Nesbit - The Flight of Rudolf Hess

For Wilma Van Acker who endured with patience her husbands preoccupation with Rudolf Hess for more than seven years

Front cover: (top) Rudolph Hess in the cockpit of a Fokker D.VII (Wolf Rdiger Hess); Hesss Messerschmitt Bf110 after it crashed on Bonnyton Moor, south of Glasgow (Aeroplane Monthly).

First published in 1999

This edition first published in 2011

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

Roy Conyers Nesbit and Georges Van Acker, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2011

The right of Roy Conyers Nesbit and Georges Van Acker, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 7276 8

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7275 1

Original typesetting by The History Press

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

1. Student, Soldier and Aviator

2. Politician and Aviator

3. Preparations for the Flight

4. The Flight

5. The Next Ten Days

6. Hesss Messerschmitt

7. Prisoner for Life

8. Some of the Myths

Notes

Appendices

Bibliography

Other books by Roy Conyers Nesbit

Woe to the Unwary

Torpedo Airmen

The Strike Wings

Target: Hitlers Oil (with Ronald C. Cooke)

Arctic Airmen (with Ernest Schofield)

Failed to Return

An Illustrated History of the RAF

RAF Records in the PRO (with Simon Fowler, Peter Elliott and Christina Goulter)

The Armed Rovers

The RAF in Camera 19031939

Eyes of the RAF

The RAF in Camera 19391945

The RAF in Camera 19451995

Coastal Command in Action 19391995

RAF: An Illustrated History from 1918

Britains Rebel Air Force (with Dudley Cowderoy and Andrew Thomas)

RAF in Action 19391945

The Battle of Britain

The Battle of the Atlantic

Missing, believed Killed

The Battle for Europe

The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Flight Officer Felicity Ashbee, WAAF; Hank Brown, NASM Smithsonian Institution, Archives Division, Washington D.C.; Oberstleutnant a. D. Bruno Carl; Frederick A. Dieter, NASM Smithsonian Institution, Archives Division, Washington D.C.; Jean Dillen; Dr Rolf Doberitz, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Seewetteramt, Hamburg; The Lord Selkirk of Douglas; Michael Fowler; Simon Fowler, Public Record Office (now The National Archives); Oberstabsfeldwebel J. Fritsch, Bundeswehr IV Korps, Potsdam Wildpark; Dr Fuchs, Archivdirektor Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Mnchen; Martin Garnett, Dept of Exhibits and Firearms, Imperial War Museum, London; His Grace the 15th Duke of Hamilton; Oliver Hoare, Public Record Office (now The National Archives); G.L. Hope, Head of Tidal Branch, Hydrographic Office, MoD, Taunton; Oberst a. D., Werner Horst; the late Flugkapitn Helmut Kaden; Siegfried Knoll; the late Wing Commander C. Hector Maclean; Lieutenant-Colonel John L. McCowen; Eric Mombeek; National Archives Records Service, Washington D.C.; Michael Oakey, Aeroplane Monthly; the late Flight Lieutenant Maurice A. Pocock RAFVR; Dr R. Reinke, Deutscher Wetterdienst Zentralamt, Offenbach; Winston G. Ramsey After the Battle; Karl Ries; Hanfried Schliephake; General Paul Sharp, NATO Brussels; the late Dr F.S., former meteorologist; Paul Silberman, NASM Smithsonian Institution, Archives Division, Washington D.C.; Charles J. Thompson; M.J. Wood, Meteorological Office, Bracknell, Berkshire; Mrs Arline Youngman; Gerrit J. Zwanenburg.

To all of them our sincere thanks and gratitude for their highly valued help.

We also wish to thank the following owners of copyright, who gave us permission to quote from published works, or to reproduce photographs and documents from their collection: Mrs Heleen den Beer Poortugael, editor, for article in Schipholland, Amsterdam Airport; Mrs Jeanette Kalman for articles published in Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm; Luc Van Loon for articles published in Gazet Van Antwerpen; Hans J. Ebert, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Ottobrunn, for use of photographs; and Christiaan Vanhee, for use of photographs and rare German documents from his extensive collection.

Special thanks to Jean-Louis Roba for hitherto unknown details about Reinhard Heydrichs flying career, his information about the First World War and use of rare photographs. We were especially grateful to the son of Rudolf Hess, Wolf Rdiger, who is now deceased. He answered numerous questions from us and lent us many photographs from his private collection. He also gave us permission to quote extensively from Ilse Hesss book Ein Schicksal in Briefen and gave us other invaluable help.

At dusk on 10 May 1941 Hess parachuted on to a Scottish moor just south of Glasgow and was taken into custody. He gave a false name and said he had an important message for my father, whom he said he had seen at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, although they had never met. Early next morning, my father, who was on duty at RAF Turnhouse, was told that a German pilot had crashed and was asking for him by name. He went to see the prisoner who identified himself as Hess and said that he wished to meet the king and other British leaders, to make a peace overture on behalf of Hitler. The main proposal was that, in return for allowing Germany freedom of action in Europe and Russia, Britain would get a free hand in most of her Empire. Later that day my father flew south to report to Churchill.

Hesss arrival aroused widespread speculation. Bizarre hypotheses abounded and within a year my father was obliged to bring a successful libel action against the general secretary of the British Communist Party. His death in 1973 diminished the inhibitions of the more fanciful theorists, since when there has been a marked increase in the number of imaginative theories published.

The authors of this book have drawn heavily on official documents in Germany, the USA and the Public Record Office at Kew. Early papers include a forty-page German report on Hess in the First World War, which gives precise details of his wounds and refers to his mental state. Later papers include those released in the 1990s by the Foreign Office, concerning the involvement of the SOE and MI5 in the affair. There is a detailed account of his preparations for the flight, as well as technical details of the aircraft modified for the purpose. There follows a vivid description of the flight, the efforts of the RAF to shoot him down and, not least, his difficulties in baling out of his aircraft. His life as a prisoner in British hands is covered, as is his trial at Nuremberg and long imprisonment at Spandau. Accounts of his various attempts at suicide are also given, including the final successful one at the age of 93. The book is annotated throughout with references and the narrative is accompanied by a series of remarkable photographs, some published for the first time.