The faked sabotage at De Havilland Factory was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War at the De Havilland Mosquito aircraft factory in Hatfield, England. The fake sabotage was conducted during the night of January 29-30,1943 and was designed to fool German reconnaissance aircraft into believing that a large bomb had detonated inside the factory’s power plant. With the help of Jasper Maskelyne, a professional magician, and a team of camouflage experts, replica sub-transformers were created out of wood and papier-mâché, buildings were camouflaged, and debris was littered around the plant to create the appearance from the air that it was damaged by an explosion. Eddie Chapman, a British double agent, was used to inform the Abwehr of the success of the "attack", which is what his German handlers sent him to England to do. The ruse proved successful in fooling the Abwehr, and Chapman was even awarded the Iron Cross as a reward for his work.
Background
In prison at the time of the German occupation of the Channel Islands, Eddie Chapman concocted a plan to get off the island by notifying German officials of his willingness to become a spy. After transferring him to Fort de Romainville in Paris, Captain Stephan von Gröning, the head of Abwehr in Nantes, trained Chapman in espionage activities such as radio communications, explosives, and parachute jumping. Following his training, Chapman was dispatched to Britain to sabotage the De Havilland factory in Hatfield, which was manufacturing the Mosquito bomber aircraft. Shortly after landing off target near Littleport, Cambridgeshire, Chapman turned himself in to local police and offered to work for MI5, who decided to use him as a double agent.
In order to maintain the German handler’s faith in Chapman, MI5 officials decided to fake the sabotage operation he came to Britain to conduct. Most importantly, they believed it needed to be widely reported throughout the media and the Times—the British news source Stephan von Gröning followed. With the help of the Hatfield factory owner, who was made aware of the plot, Chapman traveled to the De Havilland plant and surveyed the site as if he was actually going to conduct the sabotage. After all, he would be interrogated upon his return to the Abwehr and must have a solid, consistent story of how he accomplished his mission.
Upon analyzing the site, Chapman developed his “plan”. After climbing a small barbed wire fence, he would place one suitcase, containing thirty pounds of explosives, nearby four transformers housed within a walled yard. Another suitcase would be placed in what German reconnaissance incorrectly identified as a subsidiary powerhouse but was really an old facility used for a swimming pool no longer in use. By priming the fuses on a one-hour delay, Chapman would be able to escape in time and deal a devastating blow to the factory. Realizing that it would be nearly impossible for one man to carry sixty pounds of explosives in two suitcases over a fence, he determined that he would need an “accomplice”. Before leaving for Britain, Abwehr officials told Chapman he could use members of his former “Jelly Gang”, his small pre-war criminal group, as accomplices if needed. Therefore, Chapman would notionally seek the help of the former leader of the Jelly Gang, Jimmy Hunt, who was actually still in prison. In order to convince the Germans he was able to create the bombs, Chapman also went around to various stores to test whether it was possible to obtain all the ingredients necessary. Even with wartime rationing, he found it surprisingly easy to do this.
Significance of the De Havilland factory
For both military and political reasons, the Abwehr had designated the De Havilland factory as a target for sabotage operations in 1942. The Mosquito aircraft was designed at this factory north of London, and production began in 1940. The Nazis found the quick, versatile aircraft difficult to deal with, as it was capable of making trips to Berlin with 4000 pounds of bombs and had a maximum speed of four hundred miles per hour. The two-man crew planes were built almost entirely of wood and were able to be cheaply assembled by carpenters and cabinetmakers. Nicknamed "the Wooden Wonder", the aircraft was mainly used for target bombing missions because it was so light and was able to deliver bombs accurately. During the war, Mosquito bombers were responsible for the attacks on Gestapo headquarters in Norway and Denmark and the Amiens jail in German-occupied France.