Rudolf Hess's mind was haunted by "inescapable thoughts".
Hess was particularly vigorous in his attempt to include Britain in the anti-Soviet expedition. In order to realize this plan of his own, he pinned his hopes on relying on the pro-fascists in the country to overthrow Churchill** and conclude a peace agreement with Britain. There can be no doubt that Hess deliberately wanted to take advantage of the anti-Soviet tendencies of the British Munich elements, who always decided that it was better to collude with fascist Germany than to oppose it.
Among the pro-German sentiments in Britain were the large estate owners, the conservatives Hamilton and Betford, and the interventionist A. A., who was not in the same position as the Soviet stateKnox, Lockell-Lempson, and the Kraft Group (including Lord Astor and his wife. )。At the same time, Hitler's fascists also put Lord Delbar, Speaker of Parliament under Chamberlain, Lord Douglas, Deputy Secretary of the Air Department GBalfour, as well as Deputy Scottish Deputy Minister Widdellborn, who maintains close ties with the royal family, were considered pro-Germans.
Hitler and Hess also counted on the assistance of members of the pro-fascist "Reich Political Group". Among the leaders of the group were Lord Berta, Lord Phillimore and Kennet de Cusi, among others, who had met Mussolini and other fascist activists on more than one occasion. Hitler and Hess insisted on calling the names "Young Imperialists.""and its members usually gather around the British ambassador to the United States, Lortien, and the magazine Round Table.
In the plans of Hitler and Hess, the British Nazi leader Oswald Mosley and his few followers held a special place. Hess still maintained direct contact with a number of British fascist organizations, led by the "link" group.
In order to achieve collusion with Britain, the German fascist leaders hoped to take advantage of some of the British elites, the most famous of which were William Staeg, director of the Central European Department, O. Mehley, director of the Eastern Department, who later became minister to Budapest, and Ayvon Kirkpatrick, former first secretary of the British Embassy in Berlin, and so on.
On May 12, 1941, the fascist *** Albrecht Hoosgover wrote a special brief report for Hitler on "Private Relations with Great Britain and the Possibility of Their Exploitation." This author is the son of the aforementioned Karl Hausgofer, who has become a political adviser to Hess. At that time, Karl Hausgofer maintained close ties with a large number of high-ranking British politicians and diplomats, such as Lord Halifax, Duke Hamilton, Lord Douglas and Lord Lotienne. It was he who gave Hess the idea of making peace with England. So it was only natural that the business card of the Hausgofer father and son was a wonderful introduction to Hess's trip to England.
In the summer of 1940, Karl Hausgover, Hess's "personal astrologer", once spoke to Hess about his "good omen.""Dream: He Hausgover had "dreamed three times about how Hess was piloting an unseen plane." Hausgover thus made it clear that it was necessary to fly to England, because there Hess would be able to meet such a "sane man" as the Duke of Hamilton, and would have the opportunity to approach all the dignitaries of London at any time, up to Churchill and the King.
The seeds sown by Hausgover fell on soil suitable for growth. Hess himself was determined to carry out a "historic mission"—to fly directly to England or to meet British diplomats in Spain in order to negotiate a rapprochement with Britain and to establish a German-British united front against the Soviet Union.
In the period 1940-1941, the German fascists tried more than once to reach a collusion with the British. In the summer of 1940, when the Hitlerist fascists were stepping up the formulation of the "Barbarossa" plan, British Ambassador Kelly held a secret meeting with Hitler's fascist envoy Max Gogenloe in Switzerland. The meeting was facilitated by Carl Burckhardt, former High Commissioner of the League of Nations to Danzig and later President of the Swiss Red Cross. Since then, others have been meeting with Gogenloë one after another.
On June 25, 1940, fascist Germany, through the U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin and the Italian ambassador Alfieri, suggested that Roosevelt of the United States put forward an initiative on peace negotiations between Germany and Great Britain. At the beginning of July 1940, Heath held several rounds of talks with Waltaert, the first man of Hitler's fascist Germany, at the request of the United States. During the talks, Voltaert, in Hitler's name, proposed an alliance of the three "northern states" - Great Britain, the United States and Germany.
In July 1940, Rudolf Hess set about making an attempt to do just that. He first flew to Madrid, where he met Duke Windzolski, brother of the former King of England and current King George. Duke Wendzolski – Edward VIII – was forced to leave the throne at that time, not only because he failed to marry a woman of non-royal blood, but also because of his pro-fascist views. Hess knew who to deal with, so he bluntly asked Britain to join the expedition against the Soviet Union without diplomatic rhetoric. Duke Wendzolski quickly forwarded these proposals to his younger brother and W., who were kingsPrime Minister Churchill, while trying to persuade them to adopt it immediately. However, a few days later, Britain** denied the fact of the negotiations.
In early September 1940, at Hess's regular meeting with Karl Hausgofer, the establishment of contact with the Duke of Hamilton was discussed. Hess had known him since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At that time, Hamilton frequented Hess's apartment and considered himself a fanatic follower of the Nazis. Therefore, Hausgover thought that it was not possible to hold such a meeting in Lisbon through his son Albrecht.
Karl Hausgoff was convinced that Hitler would authorize Hess to hold talks with Britain. September 10, 1940, aHausgover was commissioned to meet with Hamil in Lisbon in order to lay the groundwork for Hess's talks with the British. a.Hausgover first wrote a letter to Hamilton, which was forwarded through a representative of the British Intelligence Service. Later, at a meeting of the heads of British intelligence, it was decided to take advantage of this opportunity, and Hamilton was advised to go to Lisbon. However, he did not dare to act rashly without getting ** permission. ** It is not yet known what decision was made, but the Lisbon meeting did not take place. It seems that this setback had led to the idea of going to England to meet the Duke of Hamilton in person.
How do you prepare for flying to the UK?
Hess acquired a newly designed ME-110 aircraft at its factory through industrial magnate Willy Messerschmitt. Over the course of several months, Hess conducted long-distance test flights within the limits of German airspace. According to Hess's own confession, he had made three attempts to fly to England, the first of which was scheduled to take place in December 1940, but was abandoned by bad weather. The second flight, scheduled for January 1941, died due to a plane failure. However, none of this stopped Hess. On his initiative, A.A secret meeting between Hausgover and Burkhart took place at the end of April 1941. The meeting informed of "the desire of the British dignitaries to study the feasibility of concluding a peace treaty" and cited "the words of a respected man in London close to the head of the Conservative Party and the financial circles" as evidence. True, Burckhardt did not name the "mysterious" figure, but put forward certain "peace conditions on the British side" concerning the guarantee of "Great Britain's interests in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe." Burckhardt added that "if German demands were limited to the former German colonies, the colonial question would not cause serious complications". (This programme is reminiscent of the kind of proposals made to Germany by the British statesmen Hudson and Noelle Buxton before the war.) )
Indeed, Burckhardt pointed out at the time that it would be very difficult to reach an Anglo-German agreement. This was not because only some of the British financial consortia were committed to colluding with Germany, but more because of the resistance of the masses of the people, who regarded the anti-fascist war as a "sacred war."
Information indicates that Hess visited Madrid on 22 April 1941, and that the purpose of his visit was also to lay a prelude to the collusion with elements in Munich, England. There, he tried to meet with the British ambassador to Madrid, Samwell Hall, who was known for his pro-fascist views, but never did. Hess's next step was jaw-dropping, as he liaised directly with the commander of the British garrison in Gibraltar from Madrid and offered to travel to Britain's most secret military fort to discuss "important matters". Hess believed so much in Germany's strictness that he never expected the request to be rejected. The commander of the garrison, a martial artist who was not very interested in political affairs, replied that he would shoot Hess whenever he appeared in Gibraltar. But this move did not discourage Hess.
In Madrid, Hess held a meeting with a number of Britons posing as representatives of Hamilton, Betford, Kirkpatrick. Later, Hess sent his lieutenant to Lisbon, where he fully negotiated with the British intelligence service the plan to fly to London. At the same time, Hess also planned to arrive in Scotland by military aircraft. Hess's plan was thus prepared and adopted.
On the eve of his flight to London, Hess wrote a handwritten letter that was forwarded to Hitler. "How do you know, I-Hess wrote in his letter, that I am at present in constant contact with some of the leading figures of England, Ireland, and Scotland, who know that I am a consistent advocate of the Anglo-German alliance......However, the talks will not be smooth sailing. The key to convincing the British leaders is that I have to be there in the UK. I will make a new Munich event. But it is difficult to achieve results. I have made all possible preparations for the success of this trip, so please approve my action. Admittedly, Hess did not rule out the possibility of a lurking failure in his mission. In order to cope with the situation, he advised the Führer to put all the blame on him, "just say that I am crazy."