The official version of Hess's doomed attempt to negotiate a truce between Britain and Nazi Germany was that he had taken it upon himself to make direct contact with the Duke of Hamilton. In order to prosecute this theory it is necessary to believe that Hess managed to commandeer a Messerschmitt 110 without anyone at the Augsburg Luftwaffe airbase seemingly involved, that the planes sent up both in Germany and in Britain to intercept him either sighted him and let him continue or did not sight him at all, and that no prior communication had taken place which might have convinced Hess that a meeting with the Duke of Hamilton was feasible. Given the immense personal risk to Hess himself and his previous apparent behaviour as a calculating and cautious man it does seem strange that he should devise and execute such a strategy all alone. If he didn't, then who would most likely to have been his associates in the venture?

Fellow German high command members? The Duke of Hamilton? The British secret services?

Nordmann and those who understand French,

there was already a long debate on Passion Histoire:
http://passion-histoire.net/n/www/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=3750&start=420&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=rudolf+hess
François Delpla is a rather controversial historian, who is now banned from that forum, not for his historical stands but more for his "relations" with the other board members and the moderators. I know him from other fora and have already had several conversations with him. But as he rather wants to have the last say he comes many times in conflict with others. However he did a lot of research to support his different points of view.

In the past I did already research for your question on the BBC, but as I see it now it isn't in the last five years of the history messageboards. The first five years of the BBC history messageboards seems to be deleted. I have still all my conversations from these first five years, but as I have no search robot...
I skimmed also through the book from the Brit, who suggests that it was a trick from the British secret service...

Kind regards and with esteem,

Paul.

PS: If you could have a look to the Jiglu messageboard. There, it is not possible to insert more than one URL at a time. See my difficulties in the thread about Tim's question about the David and Solomon palace. Per Nielsen suggest another way to bypass this difficulty, but for me it is rather uncomfortable. If you can suggest there a more comfortable way as overhere?

An interesting discussion, Paul, even if it does stray from the topic quite frequently. However it still assumes that Hess was motivated to act as a "loner" with regard to his "mission", whereas I was wondering if people agree that in fact he may not have acted alone at all but was a member of a group (motivated similarly) which the official history has failed to record?

nordmann wrote:

An interesting discussion, Paul, even if it does stray from the topic quite frequently. However it still assumes that Hess was motivated to act as a "loner" with regard to his "mission", whereas I was wondering if people agree that in fact he may not have acted alone at all but was a member of a group (motivated similarly) which the official history has failed to record?

Sounds probable to me - RH acting as a front man for a group, who weren't going to come clean and admit responsibility unless/until he was successful. I wonder - Canaris seems like a likely member (and possible source of information on Hamilton, at least.)

nordmann wrote:

An interesting discussion, Paul, even if it does stray from the topic quite frequently. However it still assumes that Hess was motivated to act as a "loner" with regard to his "mission", whereas I was wondering if people agree that in fact he may not have acted alone at all but was a member of a group (motivated similarly) which the official history has failed to record?

Nordmann,

as I explained elsewhere, not that much time for the moment. But I found this on the French messageboard and it starts with the book I mentioned from Martin Allen. And they make already a "historian" of him...from that aspect out is François Delpla then more a historian as he did some university studies in that branch...but so did or mutual multi-message friend...I know Chef Chaudard already years from different French fora and it is an honest bloke in my opinion...

http://passion-histoire.net/n/www/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=28198&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=rudolf+hess

Kind regards and with esteem,

Paul.

Addendum to previous message.

And also that:

http://passion-histoire.net/n/www/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=23156&start=30&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=rudolf+hess

Cheers, Paul.

Nordmann,

just replied to a message from Chef Chaudard about an English language link he posted and my links are also in English:

http://passion-histoire.net/n/www/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=28198&p=392789#p392789

As John Simkin also seems to contribute to the Guardian I add overhere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian

http://www.blurtit.com/q521113.html

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081116075649AAdYKO9

And perhaps we can discuss in another thread British papers?

Kind regards and with esteem,

Paul.

Quote :

And perhaps we can discuss in another thread British papers?

Is that really appropriate? Surely fiction is best left to a literature MB?