W II MYSTERY: Which Hess?

The Rudolf Hess’ flight of mystery: i.e., the Cold War focus of Spandau’s secret

"I have come here, in Great Britain, to save humanity," he said. "I am Rudolf Hess."
No single incident in Britain's wartime history has given birth to so many conspiracy theories, all of them centred on an alleged plot by the intelligence services to lure Hess to Britain. Hess flew to Britain in a Messerschmitt-110 on May 10, 1941, intent on making contact with the Duke of Hamilton, who he believed would help him mediate a peace deal whereby Britain would join Nazi Germany in a war against the Soviet Union. It was a hopeless mission based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the British establishment. Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister, was convinced that it had produced an intelligence windfall for Britain. Seven months before Hess flew to Britain, in September 1940, one of his close advisers, Albrecht Haushofer, the leading expert on Great Britain in the German Foreign Office, had written to the Duke Douglas Douglas of Hamilton at Hess's request, attempting to set up a meeting in Lisbon. The letter, sent via an intermediary, an old family friend of the Haushofers, was intercepted and passed to MI5 (Military Intelligence 5), who initially suspected Hamilton and the intermediary might be German spies and began an investigation. Much of the MI6 archives on Hess has been destroyed. But in the files there was a single, more recent reference that spoke of MI6 plans for "a sting operation" in response to the Haushofer letter. The MI6 historian also has access to oral histories from former officers and, where they are still alive, the officers themselves. In an account written for Hitler after Hess flew to Britain, Haushofer said: "I did not learn whether the letter reached the addressee. The possibilities of it having being lost en route from Lisbon to England are not small after all”. Despite official denials Hess flew to Britain with Hitler’s full knowledge; there was a substantial peace party in Britain in 1941, which included most of the aristocracy, and the Royal Family in primis. The King’s brother, the Duke of Kent, was actively involved in Hess’s peace mission;
 there is substantial evidence that the prisoner who died in Spandau prison was not the real Rudolf Hess. The fate of the real Deputy Fuhrer was inextricably linked with that of the Duke in 1942. The terms of Hitler's peace proposal have been discussed up and down England not only in well-informed political circles but in pubs, bomb shelters and Pall Mall clubs. It was too elaborate a secret to be kept. Cabinet members presumably told their friends in Parliament and the MP's told their club colleagues and the news percolated down. The filter of time, plus such cross-checking as is possible on a subject that is officially taboo, enables the writer to give the general outline, withholding details. Hitler offered total cessation of the war in the West. Germany would evacuate all of France except Alsace and Lorraine, which would remain German. It would evacuate Holland and Belgium, retaining Luxembourg. It would evacuate Norway and Denmark. In short, Hitler offered to withdraw from Western Europe, except for the two French provinces and Luxembourg [Luxembourg was never a French province, but an independent state of ethnically German origin], in return for which Great Britain would agree to assume an attitude of benevolent neutrality towards Germany as it unfolded its plans in Eastern Europe. In addition, the Führer was ready to withdraw from Yugoslavia and Greece. German troops would be evacuated from the Mediterranean generally and Hitler would use his good offices to arrange a settlement of the Mediterranean conflict between Britain and Italy. No belligerent or neutral country would be entitled to demand reparations from any other country, he specified. Hess carried also proposals (and promoted) for spared the European Jews to die in Central Europe’s lager, simply advising British Government about the old idea of Polish Government to assign and to allocate the same Jews to Madagascar like their land. So, if Hess ‘ proposals had been accepted in May 1941, never it would have been Shoah since 1942 to 1945.  Alan Dulles, who became the head of the CIA, was of the opinion that the man who was condemned to life imprisonment at Nuremberg, was not the real Rudolf Hess - as was President Roosevelt himself. And in the 1970s, a British surgeon and ballistics expert, Dr. Hugh Thomas, actually had chance to physically examine the old man in Spandau. He knew that the real Hess had been wounded by a bullet in the First World War; so he looked on the old man’s body for signs of the wound but couldn’t find it. Now we’re not talking about someone who simply cast an eye over the man without knowing what he was looking for. Dr. Hugh Thomas is a surgeon and a ballistics expert who has been used in trials such as Bloody Sunday, so he really knows what he’s talking about. Also, there are circumstantial things, if you like. The man at Nuremberg refused to see his family and in fact he also refused to see anyone other than his lawyer for over twenty years - which is astonishing considering that he’d been locked up as you would think he would want to see them. Also, at Nuremberg the man had very, very convenient amnesia. He behaved very oddly at Nuremberg, he failed to recognise people that had worked very close with the real Hess. And at times he also failed to recognise colleagues in the Nazi hierarchy. And they seemed to think there was something strange about him especially Hermann Goring, a co-defendant at the trial. He was quite amused when someone was talking to him about Hess. This isn’t an exact quote, but Goring said: “Hess? Which Hess? The Hess you have here? Our Hess? Your Hess?”

IMPORTANT: MUSSOLINI's DEATH

Mussolini-Churchill’s top secret files
A Conspiracy Machine and the States’ secrets.

We have been studying especially the matter because Mussolini was killed on Churchill's orders by British agents in synergy with Italian partisans. We believe that Mussolini’s death was covered up because of incriminating letters from Great Britain Premier to Duce. Benito Mussolini was murdered by a two-man team (commando) led by a British secret agent acting on the orders of Winston Churchill, according to a new investigation. In the official version, the Italian dictator and his final mistress, Clara Petacci, were shot by Italian partisans led by Walter Audisio — codenamed “Colonel Valerio” — at the gates of Villa Belmonte at Mezzegra near Lake Como at 4.10 p.m. on April 28, 1945. Their bodies were then hung upside down in Milan. But it is now suggested that this was cover-up, and that Mussolini and Petacci were really killed at 11 a.m. that day by Bruno Lonati, an Italian partisan codenamed “Giacomo”, and “Captain John”, a British (S.O.E.), i.e. Special Operations Executive’s agent of Sicilian parentage whose name was Robert Maccarrone. Many writers and historians claim that Mussolini was carrying compromising letters from Churchill written over a period of years involving a deal under which Italy would make a separate peace with the Allies, a breach of Churchill’s agreement with President Roosevelt at Casablanca to seek the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers. “Churchill, who like Mussolini was a life-long antiBolshevik, was looking ahead to the coming conflict with the Soviet Union”, Peter Tompkins, a veteran American journalist who coproduced a documentary about espionage sides inside R.S.I.’s period, said. Some British biographers of Churchill deny the existence of this secret correspondence between the two premiers. But a number of letters have come to light, including Mussolini’s last letter, written on April 24, in which he pleads with Churchill to “intervene personally” and guarantee him “the chance to justify and defend myself”. Bruno Giovanni Lonati, 84 years old, a former Communist who became a Fiat manager after the war and now lives in Brescia, claims that “John” was sent to northern Italy with the specific aim of eliminating Mussolini and answered directly to General (later Field Marshal) Alexander. “John” and Mr. Lonati agent went together to the house where the Duce and his mistress (Clara Petacci) were being held after being captured by partisans near Dongo. When arrested, Mussolini was clutching a briefcase that he told his captors was “of historic importance for the future of Italy”. Signor Lonati said: “Petacci was sitting on the bed and Mussolini was standing. John took me outside and told me his orders were to eliminate them both, because Petacci knew many things. I said I could not shoot Petacci, so John said he would shoot her. He was quite clear that Mussolini had to be killed by an Italian”.
He said that, when Mussolini stepped out to get some air, under guard, Petacci said with a sad smile: “”So, it’s all over for us”. She asked them to shoot “at the chest, not the head”. At the corner of a lane leading down to the lake, less than a mile from Villa Belmonte, “John” and “Giacomo” stood their victims against a fence and opened fire. Signor Lonati said: “Mussolini had a look of surprise on his face, but not Petacci. “After the shootings, “John” took a camera from his knapsack and photographed the bodies, with Signor Lonati beside them. He had also referred to “very important documents” which he was ordered to recover from the Duce. Mr. Tompkins, who coproduced the documentary with Maria Luisa Forenza, said that there was evidence that the photographs existed. “Lonati went to the British consulate in Milan in 1981”, he said. “The consul sat opposite Lonati with them, but said he needed authorisation to hand them over. Lonati received a letter from the consulate promising to get in touch, but never heard any more”. Mr. Tompkins, himself an O.S.S.’  secret agent for the Allies in occupied Rome in 1944, said that he had approached the British Embassy in Rome about the pictures. An embassy official “promised to see what he could do, but later apologetically said ‘no’. He did not say they did not exist”.Signora Forenza said that Signor Lonati’s claims, first advanced ten years ago, had been greeted with scepticism “but we spent three years testing his account and find it completely convincing, with no discrepancies”. By contrast, the official version of Mussolini’s death changed frequently and was “riddled with inconsistencies and lies”. This month, the French-made MAS submachinegun with which Mussolini was said to have been shot by Walter Audisio came to light in Albania. Signor Lonati said that he and “John” had used Sten guns. The documentary by Rai, the Italian State television station, entitled Mussolini: The Final Truth, includes testimony from Dorina Mazzola, who was 19 years old at the time. She said that she heard the firing: “I looked at the clock, it was almost 11”. She said that her mother, Giuseppina, who was in the garden, saw the shooting. Partisans arrived soon after and took the bodies away, holding Mussolini up to make it look as if he was still alive, she said. The documentary says that partisans were later dressed as Mussolini and Petacci and driven to the gates of the Villa Belmonte, where the bodies were already laid out. “Colonel Valerio” and others then pretended to shoot them. Roberto Remund, who was at the scene, said that the bodies were “ unnaturally stiff and contorted” and that there was “very little blood”, suggesting that the killings had happened earlier. The programme includes interviews with Claudio Ersoch, grandson of Tommaso David, Mussolini’s head of covert operations, who said that his grandfather confirmed that the correspondence existed and that Churchill had promised in it to restore to Italy lost territory such as Istria. The programme claims that postwar painting trips made by Churchill to the Italian lakes were a cover for efforts to retrieve the correspondence. Christopher Woods, researcher for the official history of the SOE in Italy, disputed the suggestion that a British spy had led the assassination mission. He said: “It’s just love of conspiracy-making. The leaders of the Resistance in Milan, particularly the left-wing parties, decided that Mussolini should be killed before the Allies arrived”. Mussolini’s death in April 28 1945 came as the end of the Second World War was in sight and the Soviet Union and the West were already vying to shape the postwar world. Three days earlier talks to found the United Nations were held in San Francisco. But the most important personalities who knew something about secret correspondence Churchill-Mussolini and about Mussolini’s attaché cases (briefcases), that Duce believed it would have been an authentic elixir of long life for himself (i.e. Duce), were: Mr. Dante Gorreri, a dangerous partisan P.C.I.’s trafficker during 1945; Luigi Carissimi Priori of Gonzaga, a clever Italian partisan biotechnology expert, and last, but not least, the S.O.E.’s agent Max Salvadori, well-known as “Captain Sylvester”, who was in Milan since February 1945. According to Carlo Alberto Biggini, Minister of People's Education in the Italian Social (Fascist) Republic, Mussolini carried with him papers which proved the British (and Churchill's) responsibility for Italy's entry into the war. The UK persuaded Italy to mount a "phoney war" against the Allies in expectation of a general peace. Hitler would have appreciated Italy's "merits" and Mussolini would have been regaled at a "Munich Summit Two", helping the UK and France's position.  Mussolini had a file and attempted to save the documents that he expressed would explain Italy's "mistakes" and his own "good reasons." Carlo Alberto Biggini was adamant about this file and vigorously stated this correspondence displayed proof of British guilt and complicity in Italy's war declaration.  The British showed, before and after May of 1945, a most curious interest in those papers and expended much effort in attempting to find them.  When Churchill lost the elections of July 1945, he did not give back the papers and files he had kept covering the years of 1940-1945. Fascists, Germans, Japanese, partisans and even two British individuals explicitly mentioned these papers.  Renzo De Felice's last book, entitled Red and Black,, published by Baldini & Castoldi in 1995, maintained the British feared a "Mussolini International trial" and wanted him dead at all costs. Because of the correspondence, Mussolini was aware of some rather volatile information regarding the UK and Churchill.

http://www.alessandrodefelice.it/default.asp