Agent Zigzag

When we think of the Nazis, we think of a well-oiled military machine. And it was. But the intelligence service was apparently often very second-rate.

There's an interesting anecdote about the Germans preparing Chapman for a mission into Britain. Chapman's superior tells him something like "Don't be offended, but before you leave for the plane, I will have to search you thoroughly for anything that could give you away as a spy.

Basically anything German or French in his possession – a clothing tag, some small bit in his wallet – would have to be removed if found.

So...with this advance warning, later that night Chapman burns several papers full of facts and figures he had written down and had in his possession that he was going to turn over to the British. (He wasn't at this point a double-agent. He was, I guess, just thinking ahead and keeping his options open.)

Then, later…



Oops. The British intelligence service, on the other hand, was fairly tightly organized with a bureaucracy that could actually move on a dime (at least for the double-cross program). For instance, even before Chapman's feet touched the ground when he jumped out of a German plane, British intelligence was already arranging for a rapid (but clandestine...the local population had to be kept in the dark) pick-up of Chapman with various phone calls made and various constables ready and informed as to what to do if they found someone.

And this rapid response was vital because any significant delay would be a hint to the Germans that a man had been captured and compromised. They had to turn him fast (if possible) and then be ready to radio back to German intelligence the "I made it" first message, etc.

One passage in the book noted how the Germans could sometimes miss the forest for the trees:



In another instance of "small details going unnoticed", when Chapman jumped out of the panel at the bottom of the specially-modified Focke-Wulf, his backpack was larger than the hole and he was suspended upside down in a plane going about 350 mph for ten seconds or so. A fast-thinking crewman (there were 3 aviators and Chapman in the plane) stomped on his back with his boot and got him unstuck. Chapman had successfully jumped several times in his training. But when he hit the ground, he was severely traumatized by this particular jump. I guess he just missed a building on the way down as well.

Yeah, maybe day-to-day Cold War intelligence work is very boring. But certainly the intelligence work during the war could be very much James Bond.

When one was successfully turned, it was up to the "Twenty Committee" to decide what useless, harmless, or false information would be fed back to the Germans to keep them fooled. The committee was so-named because "the two Xs of a double cross make the number 'twenty' in Roman numerals." Pretty nifty.

MI 5 and MI 6 were up until the end of WWI the most successful intelligence office in the world and had a long tradition going back to Elizabeth I. As Hitler was preparing for war in the spring of 1939 the United States intelligence community consisted of various offices existing in the military and mostly reading newspapers. Thus, each service had its own G-2 office working intelligence solely for the benefit of that service. It would not be until 1942 that the OSS was officially formed to gather and coordinate intelligence. However, in late 1939 American officers were sent to England to "learn the ropes" of British intelligence. Secrets the British only gave up out of desperation.  These officers would later become the core of the OSS and after the war the senior staff of the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency. By 1947 CIA became the chief agency in the world for the duration of the Cold War. But everything we had learned was from the British. When we talk of tradecraft, false flag operations, double agents, honey traps, and violence like many other American traditions, we learned it from the Brits. 

But Lord Rothschild took a shine to Chapman. He loved sitting around drinking whiskey and discussing the various methods of sabotage and bomb-making.



One of the interesting passages mentioned how easy it was to obtain in England the ingredients for various types of bombs. It was literally easier, because of rationing, than obtaining the ingredients to bake a cake.

And once turned, Chapman had to go through all the motions of collecting ingredients for a bomb so that he would then have instinctive and believable things to tell the Germans when he was interrogated. He was constantly tasked with various acts of "verisimilitude" so that the story he gave to the Germans would be grounded in reality.

Including the very interesting fake blowing up of the power plant at the Mosquito factory.

What a strange tale. Even with the stranger (and horrifying) backdrop of Nazi Germany, this Chapman guy was odd and stands out as remarkably bizarre.

Frankly, although I enjoyed this book, it left me a bit depressed and consternated. Maybe it's just the realization that evil people tend to have more fun. That just rubs me the wrong way but I suspect it's true.

And Chapman was a dirtbag but with some selective virtues. As Tin Eye Stephens (the hot-shot interrogator and turner of many German spies) wrote:



This guy was truly a moral quagmire. And yet people liked him. Even those who knew his background still liked him.

Obviously with a war on, there are considerations other than a guy's character. And certainly this was not a guy that M15 sought out. He was thrown into their lap by the Germans and they had to make the best of it.

At some point the book seems to run on a bit long. Or at least the Chapman story begins to get old. But there are a lot of interesting intelligence stories and anecdotes inserted into this. Much of this I had never heard of including the faking of the bombing of the Mosquito plant.

Chapman was obviously a charismatic and likable guy. But at the end of this (or nearing the end of the war), I would not have been surprised to read that M15 put a bullet into his head to silence him.

But it is what it is. This isn't a novel. It's history. And it's an ugly one in part. But well worth a read.

I was watching an old episode of To Tell The Truth at lunch today on YouTube. And who should be the subject of that show but Eddie Chapman. I immediately recognized him (or thought I did) and I guessed right. Will you without Googling?