published 16/12/1997 at 12:01 GMT
Eddie Chapman, who has died aged 83, was known under the codename Zig-Zag as one of the most colourful of the Double Cross agents run by British Intelligence during the Second World War.
Chapman's false papers, identifying him as Hugh Anson, with which he reurned to Portugal in 1942 to re-establish contact with the Abwehr
A safebreaker who was liberated from jail in St Helier by the German occupation of the Channel Islands, Chapman was sent back to Britain to carry out acts of sabotage on behalf of the Nazis.
He was immediately turned by the British and, with the aid of a professional illusionist brought in by MI5 and of carefully placed newspaper reports, gave the Germans the impression that he had
carried out his mission to the letter.
Chapman made his way back to Germany where he was welcomed as a hero and, after being briefed on the workings of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence organisation, was sent back to
Britain on another mission, allowing him to pass his newly-acquired knowledge on to MI5.
Edward Chapman was born in 1914 and brought up in Sunderland. He found work in the shipyards there, and at 18 showed his mettle by rescuing a man from drowning off Roker. For this he won a
certificate from the Humane Society.
Chapman then served in the Coldstream Guards until the mid-1930s, when he embarked on a second career as a safecracker. He enjoyed some success until 1939, when the police discovered him trying
to blow open a safe in Glasgow.
While awaiting trial, he broke out of jail and made his way to Jersey where he was arrested. He was about to be returned to Scotland when the Germans occupied the Channel Islands.
Chapman always claimed that his offer to carry out sabotage for the Germans in Britain, using his knowledge of explosives, was motivated by a desire to return home.
But one of the British Intelligence officers who later handled him was probably closer to the mark when he suggested that it was at least in part because Chapman "loved an exciting life".
After training, he was given the codename Fritzchen. On the night of Dec 20 1942 he was dropped by parachute near Ely, equipped with a wireless, an automatic pistol, a cyanide suicide pill and
£1,000. His mission was to blow up the De Havilland aircraft factory at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where the new Mosquito fighter-bomber was being built.
The Germans promised him that, if he succeeded, he would be given £15,000 and sent to America to carry out further acts of sabotage. But by now MI5 had set up the Double Cross system, whereby
German agents arriving in Britain were intercepted and offered the stark choice of facing execution or working for the British.
A key part of the scheme was the interception by Bletchley Park of the Abwehr's communications with its agents. As a
result, MI5 knew a great deal about Chapman's impending arrival. Immediately after landing, he telephoned Wisbech police station but had some difficulty persuading the police that he was a former
safecracker turned German spy who now wanted to work for the British.
MI5 rechristened him Zig-Zag and allowed him to radio to the Abwehr that he had arrived safely. The Double Cross committee then set about creating the illusion that would allow him to claim that
his mission had been accomplished. The first problem, a legitimate explanation of how he acquired the necessary explosives, Chapman solved by returning to a quarry near Sevenoaks with which he
was familiar from his previous career.
On the night of Jan 29 1943, Zig-Zag and an MI5 officer scaled the fence of the Mosquito factory and laid a series of notional charges around the power plant. Jasper Maskelyne, a celebrated
magician and illusionist, then used a controlled explosion to blow out part of the roof. At the same time, he released smoke bombs and scattered pieces of transformer around the plant to give the
impression of a much greater blast.
The explosion was reported in The Daily Telegraph and other national newspapers and Chapman's Abwehr controllers sent him a message of congratulations. They told Chapman to make his own way back
to Germany from where he would be sent on the second mission to America.
Hoping to use him to take similar control of this operation, MI5 put him on a British ship bound for Lisbon, having firmly declined his numerous offers to assassinate Hitler. On arriving in the
Portuguese capital, Chapman reported to the local Abwehr representative who gave him a piece of "coal" and offered him a large sum if he would go back to the ship and place it in its
coalstore.
MI5 was horrified to discover from the intercepts of Abwehr traffic that the coal was explosive designed to detonate when placed in a fire, but Chapman had handed it to the ship's master and
asked him to give it to the War Office.
The mission to America never materialised and Chapman spent the next year blowing his Abwehr pay on an extended holiday in Norway before being recalled to Germany.
Chapman was now given a series of briefings on Abwehr operations. Before being sent back to Britain on another mission he was awarded the Iron Cross. He was then dropped on to the main road at
Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, in the early hours of June 27 1944. When he reported to the nearest police station and told his story, the duty officer replied: "Don't be silly. Go to bed."
Chapman's response was: "That's exactly what they told me last time. Ring up your station in Wisbech. They'll remember me from last time."
After giving MI5 a breakdown of Abwehr operations, he was installed in a flat in Kensington. But the temptations of the £6,000 that the Abwehr had given him proved too much. Chapman was less than
discreet to his friends among the criminal fraternity about the source of his new-found wealth, and MI5 was forced to abandon him.
After the war, he wrote an account of his wartime experiences, which was serialised in a French newspaper. He again found himself in court, this time on a charge of breaching the Official Secrets
Act.
A second attempt at publication was thwarted by a D-Notice, but, as MI5 had found out during the war, Zig-Zag was not easily discouraged, and The Eddie Chapman Story eventually appeared in print.
A film, Triple Cross, in which Chapman was played by Christopher Plummer, came out in 1967.
Chapman leaves a wife Betty and a daughter.