Historian claims to have solved mystery of Hess's Scotland flight

Published on Monday 9 May 2011 19:42

A BRITISH historian claims to have solved one of the greatest mysteries of the Second World War - the secret location where Hitler's right-hand man was heading on the night he was captured in Scotland.

Deputy Fhrer Rudolf Hess was caught after crash-landing in a field on 10 May, 1941 - 70 years ago today.

He had been lured to the UK on the pretence of brokering a peace deal, but was captured on arrival in Renfrewshire and spent the rest of the war, and his life, behind bars.

Until now, the exact spot where Hess hoped to land has remained a mystery and has baffled experts for decades.

But after almost 20 years' of painstaking research, historian John Harris claims to have unlocked the secret once and for all.

He believes Hess - who parachuted to safety when his plane ran out of fuel - was heading to RAF Prestwick for a secret meeting with one or a number of British Intelligence agents.

The wreckage of Hess' sMeBf110 aircraft was found on the night he was captured in Eaglesham - a village less than 25 miles from the airfield.

Hess, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, never revealed the precise co-ordinates of his flight path and took the secret with him to the grave.

Mr Harris, the author of Rudolf Hess: The British Illusion of Peace, said the discovery was one of the most important in modern military history.

"My research leads me to believe that Hess was intending to land at Prestwick but simply ran out of fuel on the final approach," he said.