Eddie Chapman, 1953 (photo0

Edward "Eddie" Chapman ( 1914 – 1997) English criminal and wartime spy, who offered his services, during World War II, to Nazi Germany as a spy and a traitor and subsequently became a British double agent. The British Secret Service code named him 'Zigzag' in acknowledgement of his erratic personal history. He had a number of criminal aliases known by the British police, amongst them Edward Edwards, Arnold Thompson and Edward Simpson. His German codename was Fritz. The Germans awardedhim the Iron Cross making him the first Englishman to receive such an award since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. He was sent back to Britain to report on the accuracy of the V-1 weapon but he consistently reported to the Germans that the bombs were hitting their central London target when in fact they were undershooting which may have resulted in the bombs doing far less damage than they otherwise would have done. Typically, he had two fiancées at the same time on opposite sides of the war. His book The Eddie Chapman Story, was charged under the Official Secrets Act, but eventually published in 1953. Various films and a recent book have been based on his life story.