Peter Padfield - Hess, Hitler and Churchill: The Real Turning Point of the Second World War (A Secret History)

I HAVE TO THANK Andrew Lownie, my agent, for providing important contacts and documents for this project and for his unfailing support from the beginning. One of those contacts, the late Duc de Grantmesnil-Lorraine, Kenneth de Courcy in this story, was a mine of information on the personalities and politics of the war years, especially Stewart Menzies, head of MI6, the Duke of Buccleuch and Lord Rothschild, patron of the Cambridge ring of Soviet spies. It was only after Grantmesnils death that I learned he had been given first-hand information on Hesss peace mission by an officer who guarded Hess in captivity.

The late Adrian Liddell Hart, son of Captain Basil Liddell Hart, was generous in sharing the results of his own researches into Hesss mission. The late Duchess of Hamilton, wife of the 14th Duke, provided much information about her husband and the events surrounding Hesss arrival, as did her son, the 15th Duke, and his brother, James Douglas-Hamilton, now Lord Selkirk of Douglas, who wrote a pioneering book on Hesss arrival, Motive for a Mission; I am grateful for permission to quote from letters he published from his fathers papers.

Rudolf Hesss son, the late Wolf Rdiger Hess, besides providing much material assistance, granted permission to quote from his fathers letters and alleged suicide note, and released the pathologists who conducted the second autopsy into his fathers death, Professors W. Eisenmenger and W. Spann of Munich University, from their oath of silence. In their turn they spent much time and trouble answering my queries, for which I am most grateful.

I am particularly grateful to the late John Howell, who provided the introduction to the informant whose testimony provides the key to the original official cover-up of Hesss peace mission, and who arranged question and answer sessions. Unfortunately the informant, after referring to his former masters (in the Foreign Office or MI6) insisted on anonymity, which I have to honour.

The late Robert Cecil, liaison between MI6 and the Foreign Office during Hesss captivity in Britain, helped enormously with Foreign Office personalities and procedures, as did the late Lord Sherfield (Roger Makins at the time of this story), Sir Frank Roberts, Lord Gladwyn (Gladwyn Jebb) and Lord (David) Eccles, who was adviser to Sir Samuel Hoare in the Madrid Embassy. From the other side of the intelligence divide, the late Drs Wilhelm Httl, Otto John and Eduard Calic, author of the most insightful biography of Reinhard Heydrich, provided information on Albrecht Haushofer and the German resistance to Hitler, as did my friend, Peter C. Hansen, one-time courier for Admiral Canaris, chief of the Abwehr; and I am grateful to Ernst Haiger for much information from his current researches into the Haushofers, especially Albrecht.

Dr Scott Newton provided valuable insights into the personalities and motives of the British appeasers, as did John Harris and Richard Wilbourn, whose lateral thinking and persistent investigation into all matters connected with Hesss mission have provided some of the most telling information I have included in this book. I should also like to thank Ron Williams, whose father was involved in the search for peace, for his researches on my behalf, his hospitality and his constant support.

Roy C. Nesbit, co-author of The Flight of Rudolf Hess: Myths and Reality, helped enormously with RAF and Messerschmitt technicalities, and was most generous with the results of his own researches. I was helped by former MI6 officers who wish to remain anonymous; by the late Group Captain Frederick Winterbotham, former chief of Air Intelligence; the late Colonel Tar Robertson of MI5 and the Double-Cross Committee; the late Lieutenant Colonel John McCowan, who was ordered to apprehend SS parachutists on a mission to assassinate Hess in England; by Squadron Leader R.G. Woodman, who investigated Hesss flight into British air space; Maurice Pocock, who was scrambled in his Spitfire too late to intercept the intruder; and Felicity Ashbee, Moira Pearson and Nancy Goodall who helped plot Hesss incoming aircraft. I should also like to thank all those who replied to my original request for information, who are listed in my earlier (1991) biography of Hess.

My wife, Jane, was, as ever, a constant support and did much excellent work on the files in The National Archives; our son, Guy, gave invaluable advice and technical IT support; Mary and David Thorpe provided such generous hospitality at their home near Kew that our visits to the archives were a real pleasure. The final script was edited by Robert Sharman with care, sensitivity and attention to the questions readers might ask, for which I am most grateful.

Finally, I should like to thank the following authors, editors and publishers for permission to quote from published works: The National Archives, Kew, for Guy Liddells diaries, filed as KV 4/186; Albert Langer-Georg Mller Verlag for W.R. Hess (ed.) Rudolf Hess: Briefe 19081933; Druffel Verlag for Ilse Hess (ed.) Ein Schicksal in Briefen; K.G. Sauer Verlag for E. Frhlich (ed.) Die Tagebcher von Josef Goebbels; and Churchill Archives Centre for permission to quote from the papers of Sir Alexander Cadogan, ACAD 1/1. I have been unable to trace the copyright holder in Lieutenant Colonel A.M. Scotts Camp Z diary at the Imperial War Museum.