Was Royal behind a secret plot to use Nazi Rudolf Hess to topple Winston Churchill

MontyB

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Exactly 75 years ago today Adolf Hitler's deputy Fuhrer flew to Scotland to negotiate peace but a new book says it was in fact a plan to overthrow the British wartime leader

King George VI’s younger brother was the central figure in a failed Anglo-German conspiracy to topple Winston Churchill and make peace with the Nazis.
And it was to happen when Rudolf Hess parachuted into Britain during the Second World War.
So claim two experts who believe Prince George, the Duke of Kent, was instrumental in planning an audacious coup d’état to oust the wartime Prime Minister and forge an alliance with Hitler .
Unlike Churchill, who famously vowed to “never surrender”, the Prince and his circle feared that Britain could only be saved from the clutches of the Gestapo by forming a treaty with the Fuhrer.
A wartime truce would also protect the Royal Family and the aristocracy from being killed or imprisoned under German rule, historians now believe.

But Churchill, who had the support of the nation and of its military, stood in the way of the potential peace negotiators.
In one of the most dramatic moments of intrigue during the Second World War in 1941 Hess took it upon himself to fly solo to Scotland to make contact with the establishment in an attempt to keep Britain out of the war.
He parachuted in but was captured by the Home Guard and then held in the Tower of London, he died in 1987 after spending the rest of his life in prison following the Nuremberg trials at the end of the war.

Hess' motives have fascinated war historians for more than seven decades and now a new book suggests he was in cahoots with members of the British Royal family.
According to Rudolf Hess: Treachery and Deception the Prince, the Queen's uncle, and his co-conspirators planned to seize power by calling upon the King to depose Churchill using his ‘reserve powers’ — rarely-used special powers that enable a monarch to dismiss a Prime Minister and their Government without any approval.
A 30,000-strong army of allied Poles, which by 1941 had fled their homeland and were based in Scotland, were to support the coup with the implied threat of firepower should it be required.

The authors of the book say Hitler had "nothing to lose" and if plan worked, Germany would have the UK as an ally in his planned invasion of Russia.
If not, Hitler would continue with his plan to land troops on the south coast and conquer Britain at his leisure, once Russia was beaten.
Despite months of planning, the conspiracy failed when Hess was apprehended by government forces after parachuting near Glasgow, when his plane ran out of fuel – a pivotal moment in WWII and one that went on to safeguard Britain’s independence.
The gripping revelations come on the day of the 75th anniversary of Hess’ flight.

Co-authors John Harris and Richard Wilbourn studied almost 10,000 documents over a period of more than 25 years in their quest to discover the real reason behind Hess’ visit – one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Second World War , and the subject of countless conspiracy theories.
The evidence they say, “very strongly points” to an Anglo-German coup centred around the Royal Family itself.
It's not the first time the Royal family has had unwanted Nazi associations - last year footage came to light showing the Queen, then aged either six or seven, join the Queen Mother and her uncle Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, in raising an arm in Nazi salute.
Harris, a well-known authority on Hess, said: “The real reason for the Hess Flight has been a mystery for three quarters of a century, but we believe it can only have been for one of two reasons: either it was an elaborate lure by the British to buy time, or it was a genuine attempt by a small group of aristocratic conspirators to stage a coup.
“Having weighed up all the evidence, and in light of recent discoveries we have made, we now believe that it was, in fact, a coup attempt centred around Prince George.
“The aristocracy had the most to lose from Churchill staying in power. All they knew was that Germany was bombing Britain nightly, softening the country up prior to an invasion, which would surely cost them their wealth, their status and their lives.

“They were also unhappy that Churchill’s strategy revolved around a US alliance, which many quite correctly saw as the end of the British Empire. A peace treaty with Germany, a country that had historic ties with the Royal Family, would have seemed like the most sensible option to them. Communism was the real enemy; particularly to those with much to lose.
“There were many parties involved in the plot but our research points time and again to one man who was connected to them all: Prince George.”
The authors have jointly penned two books on the subject, previously believed that Hess had been lured to the UK by the British Secret Service on the false pretext of forming a military alliance.
Together, Britain and Germany would have the military might to crush Russia – their most hated enemy - and to stamp out communism in the process.
But after studying thousands of documents from archives across the UK and Europe, and following countless interviews, the pair have identified what they describe as the most likely scenario.

The authors now know that Hess was approached by a faction of the Secret Service, which was working clandestinely in the name of Prince George – a known proponent for peace.
This top-secret cabal, including MI6 deputy head Claude Dansey, swore allegiance to the Royal Family, who would almost certainly be dethroned in the event of a German invasion.
One sympathetic MI6 agent, Tancred Borenius - a close friend of Prince George and of George’s mother, Queen Mary – is believed to have provided Hess with details of the coup and with an invitation to sign the peace treaty on Germany’s behalf during a covert mission to Geneva, Switzerland in January 1941.
It is unclear whether or not Hess sought permission from the Fuhrer, though Harris and Wilbourn believe that Hitler most likely knew of the plan.
Harris said: “After years of being the action man – flying fighter planes and taking part in the action – Hess had by 1941 become Hitler’s chief pen pusher.

“We believe that he was a deeply unhappy and bored man, and that this intrigue was exactly the kind of adventure that he so desperately needed.”
But in order for the elaborate ‘peace mission’ to succeed, the Conservative Prime Minister would first have to be ousted from government. The co-conspirators knew that Churchill would never agree to a peace deal with the Nazis.
This required the support of King George VI, who would have been called upon to impose his reserve powers to prorogue, or discontinue, Parliament.

A coup would have been the only way of getting rid of Churchill as in the UK there are no elections during times of war.

The takeover would have been further supported by the might of the fierce Polish army. Its general, Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski, was Prince George’s next-door neighbour in Berkshire and a close friend.
Harris says that Churchill was aware that his position was under threat, though he did not know the full details of the coup or of the Secret Service’s involvement.
Hess planned to fly to an airfield in Ayrshire in Scotland on May 10, 1941 where Harris believes he was planning to meet the Duke of Kent.

Harris, 56, said the events on the night of Hess’ arrival are either “highly coincidental” or “strongly suggest a conspiracy of the sort we have concluded”.
For instance Prince George, a serving member of the RAF, is believed to have been in Scotland on the day of Hess’ arrival and was a friend of Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the 14th Duke of Hamilton, whom Hess demanded to see when captured.

General Sikorski, meanwhile, ended a fundraising trip in the United States to fly back to Prestwick, near Glasgow, the next day, putting his life at risk by commandeering a new type of plane that was fast but notoriously difficult to control.
The RAF have also yet to release any report into the affair, prompting Harris and Wilbourn to conclude that their intelligence department were also implicated.
Harris added: “It may seem incredible to think that a member of the Royal Family could have been ready to do a deal with Hess and Hitler, but 25 years of research and digging has led us to this conclusion.

“Of course, nothing can be proven. The Secret Service is under no time-bound obligation to declassify documents in the same way as the Government and the Royal archive has been unable to assist with our enquiries into the exact whereabouts of Prince George on the night of May 10th, which is suspicious in itself, as his movements before and after that date are well documented.
“We believe the key to the whole affair is the involvement of MI6 agent Tancred Borenius, who was familiar with Prince George and Queen Mary, had been approached by MI6 deputy Claude Dansey, and is recorded as having met with General Sikorski shortly before the Hess Flight.
“There is strong, documented evidence for his covert mission to Geneva to pass a message inviting Hess to come to Britain to talk peace, but if it had been a clever lure by the Secret Service then Churchill would have known about it from the onset, which he didn’t, and Borenius would surely have been decorated for his bravery like other war heroes instead of being airbrushed from history for over 70 years.”
Hess ended his days in Spandau Prison in Germany, apparently committing suicide in 1987 at the age of 93 without ever revealing the true motives for his flight.
Prince George died in a military air-crash on August 25, 1942, the first Royal to die in action in 500 years.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/royal-behind-secret-plot-use-7937900
 
There are a lot of images and diagrams that go with this article but I cut them so it would fit into the 10,000 character limit, for a better impression go to the link.
 
Prince George died in a military air-crash on August 25, 1942, the first Royal to die in action in 500 years


That sounds suspicious!
 
Which is the whole point, conspiracies are always based on fragments of truth embelished with coincidence, wishful thinking bound together with with overly generous amounts of extrapolation.

Lets face it we could probably include witchcraft in this as well if a cow was found dead near the crash site and Mrs Miggins a known wiccan and pie maker happen to be in Glasgow that day.
 
I'd bet my pension that there was a lot that went on during WW2 that will never be made public.



Of course there was. But the thought of a full fledged coup supported by the Polish Army in Exile is quite extreme. I think Britain had by this time seen that Germany would likely only attack by air and in a way they were safe for the time from ground attack, particularly after operation Barbarossa. I think Churchill was by and far to popular with the average Brit and they would not have supported any such coup. Hess's influence in the NAZI party was waning quickly from former #3 man on down. It was basically a lunatic stunt by Hess to bring him back into the parties favor by befriending the British. Note: he was immediately throw in prison was all it accomplished for him.
 
Of course there was. But the thought of a full fledged coup supported by the Polish Army in Exile is quite extreme. I think Britain had by this time seen that Germany would likely only attack by air and in a way they were safe for the time from ground attack, particularly after operation Barbarossa. I think Churchill was by and far to popular with the average Brit and they would not have supported any such coup. Hess's influence in the NAZI party was waning quickly from former #3 man on down. It was basically a lunatic stunt by Hess to bring him back into the parties favor by befriending the British. Note: he was immediately throw in prison was all it accomplished for him.

I read somewhere that a British Army Doctor examined Hess in Spandau prison and stated that the prisoner was not the real Hess.
 
Now don't get me started, (just kidding).

An American chap went to Russia to examine the skull that the Soviets declared belonged to Hitler, he managed to break off a small piece to take back to the US. After DNA testing it was found that the skull was female.

There has been a TV series here regarding "Did Hitler Die in 1945," quite interesting, it is believed he flew from Berlin into Spain where he boarded a U Boat to the Canary Isles, then to various towns in Argentina.

When I was a boy I remember people saying that they didn't believe Hitler was dead.

History can be quite fascinating.
 
An American chap went to Russia to examine the skull that the Soviets declared belonged to Hitler, he managed to break off a small piece to take back to the US. After DNA testing it was found that the skull was female.

There has been a TV series here regarding "Did Hitler Die in 1945," quite interesting, it is believed he flew from Berlin into Spain where he boarded a U Boat to the Canary Isles, then to various towns in Argentina.

When I was a boy I remember people saying that they didn't believe Hitler was dead.

History can be quite fascinating.
I recall they found Hitler's JU-52 in South America some years ago. No explanation of how/when or other circumstances of its arrival.
 
If we speculate, was it possible for Hitler to fly to Spain from Berlin in the spring of 1945 in a German aircraft? The Germans must have used a captured west-allied aircraft for it. Could a German built aircraft fly from Berlin to Spain without refueling somewhere?

There is/was a British journalist who investigated Hitler's presence in Argentina and at the hotel Eden, owned by a German couple which were Nazi-sympathizers. If you search on YouTube about Hitler's potential survival and escape, you will find an interview with this British journalist.
 
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