May 10, 1941 is the same milestone date for World War II as September 1, 1939 and June 22, 1941. It was on this day that Rudolf Hess, the third man in the Reich and the second in the NSDAP, unexpectedly … hijacked the Messerschmitt-110 from the military airfield near Augsburg and flew to England. A case that has no analogues in world history. The man to whom Hitler in 1933 granted the right to make decisions on all party issues, and in 1939 announced his successor after Goering, fled not just to another country, but to the worst enemy with whom his country had been in a state for almost two years wars!
Hitler himself hastened to declare Hess insane, Stalin immediately expressed doubt that Hess flew to England "just like that", and the British themselves had been mysteriously silent for 70 years. There is a suspicion that this silence will last as long, if not longer. Even though the British promise to declassify Hess's dossier in 2017.
… Dressed in the Luftwaffe uniform, Hess took off in the evening of May 10, 1941 towards Scotland. Flying in the places where the Duke of Hamilton was supposed to live, Hess jumped with a parachute from the brand new Messerschmitt, which rushed down in a tailspin and crashed on the hillsides. This was the first leap in the practice of the 48-year-old Deputy Fuehrer, and it was carried out in the dark. On landing, Hess broke his ankle and injured his spine. When he reached the nearest farm, he introduced himself to the owner as "Hauptmann Alfred Horn" and said that he must immediately get to the estate of the Duke of Hamilton to convey an important message. Hess was taken into custody and handed over to the army authorities.
As soon as Hess was in the British Isles, he did not ask for political asylum, which is quite natural under such circumstances. On the contrary, Hess in every possible way emphasized the exclusiveness of his mission. There is no doubt that a meeting (or even several meetings) of Hess with the then leaders of Great Britain took place, since it is difficult to believe that only minor officials from the British Foreign Office communicated with the "shadow of Hitler", as Hess was nicknamed, as they like represent the British.
What exactly did Hess want to tell the British, since he dared to do such an act bordering on recklessness? What made him, disdaining all dangers, go to the enemy's camp, where he was clearly not expected? Or did they wait? Painfully easily, Hess's plane eluded the British air defense, which had a whole network of radar stations that covered the entire eastern and southern coast of Foggy Albion.
In the verdict of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg it is said: “While flying to England, Hess was carrying with him some peace proposals, which, as he claimed, Hitler was ready to accept. It is noteworthy that this flight took place only a few days after Hitler set the exact date for the attack on the Soviet Union - June 22, 1941. " However, an even more remarkable fact is recorded in the transcript of the Nuremberg trial. At the meeting on August 31, 1946, Hess wished to inform about his mission in England, but barely had time to say: "In the spring of 1941 …", he was interrupted by the chairman of the tribunal, the Englishman Lawrence. After that, Hess refused to answer the questions of judges and prosecutors, and played a deranged person who had lost his memory. That is, Hess was just pointedly SHUT OFF THE MOUTH. Presumably, they shut up only so that he would not blabber aboutthat the British did not want to go public.
Apparently, in May 1941, "Nazi No. 2" was commissioned by "Nazi No. 1" (ie, Hitler) to make the British an offer that they could not refuse. And there could be only one such proposal - to end the senseless war in the West, which was absolutely unnecessary for England and Germany. In exchange for peace with Britain, Hitler was ready to start a war with the USSR, which the British had been expecting from him for several years. The extent to which London was interested in cooperation with Hitler is evidenced by the statement of Allen Dulles, the head of residence of the Office of Strategic Services in Bern during the Second World War, the future director of the CIA (1953-1961). In 1948, Dulles declared: “British intelligence in Berlin established contact with Rudolf Hess and, with his help, found a way out to Hitler himself. Hess was told that if Germany declares war on the Soviets,England will stop hostilities."
The question arises: why did the British so want Hitler to attack the USSR?
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The answer is simple: having won the First World War, England could not come to terms with the fact that in Europe there is the only state not controlled by the Entente countries - the USSR. Since the 19th century, England has made a lot of efforts to crush Russia, turning it into its own raw material appendage. The Russo-Japanese War, both revolutions and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks - all these are links in one chain, the very one with which England hoped to strangle Russian statehood. In 1917, the British almost succeeded, but the Bolsheviks turned out to be even more dodgy than the impudent British, and instead of obediently making Russia another colony of the Anglo-Saxons, they began to play their game, and a very unpredictable one.
Of course, the British sponsors could not endure such "rudeness" even in the mid-1920s. began to raise a fierce, but obedient watchdog - Adolf Hitler. Moreover, this dog himself was always eager to go to the East. But the hardened dog-Hitler eventually began to bark, and then bore his teeth at his own owners, and demand an equal partnership in the reconstruction of Europe. But in London, Hitler was never perceived as a partner: for London, he was only a tool in crushing the USSR. To enlighten the presumptuous Fuhrer, England declared war on him, but at the same time the British tried to convince Hitler in every possible way that the way for negotiations was open. Just fulfill your mission - destroy the USSR. That is why, apparently, “Nazi No. 2” flew to England to finally settle all the issues.
There is no doubt that the British gave Hess some guarantees. What kind? We may never know about them, but we can assume with a very high degree of confidence that the British in 1941 promised Germany not to open a second front on the European continent, and indeed not to interfere with Hitler in resolving the "Eastern question". Although historians argue that Hess's talks in England were not only about peace, but also about Britain's participation in the war on the side of Germany. Moreover, the late Russian Soviet writer, journalist and historian Lev Bezymensky believed that "Hess was instructed to make the last attempt to create a single pan-European coalition." There is no need to explain the coalition against whom. London prudently did not get involved in a direct war with the USSR, but until 1943, when it became clear that the Soviet Union had withstood and a turning point was coming in the war,the British did not prevent Germany from fighting in the east.
The Spandau War Criminal Prison was located in the British sector of Berlin.
Hess himself could have told about his agreements with British politicians in 1941, but he was not allowed to do so. Churchill ordered that Hess be treated with dignity: he was sent to London, to the Tower, where he remained as a high-ranking internee until October 6, 1945. The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced Nazi No. 2 to life imprisonment, which Hess was serving in Berlin, in the Spandau prison (after Speer's release in 1965, Hess remained her only prisoner). In 1987, when the USSR was already embraced by Gorbachev's perestroika, Hess was supposed to be released for "humane reasons." However, on August 17, 1987, a 93-year-old Nazi criminal was found dead in a gazebo in the prison yard with an electric wire around his neck. The pathological examination immediately questioned the official version of the suicide, but no one listened to the experts' opinion. Moreover, two days after the strange death of Hess, by order of the prison administration, the ill-fated gazebo and all personal belongings, notes and diaries of Hess were destroyed. What is noteworthy: by order of the ENGLISH prison administration.