The Secret of Spandau (25 page)

‘Are you saying that Hitler thought Churchill was ready to come to terms?'

‘Listen, we heard this afternoon that they'd been talking secretly on and off for ten months. Churchill must have given the Germans enough encouragement to keep coming, but there were no tangible results for Hitler. Time was running out, and he was getting impatient with Churchill, but he had the ace of trumps to play.'

‘What was that?'

‘Barbarossa. The invasion of Russia. In their political thinking, Hitler and Churchill had many differences, but they shared one dominating principle: a pathological hatred of Bolshevism. They both believed that Russia wanted world domination. So why not sink their differences and smash the Soviet menace together?'

‘Hitler and Churchill on the same side?' Jane shook her head at the suggestion.

‘You've got to see it in terms of Britain's desperate position in 1941,' Dick urged. ‘We were alone in Europe. Churchill hadn't persuaded America to join in the fighting. Things had gone badly in the Middle East and the Balkans. Our cities were being blitzed. Parliament itself was a heap of rubble. The pressure to cut our losses must have been overwhelming.'

Jane said, ‘Yes, but Britain wasn't in the business of invading other nations. Our people wouldn't have consented to that.'

‘Some of them would. Remember that Hess tried to get in touch with the diehards – the extreme right wing of the Conservative Party – and in those days some of them were very extreme indeed.'

‘That doesn't square with what you were saying just now,' Jane pointed out. ‘Why didn't he go straight to Churchill?'

‘Because basically Hess was sent to raise a posse. As Hitler saw it, Churchill had dithered for too long, listening to the secret delegations, maybe even talking terms, but refusing to come to a deal. The German plan was to win support from the diehards, put pressure on Churchill, and give him an ultimatum: join us, or face a revolt from your own supporters.'

Jane was intrigued, if not entirely convinced. ‘But the plan fell through because Churchill got to hear of it prematurely?'

‘No,' said Dick, surprising her. ‘That wouldn't account for what happened after. Remember that astonishing period of forty-eight hours after Hess arrived, when no one knew what was happening. Churchill was at odds with his Ministers. Statements were prepared and rejected. Beaverbrook told the press to provide a smokescreen of rumour and speculation. I have a hunch that Churchill decided to accept the offer Hess had brought.'

There was a long moment of silence.

‘All right,' said Jane eventually, ‘what went wrong?'

Dick shook his head. He had no answer yet.

Jane leant forward on her elbows, thinking. ‘It's horribly plausible. It accounts for so much. The treatment of Hess at Mytchett Place – the psychiatrists, the injections, the amnesia. Something extremely damaging to Britain had to be suppressed from his memory before the Nuremberg Trials.'

‘You're not kidding!' said Dick. ‘Can you imagine the reaction of our Russian allies if he gave evidence that Churchill had seriously considered joining the German invasion?'

Jane nodded. ‘It wouldn't do much for present-day Anglo-Soviet relations. If there's anything in this, I'm not surprised MIS are onto us.'

Dick got up to look out of the window.

‘Is he down there?'

‘The car is. I can't see him. He's probably on the roof with the SAS.'

Jane made an effort to laugh, but the presence of the Volvo was not amusing. They both felt the unease of being under surveillance.

Jane brooded on what she had just been invited to believe. It was shocking and repugnant, yet a thread of credibility ran through it. She searched for a break in the thread. ‘I'm still not convinced that Hitler sent Hess over. Are you sure it wasn't just a quixotic adventure dreamed up by Hess to make his own impact on the war? That's the way everyone tells it.'

‘Everyone?' Dick repeated sceptically. ‘You mean Churchill and his Ministers in their various memoirs.'

‘
And
the German press statements,' added Jane.

‘Can't you see it was in their interests to cover up the truth? Neither the British nor the Germans wanted the Russians to know what was almost hatched between Hitler and Churchill.' He snatched a book from the shelf above him and started leafing through it. ‘But the people close to Hitler knew. Listen to this, written in 1951, by Göring's biographer, Willi Frischauer:
Every single surviving member of Göring's entourage … is convinced that Hitler not only hoped to make peace with the West, but to persuade the British Government to join in Germany's attack on Russia. Hitler's bewilderment in Berchtesgaden was due to the fear that his plot had failed
.'

Jane was silent, weighing what she had heard. She didn't mention it to Dick, but she had at the back of her mind a phrase from Albrecht Haushofer, after one of his meetings with Hess:
From the whole conversation I had the strong impression that it was not conducted without the prior knowledge of the Führer.
This assessment from the judicious, reflective man who had shared in the planning of the flight carried conviction. ‘All right,' Jane declared. ‘I'm prepared to go along with you almost all the way. I'm even prepared to believe that Churchill was in two minds about accepting Hitler's offer.'

‘Good! We're going places.'

‘To Cedric's, you mean?'

‘Not yet.' He smiled sympathetically. ‘I'm sorry, but we haven't buttoned it up. We still don't know what made Churchill turn the offer down.'

Jane gave a shrug. ‘The War Cabinet, I suppose. They weren't all rabid anti-Bolsheviks.'

‘They weren't all consulted,' said Dick tersely.

‘They were eventually.'

‘Only to a limited extent,' insisted Dick. ‘I've seen a note in Churchill's own handwriting in the Public Record Office saying Hess also made other statements which it was not in the public interest to disclose.'

‘Barbarossa?'

Dick didn't answer. A useful idea had just occurred to him. ‘I wonder if the PRO has a copy of Churchill's appointments diary. Then we can find out exactly who was in on the discussions.'

Jane shook her head. ‘I have news for you. There was a diary, but it mysteriously disappeared, and hasn't turned up since.'

‘Are you certain about that?'

‘Positive. Sir John Colville mentions it in his memoirs. He ought to know.'

Dick hammered his fist on the table. ‘You see? It's a cover-up, Jane.' He reached for another sheet of paper. ‘We'll make our own bloody diary. We've got enough books and notes. Let's get it all down, everything we know about Churchill's actions and decisions from the time Hess landed.'

It took another hour and a half of double-checking, but the result was spectacular.

‘Now we're ready for Cedric,' Dick declared.

They each had an armful of books when they went out to the Renault at 7.10 p.m. The Volvo was nowhere in the street. If they felt relieved, it was only temporary. Jane was watching as they drove away, and a green BMW started up and pulled out behind them. It stayed in obvious attendance all the way out of London and along the M4 to Henley. The driver was younger than grey-eyes. He sported a heavy dark moustache and was wearing a tan-coloured windcheater. Presumably MI5 was no different from any other organization when it came to duties at unsocial hours. The junior officers copped the night-shift.

They were at Cedric's inside the hour, drawing up in front of the converted cottages while the BMW was obliged to cruise slowly past, seeking a less obvious parking spot.

‘If Cedric says anything, we've no idea who was in that car,' Jane murmured before they got out.

Cedric hailed them like old friends. Here in his weekend home, he was unrecognizable as the tyrant in the editor's chair. He kissed Jane and took over the books she was carrying. There was coffee waiting inside.

He sat benignly in his armchair, smoking cigars and listening to Dick relating the visits to Salter-Smith in Brighton and Frank Perry in Richmond. When the question of Churchill's secret meetings with the Germans came up, Dick made some remark to the effect that it must sound like something out of a spy story. Cedric shook his head and amazed them both by saying, ‘I believe every word of it.'

Jane's eyes widened. She exchanged a baffled look with Dick.

Cedric shifted in his chair, and it was almost possible to believe he was embarrassed over something. ‘I owe you both an apology, because a call came in last week from Washington, and I didn't see its relevance at the time, so I didn't pass it on. You remember our man found a report in the National Archives about ex-President Herbert Hoover, who was taking an interest in the Hess case?'

Dick nodded. ‘You mentioned it the other day on the Embankment.'

‘Regrettably, I didn't tell you everything. Hoover claimed to be getting his information from reliable inside sources in London. This is the part that will interest you. He heard that Hess was the seventh German emissary of peace sent to England since the outbreak of war, and that the others had all come through Dublin and been picked up from there by a British plane.'

Jane clapped her hands in excitement. ‘Fantastic! Frank Perry had it right.'

Cedric remarked penitently, ‘I deserve a kick up the backside.'

‘To hell with that,' said Dick. ‘Is there anything else you haven't told us?'

‘You know as much as I do now,' Cedric humbly assured them both. ‘Probably more, by the expressions on your faces. Let's have it. What else have you dug up?'

‘Plenty,' Dick crisply answered, ‘but Jane will tell you later. There isn't a lot of time. How long will it take me to get to London Airport from here?'

‘The airport?' Cedric blinked in surprise. ‘It's not more than twenty-five miles. Where do you need to go?'

‘Paris.'

‘Paris? You mean tonight?'

When you had the ascendancy over Cedric, you didn't yield. Dick went on, ‘I need to see Justin Stevens – the guy who put together that story on the Resistance for the colour magazine last year.'

‘Justin Stevens. Dick, what is this …?'

‘I need his address.'

‘I should have it in my desk.'

Jane crossed the room and picked up the phone. ‘I'll make the flight reservation.'

Dick glanced in his mirror and confirmed that he was still being tailed. He was resigned to it. The young MI5 agent in the BMW ought to be grateful. A dash to Heathrow was better than sitting all night in a Buckinghamshire wood. Presumably he would pass the flight number to his superiors, and it would be up to them to decide whether it was worth providing another shadow across the Channel. So far, they couldn't fault Dick. He had consulted his editor, and now he was visiting a staffman in Paris. Unimpeachable conduct.

The turn-off to the airport came up fifteen minutes after he had joined the motorway. He would make that 11.10 p.m. flight with ease. Charles de Gaulle Airport by midnight. What could be more appropriate?

Back in Henley, Cedric had got out the brandy. He handed a goblet to Jane. ‘If you're not proposing to fly off to a European city in the next half-hour, it would be an act of charity to enlighten your bewildered boss as to what the flaming hell is going on.'

Jane gave a relaxed smile. The strategy they had worked out together had succeeded so far. Dick was out of England, and he would make sure he was beyond recall so far as a D Notice was concerned. Cedric could have his explanation.

She eased herself deeper into the armchair and sipped the brandy. ‘Well, the story we heard from Frank Perry has transformed everything and just about accounted for everything as well. It's such a help to have it corroborated.'

Cedric pulled a face. ‘Don't rub it in – I'm still wearing sackcloth and ashes.'

Jane went on evenly, ‘It was quite a bombshell to hear that Churchill was receiving deputations from Germany, but Dick and I both have a hunch that the story is more sensational than that. We believe Churchill was taking the overtures seriously.'

‘That's not a bad hunch,' Cedric commented. ‘In fact, I'd say the evidence of six secret meetings makes it an odds-on bet.'

‘But would you believe he decided to accept the offer – when it was made by Rudolf Hess?'

Cedric's eyes opened very wide and his skin turned noticeably more pink. ‘Jesus! Let me think about this.'

Jane picked out a book from the pile they had brought with them. ‘Listen to something Churchill himself wrote in his history of the Second World War. He's describing his second meeting with Stalin, in 1944. Stalin questioned him closely about Hess.'

‘Stalin was very touchy on the question of Hess,' put in Cedric.

Jane read aloud,
‘I had the feeling that he believed there had been some deep negotiation or plot for Germany and Britain to act together in the invasion of Russia which had miscarried. Remembering what a wise man he is, I was surprised to find him silly on this point
.'

‘A nice Churchillian touch,' commented Cedric. ‘As if such a thought had never crossed Winston's mind. Do you think Stalin had inside information? Anything MI5 knew was probably passed to Moscow by certain traitorous gentlemen who went through Cambridge together.'

‘He got it from Lord Beaverbrook,' said Jane simply.

‘Max?' Cedric sat forward in his chair.

‘Beaverbrook visited Moscow in September 1941, as the head of an Anglo-American arms supply mission. He was the first minister to go there after the German invasion. Shortly before he went, he made a special visit to Mytchett Place to interview Hess. When he got to Moscow and Stalin put the inevitable question, Beaverbrook said quite candidly that Hess had flown to Britain expecting to persuade the Duke of Hamilton and his friends to depose Churchill and form a new government to make peace with Germany. Then the two countries would join forces and attack Russia.'