The Flight of Rudolf Hess

Just to the north west of Stonehouse, Lanarkshire lies open moorland and here was played out one of the few unresolved mysteries of the Second World War, which still continues to generate huge controversy. On the night of May 10th 1941, Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, bailed out of his aircraft, a Messerschmitt 110, after a five hour, 900 mile flight and parachuted into a field at Floors farm, near the village of Eaglesham on Fenwick Moor.

He surrendered to a ploughman named David McClean, armed with a pitchfork and told him in English, "I have an important message for the Duke of Hamilton". Hess was then offered tea at McClean's cottage before being taken into custody by the local Home Guard. The motive for this seemingly bizarre event still serves to baffle military and political experts to this day ...

During interrogation in a British Army barracks, Hess proposed that if the British would allow Nazi Germany to dominate Europe, then the British Empire would not be further molested by Hitler. He insisted that German victory was inevitable and even threatened that the British people would be starved to death by a Nazi blockade around the British Isles unless they accepted his generous peace offer.

But Hess also displayed signs of mental instability to his British captors and they concluded he was half mad and represented only himself. Churchill, realizing this, and somewhat infuriated by his statements, ordered Hess to be imprisoned for the duration and treated like any high ranking POW. Hess was declared insane by a bewildered Hitler, and effectively disowned by the Nazis. His flight ultimately caused Hitler and the Nazis huge embarrassment as they struggled to explain his actions ...

In spite of his mental condition he was sentenced to life in prison. The Soviets blocked all attempts at early release. He served his sentence in Spandau prison in Berlin, where from 1966 he was the sole inmate. Officially Hess died by suicide on 17th July 1987 aged 93, the last of  the prisoners to be tried at Nuremberg.

The penultimate inmate at Spandau was Albert Speer, sentenced to 20 years in prison for his use of slave labor while Minister of Armaments.

While in prison he wrote Inside The Third Reich, as massive a work as The Gulag Archipelago but more coherent because TGA is more like a bunch of stories stuck together without any internal consistency.  Solzhenitsyn needed a better editor.  Speer was a pretty good writer.

As I recall he thought that Hess was nuts - capable of carrying on a conversation but that was about it.