The Grand Alliance (12 page)

The Duke was a personal friend of mine, but I could not think of any business he might have with me which could not wait till the morning. However, he pressed to speak with me, saying it was an urgent matter of Cabinet importance. I asked Mr. Bracken to hear what he had to say. After a few minutes he came back with the news, “Hess has arrived in Scotland.” I thought this was fantastic. The report, however, was true. As the night advanced, confirmatory messages arrived. There was no doubt that Hess, the Deputy Fuehrer, Reich Minister without Portfolio, Member of the Ministerial Council for the Defence of the Reich, Member of the Secret Cabinet Council for Germany, and the Leader of the Nazi Party, had landed alone by parachute near the Duke of Hamilton’s estate in Scotland.

Piloting his own plane and dressed as a flight lieutenant of the Luftwaffe, he had flown from Augsburg and baled out.

At first he gave his name as “Horn,” and it was not till after his reception at a military hospital near Glasgow, where he

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had been brought for minor injuries caused by his drop, that it was learned who he was. He was soon removed by various stages to the Tower, and thence to other places of captivity in this country, and remained here till October 6, 1945, when in the cells of Nuremberg he rejoined such of his colleagues as had survived the war and were being tried for their lives by the conquerors.

I never attached any serious importance to this escapade. I knew it had no relation to the march of events. Throughout Britain, the United States, Russia, and above all Germany, there was a profound sensation, and books have been written about it all. I shall merely set down here what I believe to be the true story.

Rudolf Hess was a good-looking, youngish man to whom Hitler took a fancy, and who became an intimate member of his personal staff. He worshipped the Fuehrer, and felt passionately about the world issue at stake. He dined at Hitler’s table, often alone or with two or three. He knew and was capable of understanding Hitler’s inner mind – his hatred of Soviet Russia, his lust to destroy Bolshevism, his admiration for Britain and earnest wish to be friends with the British Empire, his contempt for most other countries.

No one knew Hitler better or saw him more often in his unguarded moments. With the coming of actual war there was a change. Hitler’s meal-time company grew perforce.

Generals, admirals, diplomats, high functionaries, were admitted from time to time to this select circle of arbitrary power. The Deputy Fuehrer found himself in eclipse. What were party demonstrations now? This was a time for deeds, not for antics.

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We must discount to some extent the merits of his action by a certain strain of jealousy which affected his nature at finding that under war conditions he no longer played his old part of friendly confidant with the beloved Fuehrer.

Here, he felt, are all these generals and others who must be admitted to the Fuehrer’s intimacy, and crowd his table.

They have their parts to play. But I, Rudolf, by a deed of superb devotion will surpass them all and bring to my Fuehrer a greater treasure and easement than all of them put together. I will go and make peace with Britain. My life is nothing. How glad I am to have a life to cast away for such a hope! Such moods, however naïve, were certainly neither wicked nor squalid.

Hess’s idea of the European scene was that England had been wrested from her true interests and policy of friendship with Germany, and above all from alliance against Bolshevism, by the warmongers, of whom Churchill was the superficial manifestation. If only he, Rudolf, could get at the heart of Britain and make its King believe how Hitler felt towards her, the malign forces that now ruled in this ill-starred island and had brought so many needless miseries upon it would be swept away. How could Britain survive? France was gone. The U-boats would soon destroy all sea communications; the German air attack would overpower British industry and beat down British cities.

But to whom should he turn? There was the Duke of Hamilton. He had met him at the Olympic Games. He knew also that the Duke of Hamilton was Lord Steward. A personage like that would probably be dining every night with the King and have his private ear. Here was a channel of direct access.

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“It seemed,” said a German press notice a few days later,

“that Party Member Hess lived in a state of hallucination, as a result of which he felt he would bring about an understanding between England and Germany…. The National Socialist Party regrets that this idealist fell a victim to his hallucination. This, however, will have no effect on the continuance of the war which has been forced on Germany.” For Hitler the event was embarrassing. It was as if my trusted colleague, the Foreign Secretary, who was only a little younger than Hess, had parachuted from a stolen Spitfire into the grounds of Berchtesgaden. The Nazis no doubt found some relief in arresting Hess’s adjutants.

Prime

Minister

to

13 May 41

Foreign Secretary

On the whole it will be more convenient to treat him

[Herr Hess] as a prisoner of war, under the War Office
and not the Home Office; but also as one against whom
grave political charges may be preferred. This man, like
other Nazi leaders, is potentially a war criminal, and he
and his confederates may well be declared outlaws at
the close of the war. In this case his repentance would
stand him in good stead.

2. In the meanwhile he should be strictly isolated in
a convenient house not too far from London, and every
endeavour should be made to study his mentality and
get anything worth while out of him.

3. His health and comfort should be ensured, food,
books, writing materials, and recreation being provided
for him. He should not have any contacts with the outer
world or visitors except as prescribed by the Foreign
Office. Special guardians should be appointed. He
should see no newspapers and hear no wireless. He
should be treated with dignity, as if he were an important general who had fallen into our hands.

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Prime Minister to Sir

16 May 41

Alexander Cadogan

Please make now a fairly full digest of the conversa-tional parts of Hess’s three interviews, stressing particularly the points mentioned by me in the statement I
prepared [for the House] but did not deliver. I will then
send this to President Roosevelt with a covering
telegram.

2. I approved the War Office proposal to bring Hess
to the Tower by tonight pending his place of confine-ment being prepared at Aldershot.

Former

Naval

17 May 41

Person to President

Roosevelt

Foreign Office representative has had three interviews with Hess.

At first interview, on night of May 11-12, Hess was
extremely voluble, and made long statement with the
aid of notes. First part recapitulated Anglo-German
relations during past thirty years or so, and was designed to show that Germany had always been in the
right and England in the wrong. Second part emphasised certainty of German victory, due to development
in combination of submarine and air weapons, steadi-ness of German morale, and complete unity of German
people behind Hitler. Third part outlined proposals for
settlement. Hess said that the Fuehrer had never
entertained any designs against the British Empire,
which would be left intact save for the return of former
German colonies, in exchange for a free hand for him in
Europe. But condition was attached that Hitler would
not negotiate with present Government in England. This
is the old invitation to us to desert all our friends in
order to save temporarily the greater part of our skin.

Foreign Office representative asked him whether
when he spoke of Hitler having a free hand in Europe
he included Russia in Europe or in Asia. He replied, “In
Asia.” He added, however, that Germany had certain
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demands to make of Russia which would have to be
satisfied, but denied rumours that attack on Russia was
being planned.

Impression created by Hess was that he had made
up his mind that Germany must win the war, but saw
that it would last a long time and involve much loss of
life and destruction. He seemed to feel that if he could
persuade people in this country that there was a basis
for a settlement, that might bring the war to an end and
avert unnecessary suffering.

At second interview, on fourteenth May, Hess made
two further points:

(1) In any peace settlement Germany would have to
support Rashid Ali and secure eviction of British from
Iraq.

(2) U-boat war with air co-operation would be carried
on till all supplies to these islands were cut off. Even if
these islands capitulated and the Empire continued to
fight, the blockade of Britain would continue, even if
that meant that the last inhabitant of Britain died of
starvation.

At third interview, on May 15, nothing much
emerged save incidentally some rather disparaging
remarks about your country and the degree of assistance that you will be able to furnish to us. I am afraid,
in particular, he is not sufficiently impressed by what he
thinks he knows of your aircraft types and production.

Hess seems in good health and not excited, and no
ordinary signs of insanity can be detected. He declares
that this escapade is his own idea and that Hitler was
unaware of it beforehand. If he is to be believed, he
expected to contact members of a “peace movement”

in England, which he would help to oust the present
Government. If he is honest and if he is sane this is an
encouraging sign of ineptitude of German Intelligence
Service. He will not be ill-treated, but it is desirable that
the press should not romanticise him and his
adventure. We must not forget that he shares responsibility for all Hitler’s crimes and is a potential war criminal
whose fate must ultimately depend upon the decision of
the Allied Governments.

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Mr. President, all the above is for your own information. Here we think it best to let the press have a good
run for a bit and keep the Germans guessing. The
German officer prisoners of war here were greatly
perturbed by the news, and I cannot doubt that there
will be deep misgivings in the German armed forces
about what he may say.

Hess’s own explanations to the doctors were hardly more illuminating. On May 22 his doctor reported as follows: He said he was horrified at the heavy air raids on London in 1940, and loathed the thought of killing young children and their mothers. This feeling was intensified when he contemplated his own wife and son, and led to the idea of flying to Britain and arranging peace with the large anti-war faction which he thought existed in this country. He stressed that personal advantage played no part in this scheme – it was an increasing idealistic urge.
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