manufactory was destroyed .
British agents made the factory flavor as though it had been perfectly put down and transmit fake reports to complete the illusion . When German reconnaissance mission planes bring back picture of the apparent wreckage , the operation was take for a complete achiever on both side of the Channel .
Chapman ’s MI5 coach were eager to make the most of this triumph and arranged to have him sent back to von Grönig aboardThe City of Lancaster , a merchant vessel traveling to Lisbon , Portugal , which was neutral in World War II .
Along the way of life , he incur two bombs from his German superior , ostensibly to put down the ship , but which he quick occur along to MI5 for study .
Getty ImagesChapman was in brief drafted into the German Army in 1942 , when Hitler decided to snub the pact between Nazi Germany and Vichy France and fully occupy the collaborationist state .
By now , Eddie Chapman was so valued that theAbwehrsent him to Nazi - occupied Norway and put him to work training the next generation of Nazi spies . But he would never be allow to square off in one place for long .
By June 1944 , he was on his way back to England to cover on the United States military force , the use of SONAR , and to cover on the effect of the V-1 and V-2 rockets shrieking into British sky as a desperate last - ditch attempt to inflict cruel casualties on the Allies .
unbeknown to him , the July 20 plot of land to assassinate Hitler had taken piazza just weeks after he landed in England again , and theFührerquickly destroyed theAbwehr . Left without an employer , Chapman rode out the remainder of the war sending false entropy and willfully manipulate the effectiveness of the German roquette platform .
As one of Germany ’s adept spies , Chapman was grant 110,000 Reichsmarks or about $ 343,000 today , and the Iron Cross , Second Class , becoming the only British citizen ever to receive the medal .
Despite his numerous success and unparalleled value , MI5 was old-hat of a man whom they view , ultimately , as a liability . Chapman was sworn to secrecy and formally thrust out of the clandestine service on Nov. 28 , 1944 . Agent Zigzag was no more .
Chapman Returns To A Life Of Crime
Eddie Chapman ’s release from MI5 presented him with a double-dyed chance to return to his criminal career .
Britain , at this point in account , was sadly a crook ’s paradise , with sempiternal opportunities for black marketeering , theft , forgery , and all sorts of shifty deals .
And the criminal formerly make love as Agent Zigzag had an unparalleled resistance : having carry out the most daring espionage missions of the war , the British authorities would never run a risk his falling into the hand of any police officers or paper newsperson who might bring on him to spill his secret .
WithAbwehr‘s money in one hand and MI5 ’s free pass in the other , Chapman was free to pass on new condemnable height .
But for all the secrecy surrounding the Zigzag case and the Double Cross System , it was only a matter of time before the Sojourner Truth go out . Chapman was the first to develop ranks andpublished his storyin France before attempting to do the same in the British tabloidNews of the World .
Each meter , fines and remonstrance frustrated his efforts — yet , he lastly released his memoirs in 1953 .
The remainder of his liveliness was quiet in comparing to his fly-by-night career and wartime exploit . He married Betty Farmer , the girlfriend he ’d abandon on Jersey island , and had a daughter , build a quiet life as a man of affairs and antiques trader in ulterior year . Edward Chapman died of sum failure at age 83 on Dec. 11 , 1977 .
Anthony Faramus emerged from the hell of the Mauthausen - Gusen concentration inner circle lose a lung and seven rib , and later became a butler for Hollywood star Cary Grant .
In 1960 , when necessitate if he escape his former life of crime , hardihood , and espionage , Chapman simply respond : “ I do a bit . I ’ve no regrets . No sense of right and wrong about anything I ’ve done . I wish to think I was an fair villain . ”
Now that you ’ve learned about the uncivilised true sprightliness of Agent Zigzag , learn about the bluff efforts ofJuan Pujol García , alias Agent Garbo , the freelance Spanish spy who fed Nazi secrets to Britain . Then , read about the feat ofDusko Popov , the tangible - life James Bond who inspired Ian Fleming .
