The Continuing Mystery of Rudolf Hess....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323674/How-MI6-spy-lured-Hitlers-deputy-Rudolf-Hess-UK-imprisoned-life.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
I would completely agree with the assertion that Hess's flight is one of the greatest mysteries of the War, and the 20th century, in general. But this article, if not the book, has several large holes in its arguments that I find disturbing. First of all, there appear to be few if any first-hand interviews with those in the know, just their children. And there's no mention of any type of documentary evidence. Under such circumstances, I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of framework as most of the "UFO's have landed" books out there on the market. Maybe it's true - but how to check?
And several statements in the article, (and again, I assume they're based on the book) are borderline ludicrous. Hess was never the #2 in nazi Germany. That was Goering. Hess was the #2 man in the party alone, and as the war picked up steam, that position became more and more obscure and tertiary to the flow of events. In fact, one early theory about his flight was that he was motivated to take it so as to wrest back some of the spotlight from people like Goering and Himmler - being the man to solve the war, rather than leaving it to his more military-oriented competitors in the nazi hierarchy. His capture did nothing to stop the invasion of Britain, (an astoundingly stupid assertion that makes me wonder how accurate everything else in the book could be). The invasion had been called off by 9/40 - never to be seriously considered again. By the time Hess parachuted into Scotland, the German war machine was just about 5 weeks away from launching Operation Barbarossa into Russia - the last thing on hitler's mind was resuming Operation Sea Lion. To say differently is to make me really doubt the credibility of the person writing such nonsense. If Hess's capture altered the war, it was in subtle ways which have yet to be revealed to serious historians.
As for me, I think the whole thing reverberates in a greater mystery from the war - Churchill's (rumored) peace feelers to the Axis in the darkest days of 7/40 to 6/41. Who knows, Rudolf might have been privy to some of these alleged communications, and gone off half-cocked on his own peace mission, (I've never read anything about Hess that didn't leave me thinking he was an idiot). And that is why all the files have been destroyed, in an effort to maintain a "pure" picture of Churchill and Britain facing the fascists, undaunted and alone. But that's only a theory, I suspect any possible evidence supporting it was burned decades ago by all concerned.
I would completely agree with the assertion that Hess's flight is one of the greatest mysteries of the War, and the 20th century, in general. But this article, if not the book, has several large holes in its arguments that I find disturbing. First of all, there appear to be few if any first-hand interviews with those in the know, just their children. And there's no mention of any type of documentary evidence. Under such circumstances, I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of framework as most of the "UFO's have landed" books out there on the market. Maybe it's true - but how to check?
And several statements in the article, (and again, I assume they're based on the book) are borderline ludicrous. Hess was never the #2 in nazi Germany. That was Goering. Hess was the #2 man in the party alone, and as the war picked up steam, that position became more and more obscure and tertiary to the flow of events. In fact, one early theory about his flight was that he was motivated to take it so as to wrest back some of the spotlight from people like Goering and Himmler - being the man to solve the war, rather than leaving it to his more military-oriented competitors in the nazi hierarchy. His capture did nothing to stop the invasion of Britain, (an astoundingly stupid assertion that makes me wonder how accurate everything else in the book could be). The invasion had been called off by 9/40 - never to be seriously considered again. By the time Hess parachuted into Scotland, the German war machine was just about 5 weeks away from launching Operation Barbarossa into Russia - the last thing on hitler's mind was resuming Operation Sea Lion. To say differently is to make me really doubt the credibility of the person writing such nonsense. If Hess's capture altered the war, it was in subtle ways which have yet to be revealed to serious historians.
As for me, I think the whole thing reverberates in a greater mystery from the war - Churchill's (rumored) peace feelers to the Axis in the darkest days of 7/40 to 6/41. Who knows, Rudolf might have been privy to some of these alleged communications, and gone off half-cocked on his own peace mission, (I've never read anything about Hess that didn't leave me thinking he was an idiot). And that is why all the files have been destroyed, in an effort to maintain a "pure" picture of Churchill and Britain facing the fascists, undaunted and alone. But that's only a theory, I suspect any possible evidence supporting it was burned decades ago by all concerned.
posted by mendip at
1:14 PM
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