Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre

The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Traitor, Hero, Spy

May 7, 2008 Erin Britton

A review of Ben Macintyre's account of the life of Eddie Chapman, the most celebrated British double agent of World War Two.

Under the direction of the Freedom of Information Act, MI5 have recently released previously secret documents concerning the wartime career of Eddie Chapman and Ben Macintyre has used this new information to produce an incredibly comprehensive account of the work of the notorious Agent Zigzag.

The Making of a Spy

Eddie Chapman was a career criminal who, after deserting from the army, made a living from blackmail and safecracking. To escape arrest for crimes committed on the mainland, Chapman fled to Jersey where he continued his criminal career until he was jailed for fifteen years for cracking the safe and stealing the profits from a large dancehall on the island.

Chapman was still in prison in 1940 when the Germans occupied Jersey and was recruited as a spy by the Nazi regime. After receiving training at the La Bretonniere chateau in France, Chapman was parachuted into England on the 16th December 1942 to commit acts of sabotage. Instead, Chapman promptly turned himself over to MI5 and, after a thorough interrogation, it was decided that he should be returned to Germany as a double agent.

An attack on the de Havilland aircraft factory was faked for Chapman to take credit for and, despite the bumbling of his two MI5 minders, he returned safely to Germany via ship from Portugal. Chapman’s seemingly successful attack gained him a great deal of favour with his German spymasters and he was dispatched on further missions around Europe.

Stranger Than Fiction

With Agent Zigzag Ben Macintyre has produced a real page-turner of an historical account. The activities undertaken by Chapman both in his career as a spy and his personal life seem too outlandish even for James Bond but they are in fact documented and true.

While one man could never be credited with being responsible for the winning of a war, Eddie Chapman’s story is one of the most fascinating to emerge from the horror of the Second World War and there is no doubt that his actions, whatever the motivation behind them, were of vital importance. Perhaps the most significant contribution that Chapman made to the war effort was the misinformation that he supplied to the Germans regarding the accuracy of the V-1 and V-2 bombers. Chapman was able to persuade the German command that the bombs were repeatedly overshooting their central London targets. The Germans adjusted their targets so the bombs ended up falling south of London where they caused far less damage and loss of life.

Agent Zigzag is a tremendous biography of Eddie Chapman that also provides an excellent account of the course of the Second World War.