EDINBURGH, Scotland, May 30 (UPI) -- A newly discovered document indicates German despot Adolf Hitler ordered Rudolf Hess to fly to Scotland to seek peace with U.K. leaders during World War II.
The Scotsman reported Monday a 28-page notebook found in the archives of the Russian Federation in Moscow sheds light on the motivation for Hess' ill-fated May 1941 flight, which crashed in a Renfrewshire field. Hess, a top deputy to the Nazi leader, was captured and detained through the end of the war, after which he was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison.
Historians for decades have thought Hess may have been deranged or possibly lured to Scotland by the British Secret Service, the newspaper said. But the discovery casts doubt on theories Hess was traveling without the Fuehrer's knowledge.
The notebook, written in 1948 by longtime Hess adjutant Maj. Karlheinz Pintsch, says Hitler hoped an "agreement with the Englishmen would be successful."
Pintsch's interrogation records, found in the same files as the notebook, indicate Hitler "did not seem surprised, nor did he rant and rave about what Hess had done."
"Hitler then went on to read a letter that Hess had sent him," Pintsch says in the transcript. "He read the following significant passage out aloud. 'And if this project … end in failure … it will always be possible for you to deny all responsibility. Simply say I was out of my mind."
