Eddie Chapman. Double Agent in WW2
16 November 1914 - 11 December 1997
Eddie was a wanted man, safe cracker, scoundrel, womaniser, conman, burglar. In today's language, a right smoothie! He had been caught jumped bail and fled to the Channel Islands, this was 1939. The rest is something out of fantasy fiction novels written by third rate, never to be believed, authors. But it wasn't - it was all quite true. He was the subject, in name only, of a Hollywood dramatisation starring Christopher Plummer as Eddie in Triple Cross. The film was directed by a friend of Eddie Chapman, Terence Young. Eddie died in the Canary's in 1997. Here is his story.
Eddie was born on 16th November 1914 and was the product of a home which saw a drunken father (much as my own). Born in Burnopfield Co Durham. After a brief Army career with the Coldstream Guards, he deserted and disappeared into a life of crime.** A safecracker working with West London gangs. His 'speciality' was Odeon Cinemas. He had affairs and was allegedly known to be blackmailing ladies of high society, although this was never admitted nor proved. On his way from doing a job in Edinburgh, on the Edinburgh Co-op, he was surrounded by squad cars and arrested. Amazingly he was let out on bail and fled to the Channel Islands. At the Hotel de la Plage he was dining with his girlfriend Betty Farmer when he observed two burly policemen approaching his table, so he jumped out of the window, it was closed, and tried to escape across the beach.
Later the same night he committed a burglary of a night club for which he was caught and sentenced to 2 years in the jail. Life on the occupied Channel Islands was harsh, and Chapman sought a way to return to Britain. This was to prove to be an ironic twist of fate and which was to launch him on his war time career as a master spy. Chapman was still in prison when the Channel Islands were invaded by the Germans. Chapman remarked that he did not even know they were at war! Seizing an opportunity, he wrote to the German Commandant offering his services to the Germans. He was moved from prison to prison and was eventually taken to the mainland, to occupied France, and imprisoned there. It was months before two officers appeared at his cell and asked him about his letter. He told them that he was facing 20 years in prison if he returned to the UK, so had decided to offer his services to the Germans, at a price! Ever the opportunist! The Abwehr (German Intelligence) was in a desperate position; it was getting only very low-quality intelligence out of Britain from its network of spies there. (In fact, though the Abwehr was unaware of this, MI5 had already caught almost all of the German spies in the UK and recruited several of them as double agents.)
Under the direction of Captain Stephan von Gröning, the Head of the German Intelligence Service in Occupied France, after interviews etc, he was selected and trained to be a spy for Germany. He was perfect! He was English so therefore invisible. Up to that point Germany had been having dismal failures with espionage in the UK, all their agents being captured on arrival. He began his training and part of his training was in Morse code. His exercise messages were however being intercepted by Bletchley Park's fabulous listening posts and they opened a dossier on this new 'spy' Agent Fritzen, as the Germans had called him. Britain was already expecting their latest capture! Some of his messages left blank faces in the rooms of the Secret Service- who was this Bobby he referred to in his messages, eating, gorging and making merry with the females!!! This puzzled the Secret Service no end! (Bobby was his pet pig! So names because of the British Bobby- eg: Police).
The messages were all triangulated to the locality of Nantes in France. British Intelligence were waiting ....................
He was dropped near Littleport Cambridgeshire on 16 December 1942 equipped with wireless, pistol, cyanide capsule and £990. The pilot remarked to his crew that he believed Agent Fritz had no chance. His mission was to sabotage the de Havilland aircraft factory at Hatfield. The home of the de Havilland Mosquito. However, as soon as he landed, he immediately surrendered himself to the local police and offered his services to MI5. The police drove him to London where he was interrogated at Latchmere House in West London, better known as Camp 020. Interrogated by the formidable Lt Col Robin "Tin Eye" Stephens, who owed his nickname to the steel-rimmed monocle which he wore at all times (even, it was said, in bed). The Colonel decided to 'take a chance' and gave Eddie Chapman the 'job'! "In our opinion, Chapman should be used to the fullest extent... he genuinely means to work for the British against the Germans. By his courage and resourcefulness he is ideally fitted to be an agent." In return Eddie asked only two things, a full pardon and he kept all the money that Germany paid him. In his case Eddie had £990 of used English notes but, in an incredible blunder by the Germans, the notes were bound by Reichbank holders!! Eddie Chapman thus became Agent ZIGZAG, one of the most important British double agents of the Second World War.
Eddie began his work as a British agent by being housed in a safe house in Hendon, where his radio was installed and a MI6 'handler' appointed, an expert on morse code, Robbie Reed, a former BBC sound engineer. Reed remained with MI6 after the war until his retirement in 1976. After confirming his safe arrival in England to Germany, Eddie reminded his new bosses that he had been sent to do a mission. He and Robbie travelled to Hatfield and, wearing overalls, simply walked though the gate with the other workers. He inspected the transformers which supplied all the power to the factory and declared this a most suitable site for the 'explosives'.
Chapman's Recce sketch
MI6 recruited Stage Set Designers from the Old Vic Theatre in London to do a fake explosion result for any aerial reconnaissance that would come including the painting in the still solid brick walls that looked remarkably real, camouflage netting was designed to show a devastated power station and draped over the site. Finally, in the night of 29th/30th Jan, MI5 rigged up an explosive which was all flash and noise but no power. After detonation, which was heard all over the area, fake papier-mache transformers were laid on their sides in full view. To put the icing on the explosion, they asked the Times to publish a report of an explosion which The Times refused, claiming that they had never printed lies, nor would they start now! The Daily Express, however, was only to pleased to print this and duly did.
The faked damage caused by the 'bomb' - note the 'painted' hole in the wall!
The British spotted a reconnaissance plane flying in from France and allowed it to progress, unmolested, to Hatfield, where it took photo's of the damage. Fairly soon afterwards, a message arrived on Chapmans' radio congratulating him on his work!! It had worked!! Germans most special agent was in business!
Image Courtesy of MI5
City of Lancaster
Travelling as Hugh Anson, he boarded the City of Lancaster and travelled to neutral Lisbon, the locations of hundreds of spies from all the countries involved, and probably others too. When he arrived he was given a job to do! He was to blow up the City of Lancaster by placing a piece of what looked like coal in the coal bunkers of the ship so that, when at sea, it would be shovelled into the furnaces and detonate, sinking the ship. MI5 knew of this via Bletchley Park, and sent Robbie Reed out to Lisbon to divert Eddie from this task, as it happens there was no need. When he climbed on board the City of Lancaster, he reported straight to the Captain (the only one who knew he was not as he appeared to be) and gave him the 'coal' with instructions to hand it to the authorities in Liverpool on his arrival. He then reported back to the Germans that the 'coal' had been planted. This was not a new idea, the American Confederates invented the coal torpedo to do damage to Union ships. There appears to be no records of the City of Lancaster being sunk so I presume she survived the war.
Dagmar*
Chapman went to Oslo to teach in a German spy school there. He spent 12 very happy months in Oslo in a safe house in the Oslo suburbs. Neighbours thought him German. He met and fell in love with a Norwegian girl, Dagmar Lahlum. She was warned about her fraternising with a German but nobody knew she was actually connected to the Norwegian Resistance. When sailing one day in a Fjord, he told her who he really was, she was delighted, Eddie obtained a camera from, of all people, German Intelligence, and began compiling an intelligence dossier along with Dagmar. They had several rolls of film hidden in the attic of the German safe house. I do not know what happened to these films. It was at the time that Chapman was awarded the Iron Cross by Hitler himself for services to the Third Reich. (This cross was given to Robbie Reed by Chapman. Reed's son has it to this day). Chapman was inducted into the German Army as an Oberleutnant or First Lieutenant. He was the only Englishman to be awarded the Iron Cross.
The holiday was soon over and the Germans told Eddie that he would be required to return to England to report on the locations, times etc of the V1 rockets now landing on London. He immediately contacted MI5 and together they worked out a plan for false reporting of the rockets landing. Eddie told Germany they were overshooting London and landing north of the capital. The ranges were adjusted and they began falling harmlessly in open Kent fields. By this action Chapman undoubtedly saved many thousands of lives as the V1 had been falling all day long onto the capital.
V1 Rocket "doodlebug"
During this period he was also involved in doping of dogs in greyhound racing and was associating with criminal elements in the London's West End night clubs. He was also indiscreet about the sources of his income and so MI5, being unable to control him, dismissed him on 2 November 1944. When he was asked in a TV programme in 1994 (but could not be shown for years after) about this he remarked, you dope 5 dogs and bet on the 6th! 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'.
Eddie and Dagmar met again briefly in 1994. But she had served *6 months in prison in Norway for collaboration with the Germans. Nobody came forward to tell the Court the truth. Eddie had married Betty Farmer, the girl he was with when he had jumped out of the window, in the Channel Islands. He had met her again by accident. Chapman and his wife later set up a health farm (Shenley Lodge). He also remained friends with Von Gronig, his German 'boss'. Von Gronig attended the wedding of Eddies daughter Suzanne. Eddie actually became a crime writer for the Sunday Times for a while!! Shortly after his death the MI5 files were released to the Public Office and can be viewed by members at Kew Archives.
Look! Lets face it, Eddie was a 'jack the lad' a geordie criminal in London's West End and robbed a lot of money from a lot of people but he also saved thousands of Londoners' lives and for that reason alone, he is a hero of WW2. He is only the second person I have given that accolade to to date, the other being Captain Johnnie Walker RN. Eddie knew the risks and took them. Thank you Eddie, from the people who would have died. The sad thing is that they would never know who saved them or indeed, the fact that they had even been saved. The wild life of the Kent fields were not grateful to Eddie!!
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/eddie-chapman-agent-zigzag.html
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/documents-from-the-chapman-case.html - Images taken from this section
*A Norwegian Site, from which I
found the Dagmar image, wrongly claims that Eddie was 'trained' in Norway
This error is because he actually TAUGHT Espionage in Norway, on the same site
is the following info on Dagmar
Dagmar Mohne
Hansen Lahlum was
born in 1922 Eidsvoll, Norway
She
resided in Oslo where she worked as a
receptionist in Oslo hotel
Resistance in Oslo
MI5 (British Secret Service)
double agent with Germans for MI5
(I do not know where this came from as she was not)
fiance of Eddie Chapman and
tried as traitor post war, pleaded guilty and fined (true ID never divulged)
She
never married and
died in 1999. Her funeral was held in Oslo
(TV programme said she was sentenced to 6 months!)
This Norwegian site I do not trust there are too many inaccuracies. I can only assume 'some' accuracy with Dagmar
** He is also recorded (online) as being discharged for overstaying his welcome in a brunettes flat! The same site records him as a traitor - he was NEVER that.
Eddies own notes on his recce of the De Havilland Factory
