There was little activity this early afternoon at the usually busy airfield opposite the Messerschmitt factory. Most of the aircraft were confined to the ground. Only one, a single-engine fighter, remained in the air. It was circling on final approach by the time Rudolf Hess climbed aboard his powerful twin-engine Messerschmitt BF-110.
The Deputy Fuehrer of Nazi Germany placed his briefcase on the deck inside the tight-fitting cockpit and slid into the seat, waving the mechanics below to the side. Hess quickly started the engines one at a time and brought them to full operating temperature. He cracked the throttles twice.
Then, in his cumbersome and confining flying gear, he emerged from the vibrating cockpit. Stepping onto the wing, he energetically leapt to the ground. One last word to his young adjutant and Hess would be off.
He walked across to his adjutant, who was standing next to a staff car, its engine idling. Captain Karlheinz Pintsch caught a new determination about his superior as Hess handed him a sealed white envelope. Hess leaned into Pintsch’s face, trying to keep his voice low yet speak above the clamour of the idling engines. The ground shuddered beneath them. There was a look of suppressed excitement and mystery in Hess’s face that Pintsch couldn’t help noticing.
“If I do not return within four hours, Pintsch,” Hess said to his adjutant, his breath steaming in the cool air, “take for granted that I am on my way and open the envelope.”
“On your way, Herr Reichsfuehrer? Where?”
“When you open the envelope, you will understand.”
Hess indicated to Pintsch that they synchronize watches. Pintsch fumbled with his watch and the envelope. “Yes, Herr Reichsfuehrer, of course. I will do as you say.”
They saluted each other perfunctorily. Hess was obviously eager to begin the flight. Pintsch watched as Hess proudly strode across the tarmac and returned to the cockpit, where he reached up to shut the canopy. The ground crew pulled the chocks away and jogged to the grass clearing. Hess revved the fighter, then swung its ten thousand pound bulk ninety degrees to face the dispersal track. Expertly steering the aircraft to the edge of the far runway, he waited anxiously for tower clearance.
With the airplane in view across the weeded field, Pintsch heard the smooth roar. Suddenly, the camouflaged Messerschmitt was off, speeding down the runway. In a few seconds the aircraft lifted and climbed into the pale-blue sky like a gigantic metal bird.
Pintsch slowly approached the door of the staff car. He glanced at Hess’s chauffeur, who looked at him inquiringly. Pintsch motioned that he didn’t need him, and he drove away. Pintsch stood there in the open field, wondering where Hess was going. Another mysterious trip, accompanied by secret coded messages to Stockholm. And the letter? There wasn’t a letter before. Was it another test of his loyalty to the Deputy Fuehrer? Why not just open it? But Pintsch knew he couldn’t do that because what if Hess returned before the four hours was up? The consequences were much too great. He had been Hess’s adjutant for only a year, before that on active service in France with the Army. To cross Hitler’s right-hand man on such a sensitive matter could spell death for Pintsch at worse, another battlefront as punishment at best. Opening the letter early was out of the question.
The Messerschmitt fighter disappeared over the horizon. Pintsch turned to the operations building several hundred feet across the airfield. Hess, the man he so admired and so envied, again dominated his thoughts. Hess was loved by the people of the Fatherland and respected by most of his peers. What was Pintsch? Just an underling, someone to perform a duty for which Hess would gain the glory. Pintsch wanted to be someone special too, not the ordinary person he felt he was. He was not necessarily good looking at his age of twenty-nine, but he wasn’t exactly ugly either. He was of average looks, medium height, and he did ordinary work for Hess that some over-zealous underling could easily do. He did the little things, although sometimes of great secrecy. He appreciated Hess’s trust in him. But he was bored. He wanted to be a flier, and wear the dashing leather garb depicting that esteemed vocation. He had expressed such desires to fly on occasion, but hesitantly, only to be immediately quashed with a definite “No!” Pintsch couldn’t budge Hess from his decision. It seemed that one star in the show was enough. Perhaps Pintsch was meant always to be an understudy.
Even if his wish had been granted, Pintsch knew he would have to go a long way to match Hess’s flying skill. The Reichsfuehrer excelled in flying by instruments and in the skill of following radio directional beams. He had been a test pilot for Willy Messerschmitt. In 1934 he won the Zugspitze, the annual race around Germany’s highest mountain, as well as a round-the-houses race in Italy. Hess had even taken lessons from Hans Bauer, Hitler’s personal pilot, in the art of dead reckoning, an aspect of navigation which for some strange reason was significantly important to Hess.
Pintsch returned to the tarmac at six o’clock. By then a bitter cold wind was sweeping across the airfield. The dampness sliced through his greatcoat. Pintsch shivered. The sun would set soon and he hadn’t left the compound the entire time. He had wolfed down something to eat at the mess, but spent most of the time walking and observing life on the base, studying the solid lines of aircraft, longing to fly. There was no sign of the Reichsfuehrer. No sign of his ground staff either. Did they not expect him to return here? Another airfield, perhaps. Pintsch felt the envelope, secure in his coat pocket. Half an hour more. Thirty minutes until the satisfaction of his nagging curiosity.
Then a familiar sound broke through his thoughts. At first it was far off, so distant that he held his breath to hear more clearly. Yes, unmistakable. The drone of an engine. No, engines. Two. Aircraft engines. Was it the Messerschmitt? The drone grew louder. Yes, a Messerschmitt. He recognized, without a doubt, the familiar hum of an ME-110 in flight. Now the airfield suddenly exploded into action. A truck squealed to a stop near Pintsch and Hess’s ground crew scrambled out. The chauffeur pulled up. Then the distinct shape of the ME-110 appeared over the trees, a dark outline silhouetted against the fading light. It grew closer in sight and sound until the roar of the engines filled the air, reverberating loudly off the hangars. The airplane made a low pass over the base, then banked, and lined up on final approach. Pintsch confirmed the fuselage markings of NJ-C11 as the fighter landed and thundered its way to the ground crew. The habitual wave of the hand from the cockpit told Pintsch that the Reichsfuehrer had returned.
Hess shut the engines down and conversed with one of the men who jumped on the wing. Hess eased himself from the snug cockpit, and clambered to the ground. Together they took to the port side of the fighter. The chauffeur opened the front passenger door of the staff car and waited as Hess finished his lengthy instructions to the crew. As Hess drew near, Pintsch walked towards the fighter, his hand on the letter inside his coat, stopping so that he was between the staff car and the aircraft.
Hess met him and took the letter from Pintsch’s outstretched hand. “Thank you. Send the message to Lion. Mission aborted. Don’t give any reason.”
“Yes, Herr Reichsfuehrer. As soon as I reach the administration compound.”
Hess stuck the envelope inside his briefcase. He took one glance at the fighter, then he whipped off his helmet and rubbed his hand through his matted hair. With a sense of defeat, he strode towards the staff car and ordered his chauffeur to drive him home.
* * * *
In a thicket of trees running parallel to the airfield, Wolfgang Geis held his binoculars to his eyes until Hess drove off. Geis didn’t hesitate. He fought the branches, clearing a path to his automobile a short distance away. He was certain no one had seen him. Ten minutes later he braked in front of the local Gestapo office at Augsburg. He entered the building and flashed his identification at the first uniformed officer he saw.
The officer looked at the card, and cleared his throat. “Gestapo Headquarters!”
“That is correct. I need to use a phone. In private.”
“Certainly, Herr Captain. First room on your right.”
“Thank you.”
Geis closed the door to the empty room and lifted the telephone receiver. “Get me Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin. Hurry!”
He waited until the connection was made. Then he asked for Heinrich Himmler’s office.
“Herr Reichsfuehrer?”
“Yes.”
“This is Captain Geis.”
“Yes, Geis. What do you have?”
“It’s Hess, Herr Reichsfuehrer. He flew away again. His own airplane. This time three hours, thirty minutes. Pintsch stayed on the base the whole time, most of it spent outside. Hess handed him something that looked like an envelope before he left and took it back when he returned.”
“Where’s Hess now?”
“He left the base, heading to Munich. Herr Reichsfuehrer, what do you want me to do?”
“Stay there and keep me informed. Report to me in three days with the details.”
“Yes, Herr Reichsfuehrer. Heil Hitler!”
* * * *
Hess greeted his security guards at the gate and entered his large, elaborate country residence outside Munich, along a cobbled stone road called Harthauser Strasse. He then climbed the narrow, ladder-like stairs to the office of his secretary, who had left for the day. He flicked the light on and locked the door behind him. From a window inside the office, Hess looked upon the neat and spacious grounds covered by grass and birch trees. He enjoyed his domain.
Hess turned away. He grabbed a folder containing a thick wad of printed paper and a dozen photographs from inside his uniform, and shoved it into a wide leather briefcase that only he knew the combination to. He snapped the lock shut, and then hid the briefcase in the space carved out behind the bookshelf. This, of course, would only be a temporary hiding spot. The best place was on the aircraft itself. No one would think of looking for the papers there.
Hess sat for a few minutes at his desk, contemplating the change of plans precipitated by yet another abort. This time his fighter had encountered radio problems. Perhaps it was better that he didn’t complete the flight on his own, anyway. He was being too impulsive. But no one would know that except him. Now he had to go the official route. All he needed was permission from the Fuehrer for the next stage.
Hess tried to imagine how the mission, if successful, would change the future of the world. His vision spread out before him in a panoramic view. Old ways would give way to the new, a much-needed New World Order. He would be hailed a mighty and powerful conquering hero by many people. He would finally be victorious over his jealous opponents, like his backstabbing Chief of Staff Martin Bormann, Hitler’s new apprentice. And what about the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering, and Hess’s main rival, Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler? They were the same foes that were spied on from time to time by Hess’s own private Secret Service, comprised of men who were devoted, faithful, and well paid; men who reported directly to him. They would be rewarded somehow for their efforts. Even Hess’s wife, Ilse, might display a new respect for him. Hess would make so many proud. Never mind his opponents. They would be taken care of. Quickly.
Hess left his secretary’s office and entered the upstairs shower. Stepping from the hot water minutes later, he leisurely combed his wet, greying hair, glancing at himself in the wide mirror. Towel around his waist, hands on his hips, he suddenly stopped and shot his head back in a defiant pose, as if ready to present a speech at a podium before 50,000 fervent Nazis. Hess’s image before the Fatherland was always important to him, and the mirror was a good place to practice. He stared into his square face. It was a mask of strong German stock intoxicated with pride and ambition. His eyes were sunken beneath bushy brows that connected above a fleshy nose. He had a determined jaw line, and sharp cheekbones. His mouth was firm, with thin lips. He rarely smiled because he was too self-conscious about his buckteeth. He felt they undermined his generally authoritative appearance. He forbade the German photographers to catch him even so much as grinning. He did not want to appear less than what the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany’s Third Reich should be. The German people could only be allowed to see the best side of their Deputy Fuehrer.
Only the best.