As Nazi Germany marches ever closer
to Total War, the pressure is on
for the leaders of the Third Reich. All the key members of Hitler's
inner circle are all jostling their way, trying to get as near to the centre
of power as possible. They're all stabbing each other
in the back. Göring, Goebbels and Himmler
are holding their positions, just about, but it's Martin Bormann, Hitler's
enforcer, who's coming out on top. You can imagine him thinking,
now I've made it. [archive] Sieg heil! The biggest loser
is Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess. [James Holland]
He's losing his marbles by this point, he's starting to believe
in ever-more wacky stuff. And he dreams up a secret plan,
it's a crazy idea, reckless and dangerous. This has got to be the most loony plot
that's ever happened! This is the inside story
of Hitler's henchmen, the power struggles,
blind ambition and fawning sycophants that would create a monster and fuel the
most brutal horrors of the Third Reich. The top brass of the Nazi Party take their places
on the podium of the Reichstag. Among them, Air Chief Hermann Göring
and Party stalwart Rudolf Hess. Göring is riding high in Hitler's favour
following the military takeover of Austria and Czechoslovakia
without a shot being fired. But Hess, despite having the grand title
of Deputy Führer, is not a happy man. They've come to hear their leader
address the German people and they know their fortunes
hang on his plans. Hitler is almost at the apogee
of his power, he is so in control, the atmosphere must have been electric. You see these big, key figures
in Hitler's inner circle, sitting in the Reichstag, waiting for him to make this absolute
most key of keynote speeches. [archive, Hitler makes speech] Hitler says he desires nothing but peace. Mocking Britain and America
for demanding assurances that Germany will not invade
its neighbours, he reads out a long list of countries which the Reich has no hostile intentions
towards. Switzerland, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslawia, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iran. [wild cheering] But the Reich, he says,
has legitimate interests and demands, including the return of German territory
in Poland to the Fatherland. "We will make our own decisions,
we will decide our own destiny," and that is the kind of speech
that would go down really well in front of Nazi deputies,
who after all were all the most vibrant and passionate Nazis
you could find. Nevertheless,
the German Government is willing to... Hitler claims Germany is the innocent victim of foreign
aggression, especially from Poland. The speech is essentially a rousing
appeal to the German people. We stand at this point. If it involves war subsequently,
so be it, but we are in the right. Powerful stuff, nonsense but powerful. [cheering] Not everyone is sold on Hitler's vision. The old war hero Göring fears his Führer
is biting off more than he can chew, but it's Rudolph Hess who has
the greatest sense of foreboding. [James Holland] Hess is an Anglophile, he understands the strength of Britain,
particularly, but also of France and the United States, and he has severe reservations
about how far Germany should push things with Poland
at this particular time. Hess knows Hitler well enough to understand that although the Führer
talks of peace, he's preparing for war. [Frank] He was thinking, look,
it's all going to go the wrong way. We're going to end up
fighting the wrong war. Instead of actually confronting
Poland and the Soviet Union, we're going to end up fighting against
France and Britain. That's the wrong war. Back in the old days,
Hess was Hitler's closest confidant. Hail victory! § The party is Hitler! Hitler is Germany and Germany is Hitler! Hitler! Hail victory! Hail victory! His commitment to Hitler is fanatical. Hail victory! But after years of unwavering devotion,
of all Hitler's courtiers, he feels the least able to influence
unfolding events. He no longer has Hitler's ear, which
in the early days he certainly did have, and it's a slight... it's a fall in
prestige that he feels very personally. And although the two men share
much in common, Hess's obsessions are starting
to grate on Hitler. [James Holland] He's a very odd man, Hess. When he goes and visits Hitler
in the Berghof, for example, he used to bring his own food.
Well, Hitler really took against that. I mean, it is quite rude
on a number of levels. If Hess is starting to feel paranoid,
it's with good reason. Even his own staff
are plotting against him. Six years before, Martin Bormann, a
backroom administrator in the Nazi Party, had impressed Hess
with his quiet efficiency and had been appointed
to his personal office. But since then, the ruthlessly ambitious
Bormann has wheedled himself ever closer to Hitler and never misses
an opportunity to undermine Hess. For a schemer like Bormann,
his boss is an easy target because he's becoming obsessed with pseudo-sciences
like astrology and horoscopes. He's a little bit like one of those people
who's got a lot of money, a lot of time on his hands
and he doesn't know what to do. [Guy] Hess was always a man
interested in occultism, what we would today call esoterica, he was
interested in magick, with a k on the end. He was interested in astrology,
soothsaying, pendulums, telekinesis. No wonder his own staff are ridiculing
the Deputy Führer behind his back. On one occasion,
an aide comes into his office to see the second most senior man
in the Nazi Party trying to exert
the power of mind control... ...over a chair. Frankly, anybody who thinks
they can keep a chair from falling over, just by using thought control, is
clearly not the most stable personality. Hess's insecurity increases
when he discovers Nazi leaders have been summoned to a crucial meeting
in the Reich Chancellery to plan the invasion of Poland,
and he's not been invited. [Richard] There's no doubt, I think, that
in Hess's mind, this is a disappointment. Where have I gone wrong, what do I
need to do to get back into favour, you know, why am I outside the loop? He's not a very astute politician
and he's surrounded by people, you know, the Görings, the Himmlers and so on, who are very astute politicians. But despite his flakiness,
Hess is right to worry about all-out war in Europe. And he is not alone. As preparations for the invasion of Poland
continue, Hermann Göring is also anxious. He knows that Hitler
is eyeing up Communist Russia, and Poland is just the stepping stone
to the main prize. [Thomas]
Göring has close contacts to Britain and therefore believes
far more than Hitler does that an invasion in the East will lead to an
entry of the United Kingdom into the war, as a result of which Germany
will ultimately be in a two-front war
in the East and in the West, and that Germany is unlikely
to win that kind of war, and that is again
why he is so hesitant in 1939. Hitler's gambling
that Britain is bluffing, that it won't come to Poland's aid. Göring fears the Führer
is misjudging London but realises there's no changing
his leader's mind. So he makes a tactical retreat. [James Wyllie] Hermann retires to
his estate, which distances himself from the decision if it goes badly,
but also, I think, to safeguard his relationship with Hitler to the extent that he didn't want
to become a pain, as it were, to Hitler. Anxious to prove his worth, Hess tries to persuade Britain
to stop supporting Poland. He invites a senior British politician,
Lord Buxton, to Germany for talks. But even he can see that Hess no longer
has the power to rein in the Führer. [Frank] Lord Buxton came back
and said, look, Hess is a busted flush. He's got no influence over Hitler. Yes, he's against the whole idea
of invading Poland and provoking a war with Britain but I don't think he's going to have
that big influence. It broke out
on January 13th this year. Joseph Goebbels,
Hitler's trusted Minister of Propaganda, has no reservations about going to war,
and offers a pretext to invade Poland. His propaganda machine
pumps out stories, some narrated in English
for an international audience, that ethnic Germans living in Poland
are being attacked. [archive news] Thousands of them flee
from the persecution of Polish gangs. Their homes are systematically burned
down and devastated by the Poles. [narrator]
But these stories are all fake news. They based their propaganda onto these massive anti-Polish feelings
within the German public. And Goebbels was building upon that. So it was easy for Goebbels
to raise this anti-Polish feeling and then there has to be
war against Poland. Then the propaganda is ramped up
to blame the Polish government for actually organising the attacks
on Germans within its territory. [archive news] Hundreds of thousands of worn-out, distressed
and panic-stricken people pour daily
into the German refugee camps. [Toby] There were tales of brutality,
of killings, of confiscations of property, of German families
driven from their homes, abused, denied their rights,
discriminated against and persecuted. [Frank] It's all rubbish,
but, of course, it is believed. This is the problem. The German public
starts to believe this propaganda because it has no access
to any other point of view. Because Goebbels has a monopoly
over all the opinions. The fake stories do the trick. German military hardware is moved close to the Polish border
and primed for action. Goebbels has prepared the fire. All it needs now is the spark
to ignite the flames of war. And it's not long before they get it. [machine-gunfire] A German radio station near the border
with Poland comes under attack. Some of the raiders are killed.
They're found to be Polish soldiers. Later that night, Berlin radio broadcasts
the news of this outrageous provocation. But all is not as it seems. The whole thing has been staged, the
brainchild of SS boss Heinrich Himmler. The raiders were in fact SS troops in Polish uniforms
and carrying Polish guns. And the bodies left at the scene?
They weren't Poles either. A group of concentration-camp prisoners
were taken from their normal confines, they were shot,
put in Polish army uniforms and dispersed
about this German radio station to make it look as if there had been
a Polish army attack. Hitler now has his excuse to retaliate. War is just hours away. And Göring knows it. He is absolutely cursing,
he just goes, oh, my God, this is going to be it,
you know, that is the end of Germany. But to survive in the inner circle, you have to think fast, and the head
of the Luftwaffe pulls himself together. Once he gets over that shock
and that despair, he then says, "But the Führer is magnificent,
you know, we are but pawns, you know, we are but little people compared to his
greatness and we must do his bidding." Dawn on the 1st September 1939, the point of no return to
the deadliest conflict in human history. Göring's Luftwaffe launches
the Second World War by bombing civilian targets in Poland. Then the warships of the Kriegsmarine
join the attack. And the Wehrmacht
storm across the border. Now the conflict has begun, with new enthusiasm,
Hess signs the documents that incorporate Polish territory
into the Third Reich. His fanatical devotion to Hitler trumps any personal doubts
he may have had about going to war. Hess realises he has to do
what Hitler wants, and if Hitler wants to invade Poland,
you know, you either go along with it or you don't. Two days after the invasion, the whole game plan changes
when Britain declares war. Göring's prediction, which had been
brushed aside by Hitler, has come true. [Thomas] Göring is heard to have muttered, "If we lose this war,
then God may have mercy upon us." At the same time, he knows
this is not the time to challenge Hitler and that Hitler would certainly not like
to hear him say, I told you so. So despite his reservations, he decides he has to go with this,
that he has to stick with Hitler. Britain may now be in the war, but it can't stop Germany
overrunning Poland within five weeks. Göring is the hero of the hour, another feather in his cap after the
annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Now Heinrich Himmler moves centre stage. He unleashes the SS
to crush any resistance. But they go further, seeking out
and targeting Jews and other undesirables. It's another ominous step towards
what will become known as the Holocaust. So far, Hitler's grand campaign
for new lands in the East has gone perfectly to plan. But now the inner circle
is about to face an existential threat, and it comes
in the very heartland of the Third Reich. In the autumn of 1939,
the inner circle gathers in Munich to commemorate the failed putsch of 1923. As usual, Hitler will make a speech at the
Burgerbrau beer hall where it all began. He intends to fly to Berlin
later that evening. But as fog descends over the Bavarian
capital, his plans have to change. On the advice of his pilot Hans Bauer,
he's told that he can't fly. So the decision is made
that he has to go by train, which means that his set-piece speech
in the beer hall has to be cut short. So Hitler will be leaving
the beer hall early. A photographer is there as Hitler
starts his speech ahead of schedule. The Führer leaves the hall
as soon as he's finished. Precisely 13 minutes later... The bomb had been planted right
behind where Hitler would have been. Eight people are killed
and many more are injured. [Roger] It knocks out the main pillar
in which it's located. It brings down the roof.
It devastates the room and there's chaos. [James Holland] Had he not got away
13 minutes earlier than planned, it's inconceivable to think
that he wouldn't have been killed. [Roger] Hitler's life is effectively saved
in 1939 because of bad weather. [James Holland]
It's one of those amazing what-ifs and it's amazing
how little it's known today. [Deutschland Uber Alles plays] Each henchman in his own way tries to make capital
out of the failed assassination and use it to curry favour
with the Führer. Hess stages an elaborate ceremony
to honour the "blood martyrs" and, of course, to laud praise
on the Führer's miraculous escape. [Frank] I think this is another sign
of him saying, look, I'm still here. "I still love the Führer. I'd like
to be back in your inner circle." It's a kind of real... sort of...
desperate, creepy moment, really. Goebbels is also quick to turn
the attack to his advantage. [Roger] He gives the propaganda line
to his newspapers almost verbatim as to what line they should take, which is basically that this has to be
the work of the British. It's the nefarious British Secret Service
that is to blame and thereby justifying the war
against the British and the French. But as always with Goebbels, it's a lie. The bomb wasn't
the work of enemy agents. It had been planted
by a German acting alone. Georg Elser had wanted to stop the war, fearing it would lead
to untold human suffering. He is caught trying to flee
across the Swiss border and confesses. [Roger] He believed,
and in retrospect absolutely rightly, that Hitler was leading
the country back to war. And he decided,
unlike many of his fellows who would have been also dubious
about Hitler, he decided to actually do
something about it, which is the mark of Elser's bravery. For Heinrich Himmler, the man in charge
of Hitler's personal security, the assassination attempt
is very bad news. [James Holland]
Himmler is absolutely furious about this. So, it sort of happened on his watch,
really. And according to the local Gestapo chief,
Himmler doesn't hesitate to take out his frustration
on the prisoner. Himmler personally intervenes
for the part of the interrogation and actually beats the hell
out of this guy. He felt humiliated and perhaps
he was trying to show his own mettle and show that he was as big and as tough
as many of his rivals. I'm going to really make sure
that this guy is going to suffer. [kicks] Anyone who messes
with the Führer messes with me. Spring 1940,
Göring's Luftwaffe leads the way as Hitler unleashes the next phase
of his masterplan to conquer Europe. First, German troops occupy
Denmark and Norway. Then a huge invasion force pushes
its way through Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium... ...and then defeats France
within six weeks. British forces in northern France are overwhelmed by the speed
of the German Blitzkreig. They're pushed back to the coast and
evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk. Göring is confident he can finish
Britain off when the time comes. [Richard] Within a matter of two months, the situation of Germany in Europe
has been transformed. And the situation for Hitler and his
entourage will be transformed as well. [military music] The conquest of France
is the high-water mark for the military success
of the Third Reich. Hitler is triumphant,
this victory has been his life's ambition and sweet revenge for humiliating defeat
in the First World War. Göring basks in his Führer's success. [Sönke]
The fall of France meant also for Göring that he reached the peak of his career. He was still keeping his position at the top of the pyramid. Newly promoted to Reichsmarschall,
the most senior rank in the military, Göring heads to Paris, to the Louvre and
rewards himself with the spoils of war. So either Hermann or one of his buyers,
would then go through all this stuff, and just say, OK, put it on a train back to Germany...
It was wholesale theft, essentially. The full scale of Göring's plundering will
only be revealed at the end of the war when his treasures are discovered
by the Allies, hidden in Germany. Inner-circle favourites
Bormann and Goebbels are also in Paris, riding high on the Führer's coattails. Goebbels arranges the
ultimate propaganda photo opportunity of the conquering hero. But there's one leader left out
of the party in Paris. The Deputy Führer. [James Holland] What that tells you
is that Hess's influence is on the slippery slope downwards, you know, he doesn't have
that access to Hitler that he once had. Other people who are cleverer,
more Machiavellian, who Hitler likes personally more
are getting closer to him. One of those now constantly
at Hitler's side is Albert Speer, formally a junior on Hess's staff,
but now chief architect of the Reich. He is steadily assuming
the role of Hitler's confidant and his writings
record Hess's fall from grace. [as Speer] "Hitler said to me after a
conversation with Hess lasting many hours: 'With Hess, every conversation becomes
an unbearably tormenting strain. He always comes to me with
unpleasant matters and won't leave off.'" [Frank] So, we have some evidence there
from a close acolyte of Hitler that Hess is really, how I can put it? I'll use the Liverpool vernacular,
"He's doing my head in." [Frank laughs] So I think that is true,
in the case of Hess and it does reveal that Hess
was getting to be hard work. Shut out of the inner circle,
the pressure is getting to Hess, and the others can see it. Göring gossips about how
the Deputy Führer uses psychic powers to divine
if letters bring good or bad news. While Hitler
no longer takes him seriously, saying: "I only hope he never has to take over
from me. I wouldn't know who to be more sorry for,
Hess or the Party." Hitler's waging world war, that's what
really interests him at the moment. He's not interested in Hess's anxieties
about Party rivalries. Barely three weeks
after the surrender of France, Göring's Luftwaffe launches an onslaught
on Britain, the prelude to invasion. The Battle of Britain is underway, but it will see a turn
in the fortunes of the war. [archive news] The battle is fought above
the clouds, but this is how it ends. Another and another. 169 in one day! [narrator] Against the odds,
the Royal Air Force holds out. And the Blitz, the intensive bombing
of cities and industry across the country, fails to weaken British resolve. For the first time, the Nazi war machine
doesn't look quite so invincible. [James Holland] And this reveals
one of Göring's great shortcomings because although he is a great war hero,
he's never been to staff college, and actually, he just doesn't know
what he's doing militarily as commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe. Göring's failure to crush Britain
from the air forces the planned invasion
to be put on hold. The reputation of the Luftwaffe commander
is now looking rather tarnished. His star may be waning
but Hess, meanwhile, finds new resolve. He begins to formulate a secret plan,
an opportunity to redeem himself, with the help of a skill
he learnt many years before. Hess is an experienced pilot.
He flew biplanes in the First World War. Now he familiarises himself with
the prototype of the latest Messerschmitt, taking it on flights under the guise
of testing its capability. The 110 is usually crewed by two pilots, but Hess has it modified
so he can fly solo. And he has extra fuel tanks
fitted to increase its range. Hess knows that Hitler
is preparing to invade Russia. And he recognises that Germany
cannot fight a long war on two fronts. His outlandish plan
is to go behind the Führer's back, fly to Britain and try to meet
an influential contact who, he hopes, will introduce him
to Winston Churchill. The aim: to persuade the British
to sue for peace. He knew if he would be able to make
peace with Britain that would definitely please Hitler. "Here, Führer,
I bring you the peace with Britain." This would also, of course,
immediately overnight mean that he would make it back
in the inner circle again. The person Hess hopes will act
as a go-between is someone he met five years earlier when
the Olympic Games were held in Germany. [string quartet plays] Behind the scenes, the Nazi leaders laid
on lavish parties for foreign dignitaries and it's then that Hess is thought to have
been introduced to a well-known Scottish aristocrat. [soundtrack only] [Guy] It's at one of these banquets
where it is said that he met the Duke of Hamilton, and there they forged some sort of
connection Hess would use in the future. Like Hess,
the Duke of Hamilton was a keen pilot. In fact, he was something of a hero
in the aviation world after being the first person to fly
a biplane over Mount Everest. To Hess, this dashing adventurer
with a fancy title must have come across as being
at the heart of the British establishment, someone very well-connected,
who probably mixed with royalty and perhaps even had a direct line
to the British leadership. [archive, German speech] Now, five years on,
Hess plans to renew that acquaintance. He'll fly to the Duke of Hamilton's estate
in Scotland and ask him
for an introduction to Churchill. So, emboldened by all these sort of ideas of fate and Nostradamus and astrology, Hess decides that he's got one last card
he can play, and if he plays it well, he will have the eternal gratitude
of not only his beloved Führer, but also of the German people. At the beginning of May, Hess visits
the Führer in the Reich Chancellery. It is to be their last meeting. Hess never said
what they talked about that day, a fact that would give rise
to a conspiracy theory that maybe Hitler was in on the plan. But does it stand up to scrutiny? [Sönke] There is no evidence whatsoever
that Hitler knew about Hess's plans. And all the evidence we have
is very clear that Hitler was totally surprised
by that step, so to me, it's absolutely clear
that Hitler did not know that Hess was planning to fly to Scotland
and try to negotiate a peace with Britain. Six days after that meeting, the most bizarre episode
of the Second World War starts to unfold. Rudolf Hess explains his intentions
in a letter to Hitler. He then leaves home, telling his wife
Ilse he will return in a couple of days. On the 10th of May,
Hess plays his last card. It's a card played by a desperate man. Hess drives to the aerodrome. He tells his adjutant to deliver a letter
to Hitler by hand the following day. There's no turning back now. Hess's route takes him across Germany
and over the North Sea towards Scotland. He navigates right into enemy airspace and reaches his planned destination
south of Glasgow. But in the fading light,
he cannot see anywhere to land. He decides he has no alternative. He'll bail out. [James Holland] It really is absolutely
extraordinary, if you think about this. He's never even done
a parachute jump before. This is the deputy leader
of the Nazi Party on a lone mission in a Messerschmitt 110 flying over Scotland
to a place that he doesn't know at all and then parachuting out
for the very, very first time. The whole thing is...
Frankly, you couldn't make it up. But despite all the dangers,
Hess lands safely. [Guy] This is a near miracle,
that he's managed to do this. And maybe when he lands,
he feels he's survived this epic flight, and this epic parachute drop,
and yet he's still alive, and he must feel that, well,
maybe providence is making this go well. On hearing the plane crash, a farm worker goes out to investigate... ...and comes face to face...
with the Deputy Führer. "I am a German,"
the well-spoken intruder announces. "And I have an important message
for the Duke of Hamilton." Then the local Home Guard
arrives on the scene. And at this point,
it all gets rather farcical. What happens next, it's like something out of one of those
old-fashioned British comedies. [James Holland] The farmer then
takes him off to his house, gives him a cup of tea
in time-honoured British fashion. [Guy] That's how we do things in Britain, we always give people a cup of tea,
even the second most senior Nazi. But the warm welcome
will be short-lived. Eventually, he's taken off to a barracks, where he's held,
and then the real trouble starts for him. The prisoner is positively identified
as the enemy's deputy leader. This is not the reception he had in mind. [Roger] Hess is suffering from a delusion
of viewing the British political system, still almost in a feudal mindset, as a system in which dukes and barons
and so on still have tremendous political influence. In truth, they don't. [Guy] He believes he'll be sent
straight down, by special car, to go and dine with Winston Churchill,
where they'll have top-level discussions. It's just so far from a practical idea, and it's a measure of how detached
Hess has come from reality. That same weekend,
Adolf Hitler is taking a relaxing break at his Bavarian retreat, the Berghof. On the Sunday morning, around the same
time as Hess is identified in Scotland, his adjutant arrives with
a most important letter for the Führer. [as Hess] "My Führer, when you receive
this letter, I shall be in England. You can imagine that the decision
to take this step was not easy for me." [Michael] Hess says, I've done this for
the sake of your good self, mein Führer, and for the sake of Germany. War with Britain is not serving
our interest, we must make peace. [as Hess] "And if, my Führer,
this project, which I admit has but very little chance
of success, ends in failure, and the fates decide against me, this can have no detrimental results
for you or Germany. It will always be possible for you
to deny all responsibility. Simply say I am crazy." [Guy] High up in the Obersalzberg,
up this mountain, there was a maelstrom going on. At the heart of it was Hitler,
incandescent with rage, that his most trusted, loyal comrade,
from all those years back, had just got off on a plane,
in the middle of the night, and flown off without telling him. [soundtrack only] The principals are summoned. Bormann has no answers
to Hitler's furious questions. How could Hess have flown off
without anyone knowing? Why didn't anyone stop him? He's in a very delicate position
being still nominally Hess's deputy. Will he be tainted
by association to the traitor? The control freak has lost control. So what happens now? [Frank] Within the inner circle,
the question arises, how are we going to present this
to the public? So Martin Bormann
contacts Joseph Goebbels, and he replies there are some situations where propaganda hasn't got the answer,
and this is one of them. Rudolf Hess has lost the plot. In his diary, Goebbels sums up
the mood inside the inner circle. [as Goebbels] "The entire affair is
thoroughly confused at the moment, a hard, almost unbearable blow. The Führer is quite shattered. What a sight in the world's eyes. The Führer's deputy,
a mentally disturbed man. Dreadful and unthinkable. Now we shall have to grit our teeth." Goebbels does precisely
as Hess suggested. His radio stations report
that Hess is mad. [news, English] "A letter he left
unfortunately shows in its confusion the evidence of a mental derangement
which leads us to fear that Party Member Hess
has fallen victim to a delusion." HOUSE OF BROADCASTING that the Deputy Führer has most probably
crashed or met with an accident. And that, as far as the stunned entourage
round Hitler is concerned, is the end of the matter. Hess becomes a non-person, he is never
to be mentioned in public again. But it leaves an uncomfortable question
in the mind of many Germans but a question which no one dares voice. If Hess was deranged, how come he was
still in place as the Führer's deputy? Precisely four hours
after the German radio bulletin, the BBC broadcasts
this astonishing announcement. [news] Here is the news from London. Rudolf Hess, Hitler's Deputy,
has flown from Germany and landed in Scotland
by parachute. [narrator] The newsreels gloat
over this bizarre turn of events. Hess's unexpected arrival in Scotland is a moment of light relief
during the dark days of the Blitz. [news] His name is David McClean. He works on a farm not far from Glasgow. He saw Rudolf Hess coming down
in the dark by parachute. Yes, I'm the man
that captured Rudolf Hess. The British treat it
as one big sort of laugh. I went over to the farm and the only
weapon I could find was a pitchfork. What is this all about?
This can't be real. The man refused tea
and would only have a drink of water. Churchill doesn't take any notice of it. It's treated in the British press
like one big laugh. What is going on here? Rudolf Hess may have thought he would
be invited to have tea with Churchill, but instead he's taken off
to the Tower of London. "The wisest course of action,"
Hess tells his interrogators, "would be for Britain to seize this chance
to make peace with Hitler and form an alliance
against Soviet Russia. And if king and country
would just allow Nazi Germany a free rein in continental Europe, Britain
and its empire will be left untouched." The interrogators can't work out
if Hess is deluded or plain mad. And his arrival in Britain had coincided with one of the worst air raids
of the Blitz, in which 1200 people had been killed. Winston Churchill
is in no mood to talk peace. [James Holland] So, the whole thing
has been an absolute catastrophe from any which way you look at it,
whether you be Hess, whether you be Hitler or whether you be
Goebbels or anyone in Nazi Germany. Back at the Berghof,
Bormann's keen to fill the new vacancy and so immediately moves
to distance himself from his former boss. He has Hess's wife, Ilse, interrogated and threatened with eviction
from the family home. But she appeals to Eva Braun and Hitler
accepts she was not in on the plan. In happier days, Bormann had named
two of his children Rudolf and Ilse after their godparents. Now he promptly changes their names
by court order. Within days, having ridden the storm,
Bormann's loyalty is rewarded. Hitler abolishes the post
of Deputy Führer, and despite strong objections
from both Göring and Goebbels, appoints Bormann
as Head of the Chancellery, his closest aide and formal gatekeeper. With fox-like cunning, the backroom operator has
finally reached the pinnacle of his power, at the heart of the injustice,
violence and terror of the Third Reich. [Richard] You can imagine him thinking,
now I've made it, and Hess is yesterday's man, you know. I've got all this in front of me...
sitting down, putting his feet up perhaps, putting an ashtray on the table
so he could smoke. You can imagine
that for Bormann this is a unique moment. Back in Britain, Hess is moved
to a safe house outside London. Hess is being held captive,
and he's feeling that he must have failed, he's feeling lonely, and more lonely
than he did in the Third Reich. And he must be aware of the fact that,
really, his future's deeply uncertain, and he knows he must be being vilified
by not only the inner circle back home but also in the world at large.
He's being written off. Hess is in the depths of despair.
To him, there's only one way out. [Roger] He reaches his lowest ebb
and tries to commit suicide by throwing himself over the banister,
down into the hall of the building. But Hess fails again. He breaks his leg on landing, is in tremendous pain and that must have
been his lowest moment. Not only had he failed in his mission
but he'd also failed to take his own life. Rudolf Hess will remain behind bars
for the rest of his life. He pours his heart out in Red Cross
letters to his family and friends. [as Hess] "Dear all, you can imagine
how I am thinking of you. My thoughts are no less with the Führer
and with the whole nation. Some day, I shall return home.
I am looking forward to it with pleasure. True, I achieved nothing. I was not able to stop
the madness of the war and could not prevent what I saw coming... ...but it makes me happy
to think that I tried." [Guy] You know, on one level, that is a pretty sympathetic thing
to have written. It looks like a man who desired peace,
rather than war, and it looks like he was probably, of the inner circle,
the least martial of the lot. And yet we mustn't be too kind to Hess. He was a man who propagated
and helped to bring to power one of the most evil regimes
the world has ever seen. With one man down, Hitler's henchmen
reassess their positions. Göring is looking vulnerable... ...while Goebbels and Himmler
are holding their own. And Bormann is stealing a march
on all his rivals. But as the war progresses,
the infighting among Hitler's inner circle will become even more intense.
