Editing Eddie Chapman (section)

==Second World War==
Chapman was still in prison when the [[German occupation of the Channel Islands|Channel Islands were invaded by the Germans]].<ref name=NationalArchives/> 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 {{ill|Stephan von Gröning|de|Stephan von Gröning (Offizier)}}, head of the {{lang|de|[[Abwehr]]}} in [[Nantes]], he was trained in explosives, radio communications, parachute jumping and other subjects in France at [[La Bretonnière-la-Claye|La Bretonnière-la-Claye, Saint-Julien-des-Landes]], near Nantes, and dispatched to Britain to commit acts of sabotage.<ref name=MI5/>

On 16 December 1942, Chapman was flown to Britain in a [[Focke-Wulf]] bomber converted for parachuting, from [[Le Bourget]] airfield.<ref name=Macintyre102/><ref name=obituaries>Max Arthur, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-eddie-chapman-1137095.html ''Obituary: Eddie Chapman ''], The Independent, 6 January 1998</ref> He was equipped with wireless, pistol, cyanide capsule and £1,000 and, amongst other things, was given the task of sabotaging the [[de Havilland]] aircraft factory at [[Hatfield, Hertfordshire|Hatfield]].<ref name=obituaries/> Chapman became stuck in the hatch as he tried to leave the aircraft. Finally detaching himself, he landed some distance from the target location of [[Mundford|Mundford, Norfolk]], near the village of [[Littleport, Cambridgeshire]].<ref name=Macintyre102/><ref name=Macintyre105/>

[[File:Eddie Chapman (Agent ZigZag) double.jpg|thumb|Chapman filed by [[MI5]] on his arrival back from Germany]]
The British secret services had been aware of Chapman's existence for some time, via [[Ultra (cryptography)|Ultra]] (decrypted German messages), and would know his date of departure. [[Section B1A]], the [[MI5]]-backed department with the task of capturing enemy agents and turning them into double agents, had discussed the best method of capturing Chapman without revealing Ultra. In the end, Operation Nightcap was envisioned: Rather than conduct a full-scale manhunt, planes from [[RAF Fighter Command]] would trail Chapman's aircraft to identify his landing site (from one of three possible options). Local police would then be alerted, with instructions to conduct a search under the guise of looking for a deserter.<ref name=Macintyre105/>

However, these plans proved unnecessary; Chapman surrendered to the local police shortly after landing and offered his services to MI5.<ref name=MI5/> 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).<ref name=MI5/>

===Faked sabotage of de Havilland factory===
{{main|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 [[de Havilland Mosquito|Mosquito]] was being manufactured.<ref name=MI5/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091217101531/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/6789355/Eddie-Chapman.html Obituary], telegraph.co.uk; accessed 2 August 2016.</ref> German reconnaissance aircraft photographed the site, and the faked damage convinced Chapman's German controllers that the attack had been successful.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moran |first1=Christopher |title=Classified : Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1107000995 |page=266}}</ref> To reinforce this story, MI5 also wrote and had published a story in the British newspaper the ''[[Daily Express]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mi5.gov.uk/eddie-chapman|title=Eddie Chapman {{!}} MI5 - The Security Service|website=www.mi5.gov.uk|access-date=2019-01-19}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Macintyre176/>

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.<ref name=Macintyre176/>

===Portugal and Operation Damp Squib===
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2016}}
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Macintyre 1963 |first=Ben |title=Agent Zigzag: the true wartime story of Eddie Chapman: lover, betrayer, hero, spy |year=2007 |language=en}}</ref>

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,<ref name=obituaries/><ref>Ben Macintyre on a BBC TV programme 15 November 2011</ref> 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.<ref>Macintyre (2007) p. 222</ref>

Chapman was sent to [[Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany|occupied Norway]] to teach at a German spy school in [[Oslo]]. After a debriefing by von Gröning, Chapman was awarded the [[Iron Cross]] for his work in apparently damaging the de Havilland works and the ''City of Lancaster'', making him the first Englishman to receive such an award since the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870–71.<ref name = MI5/> However, Nicholas Booth<ref>Nicholas Booth, Zigzag – The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman, 2007, Portrait, London ({{ISBN|0749951567}}) page 224</ref> suggests that as the Iron Cross was only ever given to military personnel, Chapman's "Iron Cross" may instead have been a War Merit Cross 2nd Class, or ''[[War Merit Cross|Kriegsverdienstkreuz]]''.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} Chapman was inducted into the [[Wehrmacht|German Army]] as an [[oberleutnant]] or first lieutenant.<ref>See Macintyre, 2007, pp 231 with photo and 286.</ref> Chapman was also rewarded with {{Reichsmark|110,000|link=yes}} and his own yacht.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1423826.stm How double agents duped the Nazis] [[BBC]] 5 July 2001</ref> An MI5 officer wrote in an assessment "the Germans came to love Chapman&nbsp;... but although he went cynically through all the forms, he did not reciprocate. Chapman loved himself, loved adventure, and loved his country, probably in that order".<ref name="telegraph">Smith, Michael.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070312112139/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/07/05/npro05.xml ZigZag, a womaniser and thief who double-crossed the Nazis], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 5 July 2001.</ref> While in Oslo he also secretly photographed the German agents who stayed at his safe house.

===Return to London===
After [[Operation Overlord]], he was sent back to Britain to report on the accuracy of the [[V-1 flying bomb|V-1]] weapon and the [[Hedgehog (weapon)|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.<ref>Nicholas Booth, Zigzag – The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman, 2007, Portrait, London ({{ISBN|0749951567}}), pp. 280–81.</ref>

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.<ref name = obituaries/> 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".<ref name="telegraph"/>