THE CRAZY PLOT TO LOCK HIM AWAY IN KIDNAP HITLER AND TOWER OF LONDON!
Eighty years ago, a bizarre plot was being discussed by senior British commanders to have Hitler kidnapped and flown to Britain by his personal pilot, explains ANDY SAUNDERS
IN THE Tower of London, hidden away in the Byward Tower, a rather out-ofplace 20th-century porcelain toilet bowl can be found installed in one of the fortress’s cells. It is “Hitler’s toilet”, the Yeoman Warders delight in telling incredulous visitors. It is there, so the story goes, because Winston Churchill wanted Hitler brought back to Britain to be symbolically imprisoned in The Tower should he be captured at the end of the war.
Evidently, Churchill had ordered all necessary preparations be made for Adolf Hitler to join the list of the Tower’s infamous prisoners. Things turned out rather differently, of course.
Although we do not know the date of the installation of the wartime plumbing arrangements, other bizarre “preparations” had been made as early as 1941 to bring Hitler to Britain. Except those plans involved kidnap.
In a plot more suited to a Jack Higgins novel, the details are set out in documents at The National Archives at Kew.
The unlikely story, with its origins in December 1940, is detailed in “Most Secret” letters and memos between senior RAF commanders in early 1941.
Today they sit in an unremarkable manilla file, designation AIR 16/619, the incongru
‘Ford V8 on 24-hour standby for Hitler’
ous inscription reading: German Deserters; Enemy Aircraft Landing in UK.
Writing on February 21, 1941, Air Vice Marshal Arthur Harris (then Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, later commander of RAF Bomber Command) set out the background to Air Marshal Sholto Douglas, commander of RAF Fighter Command, explaining that a Bulgarian called Kiroff had approached the British Air Attaché in Sofia claiming to be the father-in-law of Hans Baur, Hitler’s personal pilot.
Kiroff’s story was that Baur, a pre-war Lufthansa pilot disaffected by the war and the Nazis, was prepared to defect to Britain when flying a Focke-wulf Condor with the Führer onboard. According to Harris, Kiroff’s story checked out “with one or two exceptions”.
Since he had not asked for money, a decision was taken to act on the information as though it were credible and the defection attempt viable. As Harris said: “This flight might have so much importance for us all.”
Consequently, instructions were passed to Kiroff to tell Baur how his momentous arrival should be conducted: “Aircraft must approach coastline and make steep descent to Lympne aerodrome with wheels down.
“The exact position is seven miles due west of Folkestone.
“The pilot should fire not fewer than four red flares at 30-second intervals when approached by British fighters.
“As soon as the aircraft lands, engines should be stopped and put out of action.”
Clearly, it was vitally important to ensure non-interference from RAF fighters, with urgent instructions issued as to how the Condor’s appearance should be dealt with: “An aircraft of this type seen approaching Lympne during daytime is at once to be closed on by our fighters.
“If accompanied by enemy fighters these are to be destroyed or driven off.
“The aircraft itself is not to be attacked unless it fails within five minutes to fire four red flares, or, it proceeds inland beyond circuit radius of Lympne, or, it attempts to get away towards the French coast – in which case it is to be shot down.
“During its approach and landing the aircraft is to be held covered by the AA defences. Directly it lands, it and all crew are immediately to be seized. Opposition may be encountered. Our fighters are to
remain airborne and patrol the aerodrome until the aircraft has been seized.”
At Lympne, preparations were also put in hand, with ground defences bolstered.
BACK in Sofia, further contact was made with Kiroff who claimed to have met Hans Baur in Vienna, with Baur understanding his instructions and passing on information about his proposed flight. Three aircraft, he claimed, always accompanied him, keeping their distance unless signalled.
For that reason, he preferred not to fire flares but would drop yellow metal plaques bearing the initials “AB” over Lympne, asking that one red light be shown on the aerodrome, and adding that the timing would be on or after March 25, 1941, between 5am and 6am, or between 6pm and 8pm.
The extent of British Intelligence involvement is unclear from the National
Archives file, and while the pages are consecutively num
bered, several gaps suggest some have been “weeded” before the file was downgraded to open status in 1972. It was eventually released some years later.
However, one officer involved was Air Commodore Boyle, head of RAF Intelligence, who described the plot as “…a fantastic story”.
It was a conspiracy that also led Harris to remark: “This is an event we hope for, but do not expect.”
One can only speculate on the real story, but it is worthy of note that Boyle was involved in the Double Cross Intelligence Committee, which specialised in disseminating disinformation to the Germans.
With an economy of facts, though, Sholto Douglas instructed on March 19, 1941, how Hitler would be transferred to London while avoiding mention of the identity of the occupants of the aeroplane, a vagueness expressed in a euphemistic description of the passengers as “persons of importance”.
The instructions for dealing with Hitler were then set out: “All persons taken from the enemy aeroplane are to be promptly put under guard and removed from the precincts of the aerodrome to safe custody.
“Any persons of importance, to a maximum of two, are to be removed immediately under the charge of the senior officer with an armed guard by car direct to Air Ministry, Whitehall, where report is to be made to DCAS, Director of Intelligence or to Director Ground Defences.
“A car for this purpose is to be kept ready and a spare car and motorcycle to proceed in company with it. The Air Ministry is to be notified of the action taken.”
For transporting Hitler to London, a Ford V8 Touring Box Car and two motorcycle outriders were held at Lympne on 24-hour standby.
It is impossible not to chuckle at the absurdity of an irate Hitler being bundled into a Ford V8 and driven through the lanes of Kent on a mad dash to London.
Throughout early spring, watch was maintained for an arrival that never came. By mid-may it was agreed that watch would be kept only until the end of that month.
Then on May 19 a note in the file stated: “In view of recent events…the special arrangements are to be kept in being for another fortnight, from May 17.”
But what “recent events”?
ALMOST certainly, this was the dramatic arrival of Hitler’s Deputy Rudolf Hess in Scotland on May 10. Although why this incident affected decisions taken regarding Hitler’s “kidnap” is unclear.
While the arrival of Hitler in Britain was laughable l to senior commanders, they were surely s incredulous when Rudolf Hess flew himself to Scotland and parachuted into captivity.
On May 28, 1941, all arrangements at Lympne were stood down. To all intents and purposes, the bizarre Hitler abduction plot was dead and buried, with no more resources allocated to it.
As to Hans Baur, he remained Hitler’s personal pilot throughout the war, being with him at the very end in the Berlin bunker. Trying to flee the city, Baur was captured by the Russians and endured 10 years of captivity.
Released in 1955, Baur wrote his autobiography, Hitler At My Side. Not surpris
‘Tower cheated out of most infamous felon’
ingly, no mention is made of a planned defection to Britain, although he remains vague about day-to-day events during 1940 and early 1941.
This alone, though, is hardly evidence of anything “sinister”. However, I contacted Baur at his home near Frankfurt in 1991, when he was happy to be interviewed.
Willingly he sent me a signed copy of his book. When interviewed and confronted with the kidnap plot, however, he flew into a rage. “These are lies! All lies!” he fumed, his elderly wife earnestly protesting him to be a “good and true German”.
Her inference, here, was given deeper meaning by the bronze bust of Hitler prominently displayed in the couple’s lounge.
Frau Baur irately went on to insist: “His three wives were Bavarian. None were Bulgarian!”, sneeringly contemptuous of the notion that he would ever have “lowered” himself to wed a Bulgarian.
If there was anything to the story at all, however, the truth died with Hans Baur when he passed away in 1993, aged 95, at his Herrsching home – the name of Adolf Hitler allegedly whispered on his dying lips.
One way or another, though, the Tower of London was cheated of holding a felon who would surely have been the most infamous of all its prisoners.