CHAPMAN, EDWARD (1914–1997). A flamboyant British double
agent during World War II, Edward Chapman was born in Burnop-
field, County Durham, on 16 November 1914. A known safecracker,
he was sentenced to two years’ hard labor by the Royal Court of
Jersey. German forces overwhelmed the channel island in early July
1940, and upon his release, Chapman volunteered his services to
the Abwehr as a spy. He received rigorous sabotage training at the
Nantes section under the command of Stephan von Gröning (pseud-
onym Stephan Graumann). In December 1942, Chapman (code
names fritz and fritzchen) was inserted by parachute near Oxford,
assigned to blow up the De Havilland aircraft factory in Hatfield,
which manufactured the highly effective Mosquito bomber.
Yet already during his training period, Chapman had begun to
collect information that might be useful to his home country, while
British intelligence had been monitoring Fritz’s movements, thanks
to the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park. Following an intense debrief-
ing by MI5, Chapman was enlisted as a double agent (code name
zigzag) and began to send wireless messages back to Germany
under the supervision of Ronnie Reed. Several weeks later, the fac-
tory in Hatfield was camouflaged with painted tarpaulins, so it would
appear completely destroyed to German aerial reconnaissance, and a
planted news item appeared in the Daily Express. Although Chapman
had also devised a plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler, no action was
taken. In March 1943, armed with a tight cover story, he returned
to France via Lisbon and Madrid in order to acquire additional in-
formation about German operations. After feigning the sabotage of
a British ship in Portugal, Chapman was sent to Oslo and reunited
with Gröning.
Despite the strongly dissenting view of the head of the Paris
Abwehr station regarding his bona fides, Chapman was considered
an exceptional asset, not only receiving generous compensation but
becoming the sole British recipient of the Iron Cross (which he later
presented to Reed). After D-Day, his final assignments involved
locating Britain’s presumed submarine tracking device and reporting
on the effects of the V-1 and V-2 weapons. He continued to cooper-
ate with MI5 in devising deception operations, but his new handler,
displeased with his indiscreet and unreformed demimonde lifestyle,
secured Chapman’s dismissal on 28 November 1944. Legal charges
CHAPMAN, EDWARD • 67