Also by Peter Padfield
BIOGRAPHY
Dönitz: The Last Führer
Himmler: Reichsführer-SS
Hess: Flight for the Führer
(in paperback, Hess: The Führer’s Disciple)
NAVAL AND MARITIME HISTORY
The Sea is a Magic Carpet
The Titanic and the Californian
An Agony of Collisions
Aim Straight: A Biography of Admiral Sir Percy Scott
Broke and the Shannon: A Biography of Admiral Sir Philip Broke
The Battleship Era
Guns at Sea: A History of Naval Gunnery
The Great Naval Race: Anglo–German Naval Rivalry, 1900–1914
Nelson’s War
Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West
Volume I: 1481–1654
Volume II: 1654–1763
Rule Britannia: The Victorian and Edwardian Navy
Beneath the Houseflag of the P & O: A Social History
Armada: A Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Defeat of the Spanish Armada
War Beneath the Sea: Submarine Conflict 1939–1945
Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World 1588–1782
Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World 1788–1851
Maritime Dominion and the Triumph of the Free World: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World 1852–2001
(As contributor)
The Trafalgar Companion (ed. Alexander Stilwell)
Dreadnought to Daring (ed. Peter Hore)
NOVELS
The Lion’s Claw
The Unquiet Gods
Gold Chains of Empire
Salt and Steel
Printed edition published in the UK in 2013 by
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This electronic edition published in 2013 by Icon Books Ltd
ISBN: 978-184831-618-8 (ePub format)
Author’s text copyright © 2013 Peter Padfield
The author has asserted his moral rights.
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means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Typeset by Marie Doherty
For Jane
Contents
By same author
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Dramatis personae
Chapter One: Death in the summer house
Chapter Two: The big question
Chapter Three: Hess
Chapter Four: The Jewish question
Chapter Five: Struggle for peace
Chapter Six: Churchill – and the Jews
Chapter Seven: Clandestine approaches
Chapter Eight: Deception operations
Chapter Nine: Two-front war
Chapter Ten: Take off!
Chapter Eleven: Reactions
Chapter Twelve: Conflicting statements
Chapter Thirteen: Negotiations?
Chapter Fourteen: The story leaks
Chapter Fifteen: The ‘final solution’
Chapter Sixteen: The real story?
Chapter Seventeen: Spandau
Chapter Eighteen: Final audit
Chapter Nineteen: The answer?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Plate section
List of illustrations
Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess at a Nazi rally in Weimar in 1936.
Winston Churchill with Viscount Halifax in 1938.
Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the ‘boxing Marquess’ of Clydesdale.
Albrecht Haushofer.
James Lonsdale Bryans.
Sir Samuel Hoare with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Colonel Stewart Menzies with his second wife in 1932.
Claude Dansey of MI6 in the 1930s.
Abwehr chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.
Kenneth de Courcy.
Carl Burckhardt.
Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden in 1941.
Hitler, Goebbels and Hess celebrating the anniversary of the Nazi ‘seizure of power’ at the Berlin Sportpalast, January 1941.
The wreckage of Hess’s Me Bf 110 at Floors Farm, Eaglesham, Renfrewshire.
The Duke of Hamilton in flying kit.
The Duke of Kent in RAF uniform.
The ‘summer house’ in the garden of Spandau jail, where Hess died.
The extension flex with which he hanged himself, attached to the window catch.
The lower end of the flex unplugged.
The back of Hess’s neck at the post-mortem, showing a horizontal mark more typical of strangulation than hanging.
The ‘suicide note’ found in Hess’s clothes.
Acknowledgements
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 Grantmesnil’s death that I learned he had been given first-hand information on Hess’s 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 Hess’s mission. The late Duchess of Hamilton, wife of the 14th Duke, provided much information about her husband and the events surrounding Hess’s 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 Hess’s arrival, Motive for a Mission; I am grateful for permission to quote from letters he published from his father’s papers.
Rudolf Hess’s son, the late Wolf Rüdiger Hess, besides providing much material assistance, granted permission to quote from his father’s letters and alleged suicide note, and released the pathologists who conducted the second autopsy into his father’s 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 Hess’s 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 Hess’s 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 Höttl, Otto John and Eduard Calic, author of the most insightful biography of Reinha
rd 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 Hess’s 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 Hess’s 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 Hess’s 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 Liddell’s diaries, filed as KV 4/186; Albert Langer-Georg Müller Verlag for W.R. Hess (ed.) Rudolf Hess: Briefe 1908–1933; Druffel Verlag for Ilse Hess (ed.) Ein Schicksal in Briefen; K.G. Sauer Verlag for E. Fröhlich (ed.) Die Tagebücher 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. Scott’s ‘Camp Z’ diary at the Imperial War Museum.
Dramatis personae
ATTLEE, Clement Leader of the Labour Party and a fierce critic of ‘appeasing’ Hitler. When Churchill came to power in May 1940 Attlee brought Labour into coalition government with the Conservatives. Appointed Lord Privy Seal, later Deputy Prime Minister, he looked after domestic affairs while Churchill ran the War Cabinet.
BEAVERBROOK, Lord A Canadian who came to England in 1910, entered Parliament as a Conservative and bought the Daily Express, the first of several newspapers he acquired and increased in circulation. In 1917 he was raised to the peerage. During the 1930s he promoted ‘appeasement’ of Nazi Germany, and wobbled in that direction after the outbreak of war, but Churchill, on becoming Prime Minister, harnessed his immense energy by appointing him Minister of Aircraft Production; in this role he made a major contribution to winning the Battle of Britain. Although not in the War Cabinet, he was one of Churchill’s closest confidants.
BEDFORD, Duke of A prominent pacifist. At the outbreak of war, as Marquis of Tavistock, he co-founded the British People’s Party advocating an immediate end to war with Germany and the adoption of a monetary policy known as ‘social credit’. In February 1940 he travelled to Dublin to discuss peace terms at the German Legation. Later that year he succeeded as 12th Duke. Disliking the family seat, Woburn Abbey – acquired by the government as headquarters for SOE – he lived at Cairnsmore in Galloway, Scotland. Although kept under surveillance by MI5, he was not arrested as it was felt this would only give his views more prominence.
BLUNT, Anthony Homosexual art historian and member of the notorious Soviet spy ring including Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess. Recruited into MI5 in June 1940 as personal assistant to Guy Liddell, head of B Division, he passed intelligence to the Russians throughout the war. At war’s end he was despatched to Germany by Buckingham Palace on a mission to retrieve sensitive royal documents, thereby it is said, gaining immunity from prosecution when he was unmasked in 1963.
BORMANN, Martin A farm estate manager and Freikorps activist, he joined the Nazi Party in 1927, becoming regional business manager in Thuringia. Successfully concealing his coarse appetites and unprincipled ambition he was appointed Rudolf Hess’s personal secretary and head of his cabinet in July 1933; he also managed Hitler’s finances, so insinuating himself into the Führer’s confidence.
BROCKET, Lord Conservative politician from a millionaire brewing family with great estates in England and Scotland. A member of the Anglo-German Fellowship committed to increasing friendship with Germany, he was an active Nazi sympathiser and used by Lord Halifax to convey British government views to the German government. In April 1939 he travelled to Berlin with the Duke of Buccleuch and General J.F.C. Fuller to attend Hitler’s 50th birthday celebrations. After the outbreak of war he promoted and financed efforts for a compromise peace.
BUCCLEUCH, Duke of The grandest of Conservative grandees with the largest private landholding in the kingdom and several great houses: Drumlanrig, Dumfriesshire, Bowhill in the Border region (and perhaps by coincidence practically on Hess’s flight path in May 1941), Boughton, Northamptonshire, and others. A great friend of Stewart Menzies and on first name terms with King George VI, his sister was married to the king’s younger brother, the Duke of Gloucester. He was committed to friendship with Germany on imperial strategic rather than ideological grounds.
BURCKHARDT, Carl Swiss academic and diplomat. As League of Nations High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig from 1937 to 1939 he acquired experience of the German demands for living space (Lebensraum) in eastern Europe; Hitler told him personally that he wanted ‘nothing from the West’, but ‘must have a free hand in the east’. During the war as a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross based in Geneva he had occasion to visit Germany on ICRC business, and was used as an intermediary for peace overtures by both sides.
BUTLER, R.A. ‘Rab’ Conservative politician with a first-class intellect. He supported Chamberlain’s policy of ‘appeasing’ Hitler, and in 1938 was appointed Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Like many others, he distrusted Churchill, describing him in private after he succeeded Chamberlain as ‘a half breed American’ and ‘the greatest adventurer of modern political history’. He and his senior, Lord Halifax, continued to pursue ‘appeasement’ clandestinely in 1940 in contravention of Churchill’s policy of no negotiation with the enemy.
CADOGAN, Sir Alexander Passed top in the exams for entry into the diplomatic service in 1908; 30 years later he was appointed Permanent Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs (head of the permanent staff of the Foreign Office) in place of the outspoken anti-German, Vansittart (see below). Outwardly restrained, he reserved often acid assessments of colleagues for his diaries, published posthumously; the originals are held by the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
CANARIS, Admiral Wilhelm The son of a wealthy industrialist, Canaris had a distinguished record in the First World War, latterly as a U-boat commander. After the lost war he was active in the clandestine re-building of the U-boat arm in contravention of the Treaty of Versailles. Appointed head of the Abwehr (Military Counter-Intelligence) in 1934, he had by 1938 realised that the Reich was being led to disaster, and he began conspiring against Hitler. During the war he passed inform
ation to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). With a subtlety of mind unusual in the German naval officer corps, he was an enigma to his colleagues, and remains so to history. He was brutally executed as a traitor in the final days of the war.
CHAMBERLAIN, Neville Conservative politician and British Prime Minister from 1937 to May 1940, when he lost the confidence of the Labour and Liberal parties after British defeats in Norway. He is remembered chiefly for attempting to preserve peace by conciliating, or ‘appeasing’ Hitler’s territorial demands. His choices were limited as Britain’s armed services had been run down in the atmosphere of disarmament after the horrors of the First World War, yet his policy demonstrated complete misunderstanding of the determination of the German military leadership to reverse the decision of the first war, and of Hitler’s aim for European hegemony.
CHURCHILL, Winston A descendant of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, he was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome, socialite daughter of a New York millionaire; he saw too little of either parent while growing up, which distressed him, and he did not distinguish himself at school. His career as a cavalry officer, war reporter, Member of Parliament and minister in the social reforming Liberal government of 1905–1915 reads like adventure fiction. Subsequently he crossed to the Conservative benches, serving in the post-war Conservative government as Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the government fell he found himself at odds with the party leaders and spent the 1930s writing the biography of his illustrious ancestor, Marlborough, gaining strategic insights which were to illumine his subsequent war leadership, while attempting to convince the government and a complacent public of the need to re-arm against Hitler. On the outbreak of war Chamberlain appointed him First Lord of the Admiralty. Although distrusted by many as an impulsive adventurer, when Chamberlain fell he had sufficient support from all sides to succeed him as Prime Minister. A brilliant conversationalist and orator with an original mind, he yet suffered periods of deep depression which he called his ‘black dog’. He has been judged by history as one of the greatest Britons.
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