Any Rudolf Hess crash experts here?

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Member for

17 years

Posts: 1,037

looking for any genuine experts on the Hess crash and capture? Preferably those with documentary evidence to verify a possible new witness statement.

FB

Original post

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 554

Suggest you try RAF Museum. Whilst researching Spitfire DIS's for BBMF circa 1978, I was given access to one of their back sheds/stores containing masses of uncatalogued material. Amongst it was a great deal of original material on Hess's flight including maps. What happened to it I do not know. The person in charge at the time was Ken Hunter who was listing the Spitfire drawings.

Member for

17 years

Posts: 1,037

Thank you Beaufighter VI! I know a few people who can help then! Many thanks!

FB

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 2,810

I suggest also a copy of this magazine could be useful...

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[TD="class: IssueText"]ISSUE No. 58 (Code A058)

RUDOLF HESS - Denis C. Bateman details the history of Rudolf Hess as Party Leader and the formulation of his idea for his flight to Britain. Chapters include Peparation for a Flight, The Flight, The Wreckage, Hess Lands, Capture, In Army Custody, Maryhill Barracks, Hamilton and Hess, Hamilton and Churchill, Reaction in Europe and the USA, Mytchett Place, Maindiff Court, The Return to Germany, Nuremberg, Spandau, Prison Life, The Wrong Man?, Death, How did he die?, The Funeral, The Burial, Epilogue.[/TD]

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Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 2,841

I've always thought Hess, whilst having had little sympathy shown him during the war and after, had been very poorly treated and a tragic figure. Although I concede he had been a high-ranking nazi in those pre-war years there were those who behaved far more badly than he who were afforded some leniency in their latter years. Not poor old Hess. He was never released and died, imprisoned for life until his death aged 94 in 1987, supposedly by suicide.

On another completely separate but related matter: I was shown a lorry today (I'm no expert, but it was a Bedford of some sort) which, it was claimed, had towed the QM trailer which contained the wreckage of Hess's aircraft after its recovery. I seem to recall some pics of that combination with attendant wreckage and was wondering if the registration of the actual truck was known or could be ascertained from the photos to prove the matter - or is it just a tall tale?

Member for

17 years

Posts: 1,037

Thanks forum, I have the relevant bits from the After the battle article - more looking for actual material - will hopefully get an answer Monday from RAFM

FB

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,619

I recently watched a youtube video about Hess and it claimed there had been lighted a local landing strip for him...which he missed.

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 2,810

This account mentions Dungavel RLG http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47broth...Royals_01.html it was also a country house airstrip.RLG relief landing ground. The background to this event is of great interest to many who seek to unravel the truth about what was concealed by governments and dictators at the time and since then. What is clear is that politics then was a very complex affair and remain that way today especially when the fates of many countries are involved. Caught in the middle of the biggest world conflict were millions who never had any choices. So sad and can historians change world views to seek peaceful solutions by highlighting past mistakes?

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 556

Got to agree with Anon,, Hess was out of it before a lot of the Nazi bad behavior really got underway but he seemed to have been punished to excess for things he wasn't a part of. Even in my younger days l always wondered what he knew that kept him in prison until his death. Sorry for the thread drift by the way. Regards, me109g4

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,619

Hess actually wrote the Mein Kampf as they were jailed. He was guilty.

Member for

11 years 11 months

Posts: 149

Hess didˋt write ˋMein Kampf´ for shure....

Member for

18 years 4 months

Posts: 2,810

Don, all sorts post here asking for help and its polite to add connected items, its not always clear what a person has seen and how something could be of use. It is also easy for the original poster to sort out what they need and if they hit gold then fine. Otherwise no harm done and better to respond than assume that they have already seen everything. As for the actual content being not reliable well thats a sweeping comment, many on line or book published accounts have parts which are in error and thats where a good research writer knows to check sources if not given. I collect lots of items of aviation interest but not grips....

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 554

Bravo "scotavia". The documents I saw in RAFM circa 1978 were not written then but were original from the period 1940 - 1945. The RAFM might now have their Spitfire drawings on aperture cards now but I was looking through and copying original drawings in their full size. I wonder where the originals went????

As you say, better to sort through a ton of stuff and find the gem!

Now who can help me find an oil filter for a Fiat A-74 fitted to the CR-42 and BR-20, in fact any items for a CR-42. So far we have located items in Italy, Sweden, USA, the search continues!
As far as documents for the CR-42, we have it in German, English, Swedish and of course Italian. When looking put on your lateral thinking cap but be prepared for the long search, nothing found in Hungary, yet!

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,619

Hess didˋt write ˋMein Kampf´ for shure....

Are you saying the austrian corporal was able to type too ?

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,619

Hitler left the Army in 1920. By 1923 he was Leader of the NSDAP (the Nazi Party), Hess his Deputy.

After the abortive Nov 23 Munich Putsch, a dud but fatal coup, Hitler and others incl Hess and Hitler's driver were imprisoned.

The driver and later Hess took Mein Kampf down as Hitler dictated it. All irrelevant to the topic at hand.

Schreibmaschine or langschrift: neither make Hess Author. Taking dictation doesn't make Hess Author. Still irrelevant.

Some references claim Hess "assisted" or "edited" but more commonly, that he took AH's dictation. All irrelevant.

None of it makes him Author. It makes him a quasi secretary: a scribe. And just as irrelevant.

And Mein Kampf?
Not remotely relevant to the OP's possible witness statement on the 1941 crash, nor to it's checking against other authentic reports/records of the day.

Hess wrote the Mein Kampf...and possibly Adolf dictated it...it still does not lift the quilt of being a close henchman.

Member for

5 years 9 months

Posts: 18

Hi Fournier Boy,

I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I've got more eye-witness accounts of the Hess landing in Scotland than you can shake a stick at, and they all contradict one another. Let me know if I can help. Simon