HITLER’S DEPUTY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1941, Page 5

HITLER’S DEPUTY

HESS SUPPOSED TO HAVE CRASHED IN FORBIDDEN AEROPLANE FLIGHT. NAZI BROADCAST STORY. ' LONDON. May 12. A German wireless station has broadcast a Nazi Party statement to the effect that Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, has presumably crashed in an aeroplane, while mentally unsound. Herr Hess had been expressly forbidden by Hitler to fly a plane, the announcement states, because of his mental condition. He left at six in the morning on a flight from which he did not return. A letter which he left behind him. it was added, "unfortunately gave traces of his mental distortion and justified the fear that Herr Hess has fallen a victim to his hallucinations.” Hitler has ordered the arrest of Hess's adjutants, who alone knew of his flight and did not prevent it or report it to anyone. It is presumed that Hess crashed or met with some similar accident. VERY MUCH ALIVE HESS LANDS IN SCOTLAND. LONDON. May 12. The most astounding statement issued by No. 10 Downing Street since the war began is to the effect that Herr Hess, Hitler’s Deputy, whose death was earlier reported from Berlin, had landed by parachute in Scotland from a German plane and is now in hospital with a broken ankle. His flight to Britain was made in a Messerschmitt 110 and he made a parachute landing near Glasgow before the plane crashed. When the Messerschmitt was first reported to have crossed the coast of Scotland and flying in the direction of Glasgow some doubt was placed on the correctness of the report, as it was known that a plane of that type would not carry enough petrol to make a return journey to Germany. A later statement from No. 10 Downing Street states that the identity of Herr Hess has been established beyond all possible doubt.