A new book ( 2003 ) by Martin Allen.New documents on the Hess flight to England..?

I aim to read this book next weekend. Anyoone else read it/heard of it so far?

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Quite a challenging book with lots of data on the time period 1939-1940, and it seems like Hitler was keen on making peace in the west like we know. According to the book the British used this against Hitler and made the nazis think peace was possible ( even though it was not ) but thus Hitler attacked Russia. To the British the second front was as necessary at the time being as later on the second front was necessary for the Russians...

There were some dangerrous parts in these negotations:

The US might see the peace negotiations as such that they need not join the war in Europe and this was something Churchill would not want to happen.He knew with the US the war would be won eventually.

The Russians might get suspicious somewhere down the line. Actually some politicians were not happy with the secret peace politics, as it saved the British by turning German interest to the east ( Russia )but as well the politics as such can be seen as starting the war between Russia and Germany...Yes, the Lebensraum was there ever since Mein Kampf but without the possibility of peace ( Churchill out, Halifax in, peace with England and Germany as a possibility ) Germany might not have attacked Russia in 1941. especially Churchill feared according to the book that the Germans would send their forces to the middle east and capture the oil fields without which the British would find it hard to continue the war.

As well the possible reason why Spain stayed out of war was found: England paid a lot of cash to the Spanish Generals so that they would not join the axis force. well, at least I´m sure it helped to make the decision although Spain did not have the forces to join the war.

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AS well Hess was not the person that was supposed to fly to England according to the book, that was Hess´s decision. The man the British expected was Ernst Bohle.

But anyway, there was no peace going to be made anyway, but the British wanted to buy time and played along the German wishes. Hess believed it could succeed and as well wanted to polish his fame.

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Anyway,

challenging but interesting book. I think I´ll have to read it twice before I understand all the
little details ( if even then ) that happened...

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Sounds like a great book! I'll have to try and find a copy of it for myself to enjoy. [img]smile.gif[/img]

DUCE

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"Tolerance has never brought civil war; intolerance has covered the earth with carnage" Voltaire
"War is the fruit of man's depravity; it is a convulsive and violent sickness of the body politic.." Diderot

I read this book last week when I was on vacation. Quite interesting. You gave a good summary Kai! I had the same thing as you. You must read it twice for all the names and dates. But the clue is clear. Now we know the secret of Hess' flight.

Thanx Volkbert!

I remember the book was quite heavy reading but after reading it I felt it was easier to understand the motives of both sides. Anyway, I guess everyone has a desire to find their kind of motives but the book gave a "reasonable" solution. I think even if Hess himself was here today to tell the true story everybody would doubt his motives....

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