I saw Hess’s aircraf t f ly past my window
75 years on, OAP recalls Nazi chief’s infamous flight
IT is 75 year since Dorothy Aitken was woken up by the roar of a German Messerschmitt aircraft flying past her window – but it was a night that, to this day, she can remember in vivid detail.
The then 12-year-old leapt out of bed to tell her father what she had seen – and was told by him not to be so daft.
But the reality behind her claim was more bizarre than either could have imagined, for the plane she had seen was actually being flown by Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess.
What Dorothy had witnessed was the Nazi chief’s plane shortly before he parachuted out because it was running low on fuel.
The aircraft crashed on farmland near Eaglesham, Renfrewshire – the village in which Mrs Aitken still lives.
She would have been one of the last people to see the Me-110 before it crashed on May 10, 1941.
Although the true reason behind Hess’s flight remains unknown, some experts believe that the Nazi leader may have been on his way to broker a peace deal.
Mrs Aitken, now 87, said: ‘It was just before 11pm and I was in bed asleep. I was awoken by a roaring engine outside my window. I peeped out and was shocked to see a German plane just feet away. It was flying quite low and I could see the pilot in his white helmet in the cock pit. I knew it was a Messerschmitt due to the white cross on the side.
‘I scampered down the stairs to tell my dad. He didn’t believe me, saying it must have been a British plane on a training flight as a plane from Germany wouldn’t have been able to travel that distance. I went back to bed but knew I had not been mistaken.’
Mrs Aitken said the Clydebank Blitz had happened only a few months earlier and a poster showing how to identify German planes had been put up in her classroom.
The grandmother of ten said: ‘In the morning there was great excitement in the village as news spread of the German pilot who had bailed out and been taken prisoner. Lots of people headed to the farm to see the crash site. There were so many officials up there that you couldn’t get near. We had an RAF man billeted with us and he was able to get closer. He brought back news of what had happened and a small part of plane debris, which he gave to my father as a souvenir.’
Mrs Aitken, a retired teacher, added: ‘It was the next day before the authorities found out it was Hess. I remember everyone being shocked. It may be the 75th anniversary of his arrival in Scotland but to me it could have been last week or last month. When I close my eyes, I can still see the black and white cross and his helmet.’
Hess, who broke his ankle on landing, was later locked up at Spandau Prison, Berlin, after being tried for war crimes. He hanged himself there in 1987, aged 93.