THE WINGED MESSENGER

On the night of 10 May 1941 seemingly the most bizarre event of World War II took place over Scotland. Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Fuhrer landed by parachute, seeking a meeting with the Duke of Hamilton, a man he believed was the head of a peace party in Britain.

Hess had taken off from Augsburg airfield at 17.45hrs in a Messerschmitt Bf 110, flown across the North Sea, and failing to find a landing strip, baled out, dropping into a field by parachute at Floors Farm, Eaglesham, Scotland at 23.09hrs. When captured  by a local ploughman, David McLean, he immediately asked to see the Duke of Hamilton, whose residence had a small landing strip at Dungavel Castle, not very far away.

For many years it was believed that Hess was a 'Lone Flyer', acting alone as a peacemaker to cease hostilities with the British in order to give Adolf Hitler the opportunity to attack Soviet Russia unmolested on other fronts.

Hess had left a message on Hitler's table. It read: 'And if my Fuhrer, this project...ends in failure...simply say that I was mad.' The official Berlin communique read that Hess had been suffering from a worsening mental condition which had forced Hitler to ban him from flying.

As a Prisoner of War at Mytchett Place (Camp Z) to a convicted War Criminal at Spandau Prison, Hess behaved oddly, groaning in his sleep, complaining he was being poisoned and trying occasionally to commit suicide. Therefore nearly everyone believed that Rudolf Hess was mad.

However, Stalin , the leader of the USSR, and Roosevelt, the President of the USA, suspected that Hess was rational, and that British Intelligence were behind it. Stalin toasted the British Secret Service's success in this mission 'to inveigled' Hess to Britain when he met Churchill October 1944. Churchill protested strenuously that Hess was a mad man, a deranged peacemaker in love with Adolf Hitler. Stalin merely smiled: "There are many things my Intelligence Service does not tell me about".

Roosevelt in the USA didn't believe it either. When he read Churchill's letter concerning the matter he said to his trusted advisors: "I wonder what is really behind this story?"

DISPROVING THE LONE FLYER THESIS

In order to disprove the lone flyer theory it is easy to point to the following points that defy explanation if Hess was indeed acting on his own to make peace.

HITLER KNEW?

Hitler was up and fully dressed at 0730hrs on 11 May 1941, able to receive Hess' Adjutant  Pintsch, who handed him Hess' letter. Hitler usually lay in bed till late, so much so that no one dared wake him up on 6 June 1944 when the D-Day landings started in Normandy. Hitler must have been awaiting news from Hess in England. During his interrogation by Lord Simon, Hess admitted that Hitler knew, 'absolutely'.

LUFTWAFFE INVOLVEMENT

Due to the limited range of his aircraft, it is possible that Hess had to land somewhere in Northern Germany, such as Cologne to refuel. This means he would have had official Luftwaffe sanction. Hess could not have been acting on his own with just a few loyal ground crew at Augsburg.

In order to navigate accurately Hess would have had to rapidly make corrections for wind direction, the time travelled, wind speed and his own air speed. This would have proven very difficult for one man on his own in the dark. However, using a Knickbein radio navigation aid, it would have been relatively simple to fly along the Kleve beam, and then along the Stavanger beam. Doing this would have brought him out precisely where he wanted to be, Scotland.

HITLER'S REVENGE

Hitler punished all of Hess' Astrologers, who officially appeared to have upset the balance of Hess' mind, but did not punish the Luftwaffe ground-crew, or Willi Messerschmitt who had helped Hess obtain and fit a brand new Messerschmitt Bf110. This is very odd given Hitler's standing orders about Hess not being allowed to fly.

HEYDRICH'S INVOLVEMENT

There is some evidence to suggest that Reinhard Heydrich flew as escort to Hess' flight to Britain. Eduard Callic, Heydrich's biographer, obtained evidence that Heydrich was flying Me109's over Britain from France during Hess' flight. At the time Heydrich should have been organising the SS Police (Einsatzgruppen) who would help to police Russia, exterminating Bolsheviks and rounding up Jews with the help of the Wehrmacht.

DESTINATION

Hess baled out over Scotland when he failed to find his landing strip and his aircraft ran out of fuel. Where was Hess going? It has always been assumed he was heading for the landing field of Dungavel House, where the Duke of Hamilton was staying - the man he thought was the head of a powerful peace party in Britain. Dungavel's landing strip was too short for an Me-110 to land on, and if Hess had attempted to land he would have simply crashed into the trees at the end of the runway. Hess had never practised baling out and using his parachute. He almost failed to escape from the aircraft. Perhaps baling out over Dungavel then was his emergency plan, in case he failed to find his real landing strip, which is almost certainly RAF Acklington.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The British Conspiracy (1999) by John Harris and M J Trow

Archiv Militar, Freiburg

Bundesarchiv, Koblenz

Museum of Flight, East Fortune

Note on picture: the newspaper declaring Hess' arrival in Britain, and a picture of the Czech Hurricane Squadron based in Scotland.