The Flight for Peace, Rudolf Hess’s Solo Mission to Scotland

The most bizarre mission of World War II

We can only imagine Churchill’s reaction when he heard the news that Rudolf Hess had been captured in Scotland.

London had suffered another night of bombing during the Blitz. Coventry had been destroyed the year before. And now the Deputy Führer was in Scotland. More amazing still, he had flown there solo, dodging the air force tasked with defending the skies.

Rudolf Hess

Hess was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to German parents in 1894. He began attending school in Germany when he was fourteen.

During the First World War, he enlisted in the army to defy his father’s wishes. He was seriously wounded when a bullet tore through his lung. Before the war ended, he had begun flight training and was considered an accomplished pilot.

After the war, he moved to Munich, as Germany struggled under the terms of the Versailles Treaty. It was then that he became an acolyte of Adolf Hitler. He served time in Landsberg Castle with him after the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

It is thought that he helped Hitler write Mein Kampf. Hitler would dictate large parts of the book to him, and Hess would write it down. He was later deeply involved in approving many of the laws that targeted Germany’s Jewish community.

A Nazi’s Solo Flight

Rudolf Hess was Adolf Hitler’s long‑time deputy and a high‑ranking Nazi official during the early years of the Second World War. Initially, he held the title of Deputy Führer, making him one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany.

He had little influence over military decisions but was heavily involved in party bureaucracy and ideological policy. Hess served as a loyal figurehead, managing internal affairs and acting as a bridge between Hitler and the Nazi Party.

On 10 May 1941, he climbed into his small Messerschmitt fighter‑bomber at a Munich airfield. He planned to fly up the Rhine, across the North Sea into Scotland. It cannot be underestimated how skilled a pilot you needed to be to attempt this mission.

Scotland was over 900 miles away. Hess was navigating with just a compass and a map.

It is thought that on several occasions he dropped the plane lower to spot landmarks he had memorised. This might explain why, although the aircraft flew over the Scottish countryside, it was never intercepted by the Royal Air Force (RAF), or maybe he wasn’t meant to be shot down.

At 22:30, low on fuel and nearing his destination, Hess was forced to bail out, twelve miles from the home of Douglas Douglas‑Hamilton.

Landing and Capture

Hess parachuted just outside Glasgow and was found by Scottish farmer David McLean, who had seen the plane ablaze in his field. Hess identified himself as “Captain Alfred Horn.” Unaware of the true identity of the pilot, McLean’s mother made Hess a cup of tea.

The Home Guard arrived and arrested the German pilot. He again used the alias Horn. Later, he would reveal himself as Adolf Hitler’s Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess. At this point, Churchill was informed.

He was taken to a prisoner‑of‑war camp, which at the time was located in the Tower of London.

Why Did He Do It?

There has been endless speculation as to why Hess made this flight. Some say he was desperate to regain Hitler’s attention, having been increasingly overlooked as his number two.

Hess would later claim that he came to the United Kingdom to broker a peace treaty between Germany and Britain, using the Duke of Hamilton as his intermediary. Hess believed Hamilton was part of a pro‑peace faction, which was entirely untrue.

Some thought that Hess and Hamilton had met during the 1936 Olympics, but, it is more likely that Karl Haushofer, Hess’s adviser, had suggested approaching Hamilton with the peace proposal. Haushofer and Hamilton had been friends since the late 1930s.

Hess claimed that Hitler had no interest in fighting Britain and believed Britain and Germany could unite against Bolshevism. He said Germany would promise to leave Britain and its empire alone if the Nazis were given free rein in Europe. However, Churchill’s government would first have to be removed.

England’s Response

Hamilton was not at home when Hess arrived. Ironically, he was on duty at the RAF base, coordinating the attack on German bombers.

Much has been made of the fact that Hess was not intercepted. Did Hamilton allow him to pass unchallenged? He was flying a single small plane, often under radar. The RAF had bigger problems, the mass of bombers heading for London.

When Hess met Hamilton the next day, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Churchill’s response was even colder he noted Hess down as just another Nazi lunatic.

The government was deeply suspicious. Rather than seeing him as a peace envoy, they feared it was part of a larger Nazi deception strategy.

However, MI5 files declassified in 2004 confirm that Hess’s adviser Albrecht Haushofer had written to Hamilton in 1940, suggesting a neutral meeting. British intelligence intercepted the letter. Whether they responded as Hamilton encouraging Hess to cross the Channel remains speculative.

Breakdown and Detention

Hitler had been informed of the flight via a letter Hess had given to Lieutenant Karlheinz Pintsch before taking off. Reports state that Hitler was furious when he received it. Albert Speer claimed that Hitler’s rage was animalistic. He later said it was the second worst personal blow Hitler suffered, after the suicide of his niece.

However, Pintsch later claimed that Hess had Hitler’s approval. Soviet‑era documents suggest Hitler told Hess to attempt peace and that he would be disavowed if it failed. A historian uncovered documents indicating Hitler may have known of the plans in advance and even supported them.

Whatever the truth, Nazi propaganda quickly spun the story. They claimed Hess was suffering from hallucinations and had gone insane. Hitler made a public statement declaring Hess had lost his mind and ordered that he be shot if ever captured. Goebbels wrote in his diary on 14 May 1941 that Germans were “rightly asking how such a fool could be second to the Führer”.

British intelligence and psychiatrists interrogated Hess, hoping to gain insights into Nazi psychology. On the night of 16 June 1941, Hess attempted suicide by hurling himself down a staircase.

Imprisonment and Death

After the war, Hess was tried at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. He was found guilty of crimes against peace and sentenced to life in prison.

He spent 46 years in Spandau Prison in Berlin, eventually becoming the sole inmate, known simply as Prisoner Number 7.

On 17 August 1987, he was found hanged with an electrical cord in a garden building. He was ninety‑three years old. Though the official verdict was suicide, many family members and researchers have long suspected foul play, citing inconsistent medical evidence and peculiar behaviour at Spandau. A late prison governor strongly supported the suicide conclusion.

Hess’s motives remain murky. Was he mad, manipulated, or silenced? His flight to Scotland remains one of the strangest and most conspiratorial episodes of the Second World War.

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