Watson Man in Flight

J. Bernard Hutton: Hess. The Man and His Mission, London England David Bruce & Watson 1970

Cloth Very Good/Fine/Good First Edition 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Hardback Special Introduction by Airey Neave, DSO, OBC, MC, TD, MP. This is a book which sets out to answer many of the questions surrounding the flight of Rudolp Hess, Deputy Fuhrer of the Third Reich. On a Saturday evening in May, 1941, less than a month before the most efficient military machine in history was due to attack Russia, Hess took off from an airfield near Munich on his last flight. Some hours later he was being offered tea in the cottage of a humble ploughman in Renfrewshire, Scotland - a prisoner of the Home Guard. Why would a man of such standing, undoubtedly closer than anyone to the Fuhrer himself, have made such a bizarre journey? Did Hitler know of his Deputy's intention? It is the author's contention that he did, and that in fact the flight was a carefully prepared extension of Nazi diplomatic policy, an ace thrown in as it were in the wake of those peace feelers that had already been made through channels in Sweden and Switzerland. Mr. Hutton deals with such questions as Hitler's true attitude to the alleged defection of his friend. From documentary evidence, much of which has previously been unavailable, he examines the allegation that Hess was insane. The story of the man's earliest days is presented to us, and we are able to see those influences and individuals (in particular there looms the sinister figure of Professor Karl Haushofer) who shaped the philosopjy of the man he was to become. The book at times has the quality of a first-class adventure story, and yet it probes with a measured balance the justice of the Nuremburg Tribunal's decision against the defendant Hess. It is a measure of the author's objectivity that having been a life-long anti-Nazi - he had to flee from Berlin in 1933 and again from Prague in 1939 - in the end he comes down squarely on the side of those who at the time of publication believe that Rudloph Hess should be released from Sapndau Prison. Illustrated. Some wear to cover. In Protected Mylar Cover.

[SW: History and Geographic and Architecture Non-Fiction/RudolphHess/DeputyFuhreroftheThirdReich/Prisoner/Flight/Nuremburg/SpandauPrison/History/SecondWorldWar]

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HUTTON (J.B).: Hess. The Man and his Mission. Introduction by Airey Neave, David Bruce & Watson, [1970]

8vo., First Edition, with a portrait frontispiece and 22 plates on 16; cloth, gilt back, a very good, clean copy in unclipped dustwrapper, the latter lightly age-soiled and chafed at extremities. Concentrates primarily on the enigmatic flight to Scotland and the aftermath at Nuremberg. Many of the photographs appear here for the first time.

[SW: military, wwii, germany, nazis, hitler, hess, nuremberg]

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