FOUND IN FIELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1941, Page 5

FOUND IN FIELD

BY SCOTS PLOUGHMAN HESS CONFIDENT OF GOOD TREATMENT. ANXIOUS TO KEEP PARACHUTE. LONDON. May 13. Herr Hess landed on the Duke of Hamilton's estate in Strathaven. Lanarkshire. A ploughman, Mr David McLean, found Hess lying injured in a field and assisted him to his house, where Hess talked with Mr McLean’s mother and sister for nearly an hour till he was, taken away by officials. “I was in the house,” said Mr McLean, “when I heard a plane roaring overhead. Then I heard a crash and saw a plane aflame in a field 200 yards away. “A grabbed my hayfork and hurried to the scene, and I saw a man lying on the field with his parachute nearby. He smiled as I assisted him to his feet and thanked me. “I could see he was injured in the foot, so I helped him to the house. Word was immediately sent to the authorities. “The airman told us that he had left Germany four hours previously and he landed because nightfall was approaching. He said he was unable to find a suitable landing ground, so he stalled the machine over open country. and jumped out. “I could see from the way he spoke that he was a man of culture. His English was very clear, and he understood all we said to him. “He wore a magnificent flying suit and also had a gold watch and a gold identity bracelet. “He did not discuss his journey. He seemed most confident that he would be well treated, and his only anxiety was for the parachute, saying, ‘I should like to keep it, for 1 think I owe my life to it.’ He would not tell us who he •was, and we assumed that he was just another German airman. “When the officials arrived he smiled and held out his arms, at the same time assuring them that he was unarmed.” EVENT OF MOMENT CRACK IN THE NAZI REGIME FLIGHT OBVIOUSLY DELIBERATE. HESS KNEW WHAT HE WAS > DOING. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. May 13. There is every reason for concluding that the flight of Herr Hess was deliberate. It is significant that Hess chose an aeroplane which had not enough petrol to take him back. It requires all one’s faculties to fly a fast fighter, and hallucinations are not associated with piloting such a machine. The possession of photographs for identity purposes also indicates that Hess knew what he was doing and where he was going. It does not require much imagination to picture the tremendous problems and embarrassment that are now besetting the Nazi hierarchy, with so close a confident of Hitler as Hess in Britain. If the assumption that the flight was deliberate is correct—and it fits all the known facts —then it indicates a grave crack in the Nazi regime. There is no reference anywhere to Hess having had a companion. Also there is some mystery concerning his point of departure, if it was Augsburg the flight to Scotland of over 700 miles would be beyond the reported range of a Messerschmitt 110.

Augsburg is only GO miles inside Germany proper from Austria. The distance from Glasgow to the nearest part of Germany proper is about 490 miles and to the nearest part of Norway about 410 miles.