Aerial photo of the de Havilland aircraft factory showing faked sabotage outlined in red

Date: 22-01-1943/04-03-1943 Reference: KV 2/458 Creator: Security Service Catalogue context: Edward Arnold CHAPMAN, codenamed ZIGZAG: British. CHAPMAN had been a burglar and expert safe-blower before the Second World War. He was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1940 during the occupation of Jersey. Having offered his services to them as a spy, he was trained, equipped and later dropped by parachute near Ely, Cambridgeshire. He immediately sought to tell the British authorities about his recruitment by the Nazis and was taken on by MI5 as a Double Cross agent. CHAPMAN's training by the Germans had been as a sabotage agent; he had been supplied with money and explosives and tasked with sabotaging the De Havilland factory at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where the Mosquito was being manufactured. After an 'attack' on the factory had been concocted by MI5, he returned to his German controllers in 1943 via Lisbon. He was awarded the Iron Cross. In June 1944 CHAPMAN was again dropped by parachute, this time charged with espionage on military targets and reporting on V-bomb damage. Back in England, CHAPMAN gave hi... Categories: Second World War Subjects: Zigzag; Agents, extremists, traitors; Conflict; Europe and Russia; Intelligence; Manufacturing; Operations, battles and campaigns; Weapons Topics: Business, finance and innovation; International trade and affairs; Land and buildings; Military and war Period: Second World War Copyright information: Copyright clearance for publication is not required, except in the case of documents in third-party copyright. Usage terms: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/use-of-tna-materials.pdf