Zig Zag

Ben Macintyre, “Agent Zig Zag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage…”  Harmony Books, 2007, 305 pps  

Just some weeks ago I reviewed “Doublecross”, a book about the top double agents the British had turned that the Germans had sent.   Agent Zigzag, the topic of this current book review, was not included in that book and I am puzzled why.  A week ago a friend recommended this Zig Zag book—a book about a character I had never before heard of.

Agent Zigzag is the amazing but true story of Eddie Chapman, a professional criminal who became a highly effective double agent during World War II, winning the trust of German intelligence services even as he reported back to the spymasters of MI5.  In fact, he is the only British citizen to be awarded an Iron Cross from the Nazis.  Anyway, as soon as the German’s had Chapman parachute into England, Chapman immediately offered his services to the British.  Chapman's story has been told in fragments in the past, but only when MI5 declassified his files in 2001 was it possible to present it in all its complexity.  Chapman is a fascinating man who would save your life one day and steal your watch the next.  Chapman’s story reads much like a John le Carré novel—except, of course, it is true.

Chapman thrived on danger and was very cool under pressure. He even offered to attempt assassinating Hitler.  A born liar, he could withstand hours of interrogation without breaking a sweat. He became fluent in French and German.  Zigzag, despite his many talents, did not fit into the peacetime plans of MI5. His involvement in rigged dog races toward the end of the war certainly dampened enthusiasm for a continued role with British intelligence. Wisely, MI5 paid him off, wiped his legal slate clean and waved farewell. Agent Zigzag was no more.  

My Notes:

Pg. ix:  The first “Zigzag files” were released to the UK National Archives in 2001.  These declassified archives contain more than seventeen hundred pages of documents relating to Chapman’s case. 

Pg. 23:  Eddie Chapman was a handsome, amoral charmer with a Ronald Colman mustache, a taste for sharp suits and an insatiable appetite for danger. A career robbing safes and cash registers, punctuated by spells in prison, took an abrupt turn in 1941. After completing a three-year prison term on the Isle of Jersey, he emerged to find himself, like the rest of the islanders, living under Nazi rule. In a rude series of events he was whisked away to a prison in occupied France, where he was recruited as a German spy. On his first mission to Britain he immediately offered his services to his native country.

Pg. 45:  Between September and November 1940, it is estimated that at least twenty-one Abwehr agents were dispatched to Britain, with instructions to report on troop movements, identify and sabotage targets vital to British defense, prepare for the imminent invasion, and then mingle with the retreating British army.

Pg. 90: Chapman’s main mission in England was the destruction of the De Havilland aircraft factory.  On the moonlit night of Jan. 29, 1943, a mighty blast awakened residents near the De Havilland aircraft factory on the outskirts of London. As dawn broke, workers returning to the plant, which produced the speedy, efficient Mosquito bomber, shook their heads as they surveyed a scene of awesome devastation. Yet all was not as it appeared. In fact, none of it was. The entire event was staged, all for the benefit of Agent Zigzag.  His stock with the German’s was very secure from that point on.

Pg. 126:  The Battle of Stalingrad was the most expensive battle, in terms of human life, ever known: 2 million killed or wounded, including civilians.  The battle took place between 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943

Pg. 142:  Chapman had not been in London since 1939.  On his return in January 1943 the city had changed almost beyond recognition.  The Blitz had stiffened British resolve, but it had left livid scars across the capital, inflicting some forty-three thousand deaths and destroying more than a million houses.

Pg. 234:  In the course of the war, U-boats would destroy twenty-nine hundred ships, sending 14 million tons of Allied shipping to the seabed.  But by May 1943 the tide turned, some forty-one U-boats were sunk killing more than a thousand German sailors.  The Germans remained ignorant that the Enigma code had been broken, and never knew that the hunters were being hunted through their intercepted radio messages.  The Germans assigned Chapman to find out what the British sophisticated form of submarine-detection system was that enable them to track U-boats from the surface.  So the British made up stuff to send them through Chapman.  Other items assigned to Chapman were: locate and steal the device the British used in night fighter aircraft; to report on the effects of the V-1s, giving precise timings and the resulting damage and to identify which German cities were being targeted.

Pg. 262:  The first V-1 rockets hit London on June 13, 1944.  The bombs, each carrying eighteen hundred pounds of explosive, flew at around four hundred miles per hour with a buzzing drone that would abruptly stop when the fuel ran out, leaving an eerie, empty silence as the bomb plummeted to earth, followed by the explosion.  At first the bombs came in ones and twos but on the night of June 15, 217 missiles hammered Britain, with 45 dropping on central London.  Most were landing 2 to 3 miles short of their intended targets and Chapman’s reports to the German’s were biased to keep it that way.  On July 25, Chapman’s deceptive reports were suspended.  Evening London papers had begun to print maps showing where bombs had fallen, effectively ending any plans of deception.

Pg. 278:  On September 8, 1944 Germany launched its first V-2 attacks against Paris and London.  The V-2 was a quite different creature from its predecessor.  It had a range of two hundred miles, flew at ten times the speed of the V-1, and carried a nose cone with a ton of high explosive.