The Criminal Who Became Hitler’s Most Trusted Spy
The Criminal Who Became Hitler's Most Trusted Spy
Eddie Chapman was a professional safecracker 1930s England who was so dangerous that his photograph hung in police stations across Britain. Yet, somehow, he became Adolf Hitler’s most trusted British spy.
Chapman led the infamous “Jelly Gang” – criminals who used gelignite explosives stuffed into condoms to blow open safes across Britain. By 1939, he was one of the country’s most wanted men. But when he fled to Jersey and German forces occupied the Channel Islands in 1940, he found himself trapped in prison in enemy territory.
So what Chapman did was walk into German headquarters and offered his services as a spy. The timing was perfect – the Nazis needed agents for their planned invasion of Britain.
Chapman was shipped to Nazi-occupied France for intensive spy training. He learned explosives, coded radio messages, and parachuting. In December 1942, he parachuted into England carrying German explosives and forged papers.
But here’s the twist the Nazis never saw coming – when he landed, he badly injured his back. He chose to surrender to the British authorities and offered to become a double agent. MI5 faked his sabotage mission, staging an explosion at the de Havilland aircraft factory and planting newspaper stories to convince the Germans their agent had succeeded.
The Nazis took the bait, and believing Chapman to have pulled off his daring sabotage mission, promptly awarded him the Iron Cross. Eddie Chapman thus became the only British citizen ever awarded this military honour.
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