10th May 1941.
Rudolph Hess lands in Scotland.
http://www.information-britain.co.uk...tes.php?id=353
Rob.
10th May 1941.
Rudolph Hess lands in Scotland.
http://www.information-britain.co.uk...tes.php?id=353
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
A strange business.
This occurred about a month before Germany invaded Russia.
Was Hess trying to enlist the aid of the British against Russia ?
Did Hess really commit suicide at age 93 in Spandau Prison ?
We will never know.
Hess was planning to enlist the aid of British Nazi sympathisers, potential Quislings and possible appeasers to declare peace - or at the very least a temporary truce so the Nazis could focus on destroying Communism.
He had a list of hundreds of names of influential people who he thought might aid his cause.
We like to believe that while France and Norway had Nazi sympathisers and Quislings, Britain did not but Oswald Mosley was not the only British Fascist and there were still influential people willing to consider doing a deal.
Hess had no idea how much the attitude of the country had changed since Churchill and the blitz had united the country. That is not surprising because it was a remarkable, total and dramatic change in attitude of a whole country.
What we will never know is whether Hess was working alone or whether others knew of his plan.
Hitler appears to have been angry after the event and claimed that Hess was mentally ill, etc. But you have to remember that many Nazi apparatchiks worked on nothing more than assuming Hitler's general comments were directives. According to one documentary Hitler rarely gave political orders and it was up to his cronies to work out what he wanted. The fact that Hitler gave no specific order does not mean that he (Hitler) may have said something in conversation which Hess seized upon. Had it turned out better I am sure that Hitler would have taken the credit.
Very true. The Nazi Party was in many ways a rigid, hierarchical organisation whose members believed in fanatically following orders but at all levels they, also, followed a creed that put "will" above all else. There is a letter from a relatively low ranking Nazi party member complaining to Hitler that his local group is poorly led. Hitler's advice is that if the party member is right and wants to take over the local group, the party member should use his will to take over the group. Early on in the war, this creed of will above all else gave the Nazis an advantage as their soldiers at all levels tended to be willing to take initiative and take more risks. With Barbarossa it became an increasing liability as will is no substitute for logistics and winter clothing.
When Hitler says you're mentally ill, that's...some interesting commentary, right there.
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