wytchcroft

So, i have been reading about and researching Eddie Chapman aka agent Zigzag...
... and i have a question, or at least some things strike me as curious.

One thing is the tale of his landing. It is a nice story, the dazed would-be agent dropped from an aeroplane, (the pilots are still alive today,) and into the earth some twenty miles from his apparent target. He quickly, if somewhat confusedly, makes contact with a local who calls the police and later the Intelligence Service comes to collect him.

What makes my eyebrows go up is the charming detail that he landed in a celery patch.
Of course, just like a stalk leaves a new born baby.
It is too good to resist - and thus, Agent Zigzag was born. etc.

A Policeman handily notes in his report, "He smelled a little of celery."

Here's the thing; celery is pretty odourless atcually. But CELERY was also the codename of an existing UK Double Agent (there are sketchy details in the archives at Mi5). Has this ever been mentioned somewhere that i might not have found, some literature or a web-site?
Was there a connection between the two??

Reading reports on Chapman, i keep coming back to another note; the fact that when he was in the Coldstream guards, prior to his suddenly going AWOL and starting 'a life of crime', his superiors noted him as being of 'above average intelligence and of sober disposition'.
If you have read anything about Chapman you will spot the difference there!

I am wondering... after going AWOL, Chapman notoriously took up with the 'Jelly Gang'. During his first job he simply sat 'terrified' in a car - but come the next raid he was quite suddenly at the head and doing every inch his bit as a gang member.

OK, so, plainly then. Is the Chapman story a load of bolloks?
Was he actually someone completely different? Was his 'past' fabricated as much as the rest of his identity - and was he planted among the criminal gangs (while still receiving training - or under direction anyway,) and later prison and then Jersey (where he could make contact with the Germans) from the get-go?

Apparently he told his British interrogators that whilst with the Abwehr he learned French in 3 months and read classified documents. Also, he drilled 'small holes' from his bathroom to spy on his commander, with whom he was also very friendly.

Again, that just sounds like nonsense to me - or if true then it smacks of idiocy on the part of the Germans and prior training received by Chapman.

Of course, truth is often filled with kinks, and rough edges, co/incidences and cock-ups - but if anyone knows anything of Chapman's story I would be grateful for their insights.