A new biography of Wing Commander Forest 'Tommy' Yeo-Thomas claims that, like Bond, he surrounded himself with women and ruthlessly saw off his enemies.
It also suggests that many of his real-life adventures were recreated in Fleming's novels, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Yeo-Thomas was parachuted into occupied France three times - after one mission reporting back directly to Prime Minister Winston Churchill - before being captured and tortured by the Gestapo.
He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp but managed to escape and reach the Allied lines.
Historian Sophie Jackson discovered Yeo-Thomas' link to Bond in recently declassified documents at the National Archives, in West London.
The dossier includes a memo from May 1945 in which Fleming, who also worked in intelligence during the war, informs colleagues of Yeo-Thomas' escape from the Gestapo.
Yeo-Thomas and Fleming worked in different units and this is the first time a connection has been established between the two men.
Jackson, a former editor of History magazine, explores the link in her book, Churchill's White Rabbit: The True Story Of A Real-Life James Bond.
"It shows that Fleming was interested in the case of Yeo-Thomas and had been following it. Fleming picked up the story and was interested in it," she was quoted as saying by the paper.
"On top of that, there are other significant parallels between Yeo-Thomas and Bond, in their personal life, their relationships with women and attitudes towards women and the way Yeo-Thomas acted as a secret agent. He acts in a way we think of fictional spies acting," she said.
"Some of the sequences that Yeo-Thomas went through are things which are then portrayed in James Bond. And these were experiences that Fleming knew about," she added.
Jackson points to several similarities between Yeo-Thomas' war record and sequences in Bond novels.
In the first Bond novel 'Casino Royale' and the recent movie of the same name, 007 is tortured by his enemies in the same way that the Gestapo treated Yeo-Thomas.
Yeo-Thomas used a range of techniques to escape or evade his enemies, including jumping from a train, strangling a guard, wearing disguises and riding in a hearse. These methods echo tactics later used by Bond.
The former spy is said to have been charming and attractive, like his fictional counterpart, and the main members of his personal cell were all women.
Yeo-Thomas was affected by recurring nightmares and illness after the war and died in 1964, aged 62.
