Oct 19, 20239 min read

Agent Zigzag: The Most Notorious Double Agent of WWII

The true story of a gangster, traitor, lover, hero, and spy.

Edward Arnold (Eddie) Chapman (1914–1997) — AKA Agent ZigZag — double agent. Gangster, double agent. German Iron Cross holder. Photographed by MI5 after being parachuted back to England, 1942. (Image source: Public Domain).

On the 16th of December, 1942, a man parachuted onto a field in Cambridgeshire, England. With him, he had a revolver, a wireless transmitter, 1000 GBP in cash, fake ID papers, and a cyanide capsule.

By orders of the German Military Intelligence (Abwehr), he was to blow up the De Havilland aircraft factory and return to Germany.

Instead, he made immediate contact with British MI5 and spent the following two years operating as a double agent, becoming a solitary British spy deeply embedded within the German Secret Service.

Inside the traitor lay a core of unwavering loyalty, and inside the apparent villain resided a true hero.

He was, and remains, the only British citizen ever to have been awarded Germany’s highest honor, the Iron Cross.

This is the story of Edward Arnold Chapman — better known as “Agent Zigzag”.

Edward Arnold Chapman World War II was marked by many individuals whose stories transcended the field of battle. Among those, Edward Arnold Chapman, known by the codename “Agent Zigzag”, emerged as a truly unique figure within the archives of espionage.

Born in 1914 in Burnopfield, County Durham, England, Edward Arnold Chapman’s formative years were far from extraordinary. Raised in a working-class family, he navigated the economic hardships of the interwar years. He was a bright but restless boy who spent little time with the trivialities of school.

At age 17 he joined the army, but after 9 months he met a girl and deserted. After a short spell, he was arrested and spent 84 days in a military prison. His very brief military career ended with a dishonorable discharge.

Chapman could look you “straight in the eye” — while he picked your pocket.

Ben Macintyre, Author

The Prison Years In his late teens, Edward ventured into the world of petty crime. Working in London’s Soho, he tried his hand at everything from barman to film extra. With a penchant for good liquor and gambling, a forged cheque eventually landed him in prison for the second time.

Here he made contact with different West End gangs and became a safecracker. After several heists and prison sentences, he escaped bail and fled to Jersey in the Channel Islands. While eating dinner with his girlfriend (and future fiancée) Betty Farmer, the civilian clothes police came to arrest him. Head over heels, he evaded them by jumping through a window in the restaurant and that night proceeded to commit a burglary that landed him in a Jersey prison for 2 years.

The Women of Eddie Chapman. From the left: Betty Farmer, Dagmar Lahlum, Freda Stevenson. MI5 file was declassified and entered the public domain on 01/01/2005. Date 1944. (Image source: Public Domain).

Becoming a German Spy When the war began Chapman was still imprisoned in Jersey but managed to get transferred to Fort de Romainville prison in Paris. Here he approached the German authorities and offered his services as a spy.

The Abwehr, Germany’s military intelligence agency, recognized his potential and was quick to accept him into their ranks. Given the code name “Agent Fritz,” Chapman underwent training in espionage techniques, sabotage, and subterfuge. His transformation from a small-time criminal to a trained secret agent was swift.

Return to England On the 16th of December, 1942, he parachuted onto the field in Cambridgeshire, England. The following photo is his own statement, attesting to what equipment he had brought to England. This was given during his first interrogation by MI5. (The following page shows 997 GBP in cash and a pair of glasses — for altering appearances).

List of Eddie Chapman’s equipment. Courtesy of the National Archives UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Unbeknownst to both him and the Germans, His arrival had been anticipated.

The British had successfully deciphered the Germans’ secret codes, granting them advance knowledge of when agent “Fritzchen” (or “little Fritz” as the Germans referred to Chapman in their code) would be airdropped into the United Kingdom.

During interrogation at Camp 020 (MI5’s interrogation center in southwest London), the man displayed a complete willingness to collaborate, openly sharing every detail with his interrogators regarding his experiences in occupied France and the objectives assigned to him by the Germans.

He offered his services to assist the British in their efforts against the Germans. Concerns lingered due to Chapman’s criminal history, but Lieutenant Colonel Robin “Tin Eye” Stephens who ran Camp 020 concluded:

“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.”

Lieutenant Colonel Robin “Tin Eye” Stephens

Agent Zigzag is Born So, Chapman was taken in and given the very apt name Agent ZIGZAG (due to his wavering loyalty, twists, turns, and reversals). MI5, recognizing his immense value, devised a plan to reinsert him into Germany to gather further intelligence on the Abwehr.

Under the vigilant guidance of an MI5 operative, the agent reestablished radio contact with the Germans, conveying his readiness to execute the original sabotage mission at the De Havilland factory.

Report of visit by Eddie Chapman and MI5 officers to the De Havilland factory, 30 December 1942. Courtesy of the National Archives UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Subsequently, he was dispatched, accompanied by an MI5 supervisor, to the Hatfield factory, tasked with outlining a plan of attack to later report his actions to his German handlers. One of ZIGZAG’s key roles as a double agent was to feed the Germans false information. He became (or rather already was) a master of deception, consistently supplying the Axis with intelligence that was designed to mislead and confuse.

The “Sabotage” Of The De Havilland Aircraft Factory During the night of January 29/30, 1943, one of the most brilliant WWII camouflage operations unfolded at the De Havilland factory. Its purpose was to deceive German reconnaissance aircraft by creating the illusion that a massive bomb had detonated within the factory’s power plant.

Fake sabotage at the De Havilland Factory. Courtesy of the National Archives UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

The fabrication involved crafting artificial bomb-damaged transformers from materials such as wood and papier-mâché. Buildings were skillfully concealed using tarpaulins and corrugated iron sheets, artfully painted to resemble partially demolished structures when viewed from the air. To further enhance the illusion of destruction, rubble, and debris were meticulously scattered around the power plant, simulating the aftermath of an explosion.

Report on fake sabotage at the De Havilland factory, 31 January 1943. Courtesy of the National Archives UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

In a separate manoeuvre, MI5 orchestrated the dissemination of a fabricated story in the Daily Express, reporting a “factory explosion on the outskirts of London.” This false report added another layer of credibility to the overall ruse, making it appear as though a genuine event had taken place. The deception proved to be an overwhelming triumph, to the extent that it even fooled the factory’s own personnel.

Aerial view of fake sabotage at the De Havilland factory. Courtesy of the National Archives UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

After executing the elaborate scheme, our agent ZigZag transmitted a radio message to the Germans, conveying news of the “successful demolition” of the factory’s power plant. The Abwehr was not only satisfied but delighted with Chapman’s remarkable work.

Return to Germany In March 1943, he made his return journey through neutral Portugal and proceeded to a secure Abwehr safe house located in German-occupied Norway.

To his astonishment, Eddie Chapman was bestowed with Germany’s most prestigious honour, the Iron Cross. He was, and remains, the only British citizen ever to have been awarded this. Additionally, the Germans also gave him 110,000 Reichsmark and his own yacht.

His charade was maintained throughout the war with elaborate ruses, meticulous attention to detail, and a remarkable gift for persuasive storytelling. An MI5 agent later stated:

“Germans came to love Chapman … 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.”

One of Eddie Chapman’s false identification cards, complete with fingerprints, lists him under the alias of Hugh Anson. (Image source: Library of Congress).

Return to Britain After D-Day (Operation Overlord), he was deployed back to Britain with a mission to assess the accuracy of the V-1 Flying Bomb and the Hedgehog antisubmarine weapon. On June 29, 1944, he executed a parachute drop into Cambridgeshire, making his way to London.

During this period, he consistently relayed misinformation to the Germans, falsely claiming that the bombs were striking their intended central London targets, while, in reality, they were falling short.

It is highly likely, that this disinformation strategy deterred the Germans from correcting their aim, resulting in the majority of the bombs landing in the less populated areas of south London suburbs or the countryside in Kent, causing significantly less damage than they could have.

V1 Cruise missile Fieseler Fi 103 (also known as a Vergeltungswaffe [Vengeance Weapon] 1, or V1) is pulled by soldiers on sleds to its launching position. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons). Creative Commons license: CC BY-SA 3.0 DE DEED.

In addition to his wartime activities, Eddie Chapman became involved in nefarious pursuits, including doping dogs for greyhound racing and associating with elements of the criminal underworld in West End nightclubs. His indiscretion regarding the sources of his income raised concerns within MI5. Unable to effectively manage or control his behavior, MI5 made the decision to dismiss him on November 2, 1944.

As part of his exit from MI5, he received a payment of £6,000 and was permitted to retain £1,000 of the funds he had received from the Germans during his espionage activities. He was also granted a pardon for his pre-war criminal activities. MI5 reported that post-dismissal, Eddie Chapman “lived in fashionable London locales, often seen in the company of cultured and beautiful women”.

Post-War Years During the war, Eddie had two fiancées — on opposite sides of the war’s divide. He remained committed to Freda Stevenson in Britain (with her financial support facilitated by MI5, of course), yet, in Norway, he was also engaged with Dagmar Lahlum, (who was under the financial care of the Abwehr, naturally).

While in Norway, he revealed his true identity as a British agent to Dagmar. Fortunately, she was linked to the Norwegian resistance, and the revelation was met with elation rather than shock.

Post-war however, Eddie decided to abandon both women, opting instead to marry his former lover, Betty Farmer (whom he had left abruptly when escaping the police in Jersey before the war). Their union resulted in the birth of a daughter named Suzanne in 1954.

Dagmar faced a harsh six-month prison sentence for her association with what seemed like a German officer, as at the time she could not prove that Eddie was a British agent.

Concerns arose within MI5 that Eddie Chapman might return to a life of crime once his finances dwindled. The fear was that if apprehended, he might invoke his highly classified wartime service to plead for leniency.

As anticipated, he indeed did find himself mingling with individuals involved in blackmail and theft, leading to multiple run-ins with the law for various offenses (including a daring gold smuggling operation across the Mediterranean in 1950). Remarkably, he received glowing character references from former intelligence officers attesting to his significant contributions during the war.

“He was once visited by an income tax inspector, and produced a doctor’s certificate that he had a weak heart and could not be ‘caused stress.’ Ten minutes later, he drove in a Rolls-Royce, past the inspector waiting in the rain at a bus stop, and gave him a little wave.”

Ben Macintyre, Author

Edward Arnold (Eddie) Chapman 1914–1997; gangster and WW2 double agent pictured aside his Rolls Royce. (Image source: Public Domain).

In his pursuit of income, Chapman had his wartime memoirs serialized in France. However, he faced legal consequences under the Official Secrets Act, resulting in a £50 fine. A few years later, when an attempt was made to publish the memoirs in the News of the World, the entire issue was discarded. Nevertheless, his book, “The Eddie Chapman Story,” eventually saw publication in 1953.

In 1967, our agent relocated to Italy and ventured into the antiquarian business. Later on, he and his wife established a health farm in Shenley, Hertfordshire, and owned a castle in Ireland. Remarkably, he maintained his friendship with Baron Stephan von Gröning (his former Abwehr handler who had fallen on hard times). Von Gröning even attended the wedding of Chapman’s daughter.

Eddie Chapman died on December 11, 1997, due to heart failure.

Edward Arnold (Eddie) Chapman (1914–1997) — AKA Agent ZigZag — double agent. Gangster, double agent. German Iron Cross holder. Photographed by MI5 after being parachuted back to England, in 1942. (Image source: Public Domain).

Agent Zigzag: The Most Notorious Double Agent of WWII

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