Agent Zigzag: A True Story Of Nazi Espionage, Love, And Betrayal Quotes
"The true story that follows is based on official papers, letters, diaries, newspaper reports, contemporary accounts, and memoirs."
"I was first alerted to the existence of the Englishman Eddie Chapman by his obituary in the Times of London."
"The details remained under seal in MI5's secret archives."
"Under a new policy of openness, MI5 began the selective release of hitherto classified information."
"Chapman's diligent case officers set out to paint a complete picture of the man."
"Eddie Chapman's own memoirs were first published in 1954 under the restrictions of the Official Secrets Act."
"He wore expensive suits, a gold ring, and a cashmere overcoat with mink collar."
"For Chapman, breaking the law was a vocation."
"Intelligent but lazy, insolent and easily bored, the young Chapman skipped school often."
"Chapman branched out into crimes of a more lurid nature."
"For the young Chapman, life in this seething, seedy enclave was thrilling."
"The British police told them that if there was any trouble, I was probably in it."
"For months, the Abwehr had been searching for an Englishman who could be trained as a spy and saboteur."
"He just got hold of the stuff, looked at it, tasted it, and started mixing."
"I don’t think he was a chemist, he’d simply been very well trained."
"Every day, Chapman and Wojch would work in the laboratory, making homemade bombs."
"He was in poor physical shape, so Leo devised a strict exercise regime."
"The beauty of the river near Nantes," reflecting that it was only since leaving prison "that he had begun to realize how much beauty there was in the world."
"At La Bretonnière, the alcohol flowed copiously."
"Chapman found Wojch to be particularly good company: "He liked life, he always had plenty of money."
"Chapman began to imagine these men as his friends."
"Beneath a veneer of informality, security was tight."
"Leo, Wojch, and Schmidt were "more or less reckless, the lads of the village."
"The photograph he handed Chapman had once shown Gladys hugging their pet dog."
"Chapman’s head was being turned by all the attention."
"It is impossible to say when Chapman decided to start spying on his German spymasters."
"The value of information depends on the buyer’s hunger, but it is a seller’s market."
"The successful deciphering of the secret German codes, code named Ultra, was the best-kept secret of the war."
"Instead of putting enemy agents in prison or on the end of a rope, MI5 should put them to work."
"Some had to perish, both to satisfy the public that the security of the country was being maintained."
"The double agent must send a mixture of true but essentially harmless information known as "chicken feed," extraneous facts, and undetectably false tidbits."
"The wealth of intelligence produced by Ultra decrypts was referred to only as the "Most Secret Sources."
"The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft."
"Churchill called the intercepts "My Golden Eggs" and guarded them jealously."
"By means of the double-cross agent system we actively ran and controlled the German espionage system in this country."
"We were obsessed by the idea that there might be a large body of spies over and above those whom we controlled."
"The successful raid on the locomotive works had been enjoyable."
"The contractual agreement between Chapman and his spymaster is surely unique in the annals of legal history."
"The prospect of adventure sent Chapman’s spirits soaring once more."
"Von Gröning painted a tantalizing picture of the financial and other rewards Chapman could expect."
"If Chapman was unlucky enough to fall into the hands of the British secret services, he should "give as little information as possible, offer his services, and ask to be sent back to France."
"In the excitement he probably forgot to take it off."
"For thirteen months now I have been under German rule."
"I am due for a stretch of something like fourteen years."
"He may suspect we may be arranging something."
"It's for you to try and make it a realization."
"I’m afraid that whole thing has rather passed like a dream."
"He can think of no better way of leaving this life than to have his name prominently featured throughout the world’s press."
"One night, he confided to Backwell that the care of Freda and Diane was the only thing that now mattered to him."
"‘Personal matters occupy a great deal of his attention,’ Backwell reported."
"My sources of information have practically run dry. I can be of no further service here."
"He feels his present position is intolerable, being in the country again, and yet unable to see old acquaintances and do as he pleases."
"If she bore any malice and realized Zigzag was back in the country she would probably go to the police."
"I believe he has a considerable amount of loyalty towards Great Britain."
"‘What a man!’ wrote Ronnie Reed, on learning that Operation Freda had succeeded beyond all expectations."
"It is extraordinary how obvious a course of action seems after it has been taken."
"This resolution provides a strong incentive for him to return to Allied Territory."
"The story of many a spy is commonplace and drab. It would not pass muster in fiction."
"The subject is a failure in life. The motive is sordid. Fear is present. Patriotism is absent."
"For Chapman, only one thing is certain, the greater the adventure, the greater is the chance of success."
"‘It is imperative that no hint should be given to him about Most Secret Sources,’ wrote Reed."
"We are preparing a cover story as near to the truth as possible so that if you are cross-examined in detail by the Germans, you need only tell them the truth."
"Zigzag is himself a most absorbing person. Reckless and impetuous, moody and sentimental, he becomes on acquaintance an extraordinarily likeable character."
"It was difficult to credit that the man had a despicable past."
"His crimes of burglary and fraud, his association with ‘moral degenerates’, and his description as a ‘dangerous criminal’ by Scotland Yard is difficult to reconcile with more recent behavior."
"Chapman’s past was despicable; his recent actions had been almost heroic (with lapses); but his future remained quite unknowable."
"He said he did not like sea life as no one did their share of work, he said he did most of the work. This is definitely untrue, as I, master, have observed."
"Pay no attention. That’s just a lot of bullshit."
"The life of a secret agent is dangerous enough, but the life of the double agent is infinitely more precarious."
"Timing is the essential factor to conceal, the cover story must not be too precise."
"I landed at about 2:30, in a ploughed field."
"Because she had nice clothes everyone assumed she was Nazi. It was the rule: if you had money, you must be collaborating."
"If the British ever come to Norway, she would be shot."
"They were fair, hardworking, straightforward people."
"I did not consider the proposition of sufficient importance."
"It all depends on the opportunities that you see presented to you."
"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril."
"I might take on the work of making daily observations."
"If their weapons are not successful, the reaction will be enormous."
"Life under the Germans is preferable to having no homes."
"He has been keeping the bad company of some professional pugilist with whom he has been hitting the high spots."
"He is quite clearly restless and is likely to be so, as long as he is asked to perform the rather humdrum business of tapping a key at our instructions."
"The Zigzag case must be closed down at the earliest possible moment."
"He did not seem to have any very clear ideas on the subject."
"We never found out what the assessment of this information by the German navy was, but the actions of the Abwehr made it seem that they must have been very favorable."
"He was an absolute shit, you know. The handsomest man I ever met. But a prize shit."
"It is very unlikely that anyone other than Graumann knows and there is probably little danger to us at present."
"I have seen Zigzag walk up to a Norwegian and address him in Norwegian."
"A bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman, a Serbian seducer, and a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming."
"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
"The first twenty-four hours would be, in Erwin Rommel’s famous words, the ‘longest day’."
"If the Germans could be confused or, even better, actively misled as to where and when the landings would take place, then the odds of success improved dramatically."
"One carried weapons, yet the soldiers who did owed the spies a huge and unconscious debt as they stormed the beaches of Normandy in June 1944."
"Their success depended on the delicate, dubious relationship between spy and spymasters, both German and British."
"The Double Cross spies were, variously, courageous, treacherous, capricious, greedy, and inspired."
"Their real names are a mouthful, a sort of European mélange that might have sprung from a period novel."
"Allied casualty rates averaged 6,674 a day for the seventy-seven days of the Normandy campaign."
"Their relationship, based almost entirely on frivolity, would have a profound impact on world history."