Eddie Chapman
Eddie Chapman | |
---|---|
British Security Service (MI5) | |
Service years | 1943–1945 |
Codename | Zigzag |
German codename(s) | Fritz, Fritzchen |
Operation | Damp Squib |
Edward Arnold Chapman (16 November 1914 – 11 December 1997) was an English criminal and wartime spy. During the
He had a number of criminal aliases known by the British police, amongst them Edward Edwards, Arnold Thompson and Edward Simpson. His German codename was Fritz or, later, after endearing himself to his German contacts, its diminutive form of Fritzchen.
Background
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Chapman was born on 16 November 1914 in
Aged 17, Chapman joined the Second Battalion of the
Chapman returned to Soho and spent some time working casual jobs, from barman to film extra, but his lifestyle outstripped his earnings – gambling debts and a taste for fine alcohol soon left him broke. He slipped into fraud and petty theft and, after several run-ins with the law, finally received his first civilian prison sentence, two months in
Chapman was arrested in Scotland and charged with blowing up the safe of the headquarters of the Edinburgh Co-operative Society. Let out on bail, he fled to Jersey in the Channel Islands, where he unsuccessfully attempted to continue his criminal career. Chapman had been dining with his lover and future fiancée Betty Farmer at the Hotel de la Plage immediately before his arrest and, when he saw plain-clothes police coming to arrest him for crimes on the mainland, made a spectacular exit through the dining room window (which was shut at the time). Later that same night he committed a slapdash burglary for which he had to immediately begin serving two years in a Jersey prison, which, ironically, spared him at least 14 more years' imprisonment in a mainland prison afterwards.
Second World War
Chapman was still in prison when the Channel Islands were invaded by the Germans.[4] While incarcerated he met the petty criminal Anthony Faramus. Following a letter in German which they concocted to get off the Island, they were transferred to Fort de Romainville in Paris. There, Chapman confirmed his willingness to act as a German spy. Under the direction of Captain Stephan von Gröning , head of the Abwehr in Nantes, he was trained in explosives, radio communications, parachute jumping and other subjects in France at La Bretonnière-la-Claye, Saint-Julien-des-Landes, near Nantes, and dispatched to Britain to commit acts of sabotage.[5]
On 16 December 1942, Chapman was flown to Britain in a
The British secret services had been aware of Chapman's existence for some time, via
However, these plans proved unnecessary; Chapman surrendered to the local police shortly after landing and offered his services to MI5.[5] He was interrogated at Latchmere House in southwest London, better known as Camp 020. MI5 decided to use him as a double agent against the Germans and assigned Ronnie Reed as his case officer (Reed, a former BBC engineer, had been invited to join MI5 in 1940 and remained there until his retirement in 1976).[5]
Faked sabotage of de Havilland factory
During the night of 29–30 January 1943, Chapman with MI5 officers faked a sabotage attack on his target, the de Havilland aircraft factory in Hatfield, where the Mosquito was being manufactured.[5][9] German reconnaissance aircraft photographed the site, and the faked damage convinced Chapman's German controllers that the attack had been successful.[10] To reinforce this story, MI5 also wrote and had published a story in the British newspaper the Daily Express.[11]
Following the de Havilland subterfuge, B1A began preparations for Chapman's return to his German handlers. Radio messages were sent to the Abwehr requesting extraction by boat or submarine, and Chapman was set to work learning a cover story ready for the inevitable interrogations. However, the response from the Abwehr was lukewarm. They refused to send a U-boat and told Chapman to return via Lisbon, Portugal. This was not a simple method, as he had no valid reason to travel to the neutral port. Reed, and other members of B1A, believed this demonstrated the Germans' reluctance to pay Chapman the £15,000 he had been promised.[12]
In the meantime Chapman was subjected to fake interrogation at Camp 020, to make sure his story held up. Reed told him to stick as close to the truth as possible, to help make the lies more realistic, and he was coached in speaking slowly to cover any hesitations. Stephens was impressed with how well Chapman responded to questioning.[12]
Portugal and Operation Damp Squib
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MI5 was eager for Chapman to return, hoping that as a trusted asset, he could pick up significant information about the enemy. He was given the task of memorising a list of questions to which the Allies wanted answers. The list was carefully constructed so that, should Chapman be broken, its content would not show German intelligence the gaps in Allied knowledge.[13]
To get Chapman to Lisbon, it was decided he would join the crew of a merchant ship, and jump ship when it docked in Portugal. A fake identity, Hugh Anson, was constructed and the relevant paperwork was obtained before Chapman joined the crew of The City of Lancaster, sailing out of Liverpool. On making contact with Germans at their Lisbon embassy, he suggested an attempt at blowing up the ship with a bomb disguised as a lump of coal to be placed in the coal bunker. This was in response to a request from Britain's anti-sabotage section that he obtain examples of German explosive devices.
He was given two bombs, which he handed to the ship's captain. The Germans did not notice the ship was not damaged on the voyage home,[7][14] but to avoid the Germans' doubting Chapman's commitment, the British staged a conspicuous investigation of the ship when it returned to Britain, ensuring gossip would make its way back to the Germans.[15]
Chapman was sent to
Return to London
After Operation Overlord he was sent back to Britain to report on the accuracy of the V-1 weapon and the Hedgehog antisubmarine weapon. He parachuted into Cambridgeshire on 29 June 1944 and went to London. Here he consistently reported to the Germans that the bombs were hitting their central London target, when in fact they were undershooting. Perhaps as a result of this disinformation, the Germans never corrected their aim, with the end result that most bombs landed in the south London suburbs or the Kent countryside, doing far less damage than they otherwise might have done.[20]
During this period he was also involved in doping of dogs in greyhound racing and was associating with criminal elements in West End nightclubs. He was also indiscreet about the sources of his income and so MI5, being unable to control him, dismissed him on 2 November 1944.[7] Chapman was given a £6,000 payment from MI5 and was allowed to keep £1,000 of the money the Germans had given him. He was granted a pardon for his pre-war activities and was reported by MI5 to have been living "in fashionable places in London always in the company of beautiful women of apparent culture".[19]
Love life
Chapman had two fiancées at the same time, each in opposite war zones. He was still betrothed to Freda Stevenson in Britain when he met Dagmar Lahlum in Norway. Stevenson was being financially assisted through MI5, and Lahlum was being treated by von Gröning.[21][failed verification] During Chapman's stay in Norway, he revealed to Dagmar that he was a British agent, but fortunately Dagmar was linked to the Norwegian resistance. She was thrilled to know that her lover was not a German officer, and they worked together to gather German information.[22]
He abandoned both women after the war and instead married his former lover Betty Farmer, whom he had left in a hurry at the Hotel de la Plage in 1938. He and Farmer later had a daughter Suzanne in 1954. Dagmar served a six-month prison sentence for consorting with an apparently German officer: thinking that Chapman was dead, she was unable to prove that he was a British agent. They met again briefly in 1994. Chapman died before he was able to redeem her name.[citation needed]
After the war
On his retirement, MI5 expressed some apprehension that Chapman might take up crime again when his money ran out and if caught would plead for leniency because of his highly secret wartime service. As predicted, he mixed with blackmailers and thieves and got into trouble with the police for various crimes, including smuggling gold across the Mediterranean in 1950.[23] More than once he had a character reference from former intelligence officers who confirmed his great contribution to the war effort.[24]
Chapman had his wartime memoirs serialised in France to earn money, but he was charged alongside co-defendant Wilfred Macartney under the Official Secrets Act and fined £50.[25] A few years later, when they were due to be published in the News of the World, the whole issue was pulped. However, his book The Eddie Chapman Story was eventually published in 1953.[7]
Chapman ghost-wrote the autobiography of Eric Pleasants, a British citizen who joined the Germans and served in the British Free Corps of the Waffen-SS during the war. Chapman claimed to have met Pleasants while he was imprisoned in Jersey. I Killed to Live – The Story of Eric Pleasants as Told to Eddie Chapman was published in 1957.[26] In 1967, Chapman was living in Italy and went into business as an antiquarian.[27]
Chapman and his wife later set up a
In popular culture
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In the 1950s producer Ted Banborough announced plans to make a film about Chapman starring Michael Rennie or Stanley Baker, but this did not go ahead.[28]
He appeared as himself on the panel game show To Tell the Truth in November 1965.[29]
The 1966 film
In 1967 French TV (
In May 1989 Chapman made an
References
Notes
- ^ a b Macintyre (2007), p. 5
- ^ Tallandier (2011), p. 23
- ^ a b Macintyre (2007), pp. 6–7
- ^ NationalArchives (28 March 1943). "KV 2 The Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files; World War II; Double Agent Operations; KV 2/461 Edward Arnold Chapman, code-named Zigzag: British". The National Archives.
- ^ a b c d e "Eddie Chapman (Agent Zigzag)". MI5. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ a b Macintyre (2007), pp. 102–104
- ^ a b c d e f g Max Arthur, Obituary: Eddie Chapman , The Independent, 6 January 1998
- ^ a b Macintyre (2007), pp. 105–108
- ^ Obituary, telegraph.co.uk; accessed 2 August 2016.
- ISBN 978-1107000995.
- ^ "Eddie Chapman | MI5 - The Security Service". www.mi5.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ a b Macintyre (2007), pp. 176–177
- ^ Macintyre 1963, Ben (2007). Agent Zigzag : the true wartime story of Eddie Chapman : lover, betrayer, hero, spy.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Ben Macintyre on a BBC TV programme 15 November 2011
- ^ Macintyre (2007) p. 222
- ISBN 0749951567) page 224
- ^ See Macintyre, 2007, pp 231 with photo and 286.
- ^ How double agents duped the Nazis BBC 5 July 2001
- ^ a b Smith, Michael.ZigZag, a womaniser and thief who double-crossed the Nazis, The Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2001.
- ISBN 0749951567), pp. 280–81.
- ^ a b "Edward Arnold Chapman – Agent 0747587949/ZIGZAG" (PDF). Bloomsbury Publishing. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2008.
- ^ "BBC Timewatch Eddie Chapman on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ Bletchley Park Trust Museum display on Eddie Chapman
- ^ Goldstein, Richard (20 December 1997). "Eddie Chapman, 83, Safecracker and Spy". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- ^ "Secrets Case Heard In Camera". The Times. 30 March 1946. p. 2.
- ^ I Killed To Live - the Story of Eric Pleasants as Told to Eddie Chapman Cassell & Company Ltd. 1957.
- ^ Pierre Dumayet (Journalist: Pierre Dumayet, Eddie Chapman, ex-gangster, ex-espion. Serie: Cinq colonnes à la une. Producer.: JP Gallo. Broadcast 6 January 1967,) Eddie Chapman, ex-gangster, ex-espion. Producer: J-P Gallo. 6 January 1967.
- ^ "Eddie Chapman may visit Sydney: Movie Plans For Ex-spy". The Sun-Herald (Sydney, NSW: 1953–1954). Sydney, NSW: National Library of Australia. 7 November 1954. p. 21. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
- ^ "Chapman, Bruce and Pemminger". To Tell the Truth. 8 November 1965. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- ^ Macintyre (2007 revised 2010) p318
- IMDb
- ^ Plummer, Christopher In Spite of Myself: A Memoir 2008 Knopf
- ^ INA has released the video on its official Youtube site.["Eddie Chapman, ex-gangster, ex-espion" (in French). Ina.fr. Retrieved 3 December 2021.]
- ^ Macintyre, Ben (2011). "Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story". Walkergeorgefilms.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
Bibliography
- Edward Chapman and Frank Owen The Eddie Chapman Story, Pub: Messner, New York City, 1953 (ASIN B0000CIO9B)
- Nicholas Booth, Zigzag – The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman, 2007, Portrait, London (ISBN 0749951567)
- ISBN 978-0-7475-8794-1.
- Reed, Nicholas (2011). My Father, the Man Who Never Was: Ronnie Reed, The Life and Times of an MI5 Officer, pp. 60–92. Folkestone: Lilburne Press. ISBN 978-1-901167-21-4.
- Tallandier, Ed (2011). Eddie Chapman, Ma Fantastique histoire. Texto. ISBN 978-2-84734-822-4.
- ISBN 9780099578239.
- Chapman, Betty; Bonewitz, Dr. Ronald L. (2013). Mrs Zigzag: The Extraordinary Life of a Secret Agent's Wife. London: The History Press. ISBN 9780752488134.
External links
- WHERE THE RABBIT IS LIKELY TO PASS US Defence Intelligence Agency uses Eddie Chapman case as an example] by A Denis Clift, President Joint Military Intelligence College Harvard University 15 January 2002
- Obituary Eddie Chapman – The Telegraph 1997
- Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story at bbc.co.uk, first broadcast 15 November 2011