Eddie Chapman

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Eddie Chapman (1942)

Edward Arnold "Eddie" Chapman (born November 16, 1914 in Burnopfield , England , † December 11, 1997 in St Albans , Hertfordshire ) was an English criminal and spy during the Second World War .

Life

Before the war

In the 1930s he served briefly with the Coldstream Guards before deserting and becoming a burglar in London's West End . He never carried a gun, didn't need any force, but he could blow up safes . When he was wanted for around 40 break-ins in the spring of 1939, he evaded to Edinburgh and was arrested, but still released on bail. He fled to Jersey with the intention of reaching South America via France. He was arrested there and was to remain in prison for two years, another 20 years ago in the British Isles .

During the war

When the German Wehrmacht occupied the Channel Islands , Chapman was imprisoned there. He was determined to avoid the 20 years in English prisons and wrote a letter to the German commandant in Jersey. He offered himself to the German defense as a spy and was trained for his mission after months of waiting in France. When the Abwehr sent him to England on December 16, 1942 to destroy an aircraft factory, Chapman reported to the British Security Service . Since he had already been expected, he still spent three days in a cell and interrogated. The end result of the sabotage of the De Havilland factory in Hatfield was portrayed by set designers and a gigantic explosion was organized. The Daily Express was happy to bring the report of the explosion exclusively. The Times , which could have taken on the job, had previously refused to publish a hoax ; with the statement "never had the time of their existence Times reported something wrong", the editor was Robert McGowan Barrington-Ward the MI5 rebuffed.

Fritz was ordered back and took the ship to Lisbon , the then neutral gateway to occupied Europe. There he got the order to plant a bomb on his ship, the SS City of Lancaster . Although the ship was never damaged, the Germans believed he had done his job, and the British knew he was trustworthy after he deposited the bomb disguised as coal with the captain instead of in the coal bunker .

In the German Wehrmacht, under the protection of his commanding officer Stephan von Gröning, he was promoted to lieutenant and received the Iron Cross when he was in Norway. There he spied for England in the hope of good pay.

In June 1944 he was sent back to England and was supposed to report the impacts of the V1 wonder weapons in London so that they better hit their targets. The false reports he sent across the canal may have been his greatest act and contributed to saving many human lives. On the BBC2, Ben Macintyre called him an incredibly brave but at the same time the “most unlikely hero; a habitual criminal who sent lies into the air ”.

On November 2nd, 1944, he was fired from MI5 after he had fallen back more and more into his criminal life with manipulated bets in dog races. But he didn't have to go to jail, and all criminal records were deleted.

After the war

Stephan von Gröning survived the war, and in 1974 Chapman, who by chance only learned the real name of his former commanding officer 29 years after the end of the war , contacted von Gröning. At the wedding of Chapman's daughter in 1979 von Gröning and his wife Ingeborg von Gröning were among the invited guests. Chapman again came into conflict with the law after the war and spent part of his age in the British gangster tradition in Spain.

Trivia

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Arthur: Obituary: Eddie Chapman. Edward Chapman, wartime double agent and adventurer: born Sunderland November 16, 1914; married (one daughter); died St Albans, Hertfordshire 11 December 1997. In: Independent. January 6, 1998, accessed February 7, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b c d Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story , BBCTwo, November 15, 2011; online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_c5-ouZqQY
  3. ↑ A documentary game that is not at all . TV review in Schwäbische Zeitung from September 15, 1971, p. 9
personal data
SURNAME Chapman, Eddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chapman, Edward Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English criminal and spy
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Burnopfield , England
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1997
Place of death St Albans , Hertfordshire