Hess let the engines idle for a few minutes, not only to warm them, but simply too allow him to sit on the ground a little longer. He knew this more than likely will be the last time he ever saw German soil again.
Hess was born in 1894 on the 26th of April in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of a German in the import-export business. His mother was keenly astute in politics and was totally fascinated in the occult – reading tarot cards for friends at parties, taking Rudolf to all of the museums and parlors where she could collect anything she could on Egyptian magic, the supernatural, and astrology.
At eight years old Hess already knew the fundamentals of astrology, and began practicing it a few years later with the help of his mother. It was because of his father, who thought a young man should be interested in other things than whatever his wife was into, that the young Hess kept his knowledge and practice of this subject a secret. His family and friends had no idea he used their birthdays to cast horoscopes, which he later analyzed. He was the first person ever to make a horoscope chart on Adolf Hitler after they were assigned in the same regiment in WWI.
Astrology, the secret life hobby and tool of the man who was second in line of succession to the Nazi throne after Hermann Göring, was the main reason why his ME 110 was flying due north out of Bremerhaven over the North Sea on a course that would soon put him near Bergen. Once he could see the lights of the second largest city in Norway, he would then head due east and land in Scotland, where he would be least likely to run into RAF patrol.
Once in Great Britain, he would then speak with the King of England himself, convince the monarch to make peace with Germany so they could team up against the real villain of Europe – Stalin’s communist Russia.
A crackle came from the radio set, which Hess picked up and then pressed against his right ear.
“Jestem, jestem, pour, thu-rea, dwoo, nie mam contact. Marek? Mas?” Said one voice.
“Nie, mam, Janus.”
Hess could hear the pair of RAF Polish pilots on patrol trying to speak with their British controllers. Since he knew a little Polish, he knew where they were and thus altered his course to avoid them. The British controllers on the other hand, had no idea where their precious planes were, or where Marek and Janus were planning to take them.
“Polski Patrol, four, three, two! Report your position, please!”
“Gdzie? Nie wiem. Marek? Wiesz?””
“Nie wiem, Janus.”
The situation made Hess laugh out loud. Ridiculous. He scanned the night sky. Yet ironic. We crush the Poles in a matter of weeks and we now have Britain on her knees. England is so desperate for fliers, any fliers, they use these Polish fools, yet we still can’t defeat the British.
Since May of 1939, Rudolf Hess knew something that only Ernst Schulte-Strathaus and Karl Ernst Krafft saw in the stars: if Germany had not made peace with England by June of 1941, then the tide of war would begin to turn against Germany. It was also during this month Hess met with Wing Commander Sir Louis Greig, special assistant to the Duke of Kent and member of the January Club, a secret group that supported the British Union of Fascists.
Rudolf Hess has strong connections within the British Royal family and he would use them to make a peace with this war no one wanted – not even Hitler.
Karl Ernst Krafft was the first to see a war with England, published in 1933 describing a Germany future war after looking at Hitler’s chart. In this article Krafft also predicted the start date of this next war – September 1939 – when it would end, the spring of 1945. Krafft never published who he thought would win the war. (Although later revealed Germany would be defeated, but the Nazis would not be. This turned out to be the case with Operation Paperclip, where thousands of Nazis were brought over to America after the war and given key positions in science, business, banking, industry, aerospace and even made up much of the early CIA.)
The planet Pluto, discovered in 1930, fascinated Krafft. He used his mathematical skill to plot it movement 20 years in the past, and 20 years into the future creating one of the first ephemeris for the new heavenly body. Krafft found whenever Pluto entered new sign of the zodiac this affected Germany. This aspect was present at the start of the first Great War, when Pluto entered the zodiac sign of Cancer in late summer of 1914.
In 1933, when Hitler came into power, Karl Ernst calculated the next time Pluto would change into the next zodiac sign – Leo – occurring in the summer of 1939, the year Hitler invaded Poland to start Germany’s second war of the 20th Century.
Hess, Krafft and Ernst Schulte-Strathaus all came to the same conclusion: the Third Reich had to make peace with England by June 1941 or the tide of war would turn against Germany. Besides all of the astrological indications, Hess was aware of a fact few outside the Nazi inner circle and German High Command knew – that Germany would invade the Soviet Union in June 1941. Peace with England would prevent a war on two fronts. A war with Stalin was something Hess and many others in the Nazi party were against, but dared not speak out, since all knew the Führer’s decisions were final.
“…to be dancing, to be dancing with you…” A Norway station playing music filled the headphone. The song took Hess back to the time he first saw Hitler speak while just a student at the University of Munich. So moved by the fiery speech and point over what was wrong with Germany, Hess joined the Nazi party the next day. Now, almost exactly twenty-one years later, after answering to and faithfully following Herr Hitler for almost half his adult life, Rudolf Hess was doing something on his own for the Third Reich. He would save the Nazi Germany he worked so hard to build.
The lights of Bergen could be seen on the horizon, so Hess banked his plane to the left and headed straight towards Scotland. A quick check of his instruments indicated the plane was sill in good order and had enough fuel to make the final leg of his trip. Almost an hour and a thousand thoughts later, Hess should see some lights of the ground through his windshield. He would follow his flight path to a lighted runway on land owned by the Duke of Hamilton where he would secretly be given diplomatic immunity and arrangements would be made for him to meet the king.
Hess was not aware the Dukes of Hamilton, Winsor and Kent and their network managed to order all anti-aircraft guns not to fire on any plane along his flight path along Scotland.
“Will the Führer understand?” He said out loud as he headed into the unknown political peace deal. He turned around and saw a faint semi-circle of light on the horizon behind him – the Sun would be coming up soon. He timed his trip perfectly. He would be over Scotland just as first light broke. Once he found the pre-arranged landing strip, the most dangerous part of the trip would be behind him. He would feel more secure if he could have met some of these royals before taking this flight. Sir Louis Greig was after all, on a secret mission when they met – nothing was in writing – nothing was formally agreed to.
After crossing the coastline the faint land turned into visible farmland and rolling hills below him. The Sun was now peeking above the horizon, and he noticed a pair of Spitfires on his 9 o’clock position. If they see me I’ll be shot down. He thought. He watched for a moment to see if they appeared to be heading his way. After a moment of observation he saw they were. “I’d better bail out now while I can.”