My WW1 veteran grandfather John “Jack’ Chapman very likely worked on a highly secret WW2 RAF project being developed close to his home by De Havilland – the ‘wooden wonder’ Mosquito aircraft.
The project was being developed at Salisbury Hall just a few miles from Napsbury Avenue, London Colney where he lived and where my father, Flt Sgt Ron Chapman, grew up.
It must have been ‘the talk of the town’ when a German spy was arrested nearby – and a jolt to the British authorities – in May, 1941.
Luckily agent Karel Richter (pictured), 29, was nabbed by PC Alec Scott near the North Orbital and London Colney Roundabout. Two lorry drivers became suspicious after they asked Richter for directions to “The North’. Invasion fears meant all road signs had been removed.
It turns out Richter’s intended target was Cambridge. But he actually parachuted into a field beside White Horse Lane, London Colney where he hid up.
Despite having half a salami sausage, bread and some sandwiches, hunger (and cold) forced him out of his hiding place and into the arms of the law.
Richter, codenamed Artist, never completed his mission to deliver money and a spare wireless crystal to another German agent already in the UK. Under questioning, Czech-born Richter refused to ‘turn’ to be a double agent, working for the British.
He was tried for treason and hung, though he fought the jailers and hangman as he headed to the gallows. His execution took an agonising 17 minutes rather than the normal seconds.