Hess, Hitler & Churchill

When Hitler´s deputy Rudolf Hess set off for Britain on a peace mission in May 1941, he launched one of the great mysteries of the Second World War. Had he really acted alone, without Hitler´s knowledge? Who were the British he had come to see? Was British intelligence involved?
Award-winning historian Peter Padfield presents striking new evidence that demands the wholesale reappraisal of the episode. For, allied to a powerful argument that Hess must have had both Hitler´s backing and considerable encouragement from Britain, Padfield demonstrates that he also brought with him a draft peace treaty committing Hitler to the evacuation of occupied European countries. Made public, this would have destroyed Churchill´s campaign to bring the United States into the war.
Expertly woven into a compelling narrative that touches on Lord (Victor) Rothschild and the Cambridge spy ring, possible British foreknowledge of Operation Barbarossa and the ´final solution´, MI6´s use of Hess to prevent the bombing of London and the mysterious circumstances of his death in Spandau prison - including the previously unseen witness accounts from that day - Hess, Hitler and Churchill is among the most important history books of recent years.