AMAZING FLIGHT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 138, 13 May 1941, Page 5

AMAZING FLIGHT

HITLER’S DEPUTY IN SCOTLAND

NAZIS ALLEGE HESS INSANE

LONDON, May 12

Just before midnight one of the most astounding communiques issued from No. 10 Downing Street since the war began was released with the statement that Rudolp Hess, Hitler’s deputy in the Nazi Party, who had earlier been reported from Berlin as having taken off in an aeroplane while mentally unsound and had not returned, had landed by parachute in Scotland and is now in hospital in Glasgow.

The statement adds that the identity of Herr Hess has been established beyond all doubt.

Air watchers on Sunday saw a Messerschmitt 110 machine over Scotland, heading- toward Glasgow, and since it was known that a machine of this type could not carry sufficient fuel to return to Germany an attempt to land was suspected. The machine was seen to crash near Glasgow—its guns were unloaded—and the airman was found a short distance away with his parachute. He had broken an ankle and was taken to hospital.

At first he said his name was Horn, but later admitted he was Hess. He produced photographs of himself taken at different ages and these, on comparison with others, were seen to be those of Hess by persons who knew him. An officer of the Foreign Office who knew Hess before flic war proceeded from London to Glasgow, and later a communique was issued stating that the identity of the' airman had been established beyond all doubt.

It is pointed out in official circles that the long flight from Germany to Scotland in such a machine, with all its hazards, is not the kind of feat to be expected from a man who is not mentally sound.

The escape of Hess to Britain leaves Hitler withoul Hie only member of the Nazi Party he completely trusted.