Revealed: How British spy lured Hitler's deputy to Britain where he was imprisoned for life



It has been one of of the enduring mysteries of World War Two - why did Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess come to Britain?

Now a new book claims to have solved the riddle - and revealed how a heroic spy played a huge part in his capture.



Cunning MI6 agent Tancred Borenius tricked Hess into visiting Britain on the pretence of brokering a peace deal.

Hunter and the hunted: MI6 spy Tancred Borenius (left) played a pivotal role in luring Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess to Britain after claiming the Royal family wanted to form an Anglo-Nazi alliance



However Hess was captured and spend the rest of his life behind bars - 'considerably' weakening the German Army and 'directly contributing to the Allied victory' according to the book's author, John Harris.

The revelations come in Mr Harris' new book, titled Rudolf Hess: The British Illusion of Peace, which is published this week.

Mr Harris has spent nearly two decades researching the book and during that time interview the surviving families of dozens of British agents.

Earlier this year he established that Mr Borenius, a Finish born agent, was involved, something that has never been revealed until now.

The revelation came after Mr Harris secured a rare interview with Mr Borenius' late son Peter.

During the interview, Peter said that his father remained tight-lipped about his wartime exploits, but revealed his involvement in the Hess affair on his deathbed.



He said his father was sent by MI6 to Geneva, Switzerland, to deliver a secret message to Hess via a third party.



The message was a verbal invite to visit the English Royal Family on the pretext of forging an Anglo-Nazi alliance.



It was always Hitler's ideal plan to work with Britain, rather than fight it, in a bid to overthrow and conquer Russia.

Revelations: Author John Harris's new book on the capture of Rudolf Hess says that without him we would all now be speaking German

'Tancred was key in giving Hitler hope that Britain was interested in joining an alliance,' said Mr Harris

But in a twist, Harris believes Hess was double-bluffing and claims he had no intention of forming an alliance, and had always planned to use the visit to bring about the collapse of the government.

'From my research, I have concluded that Hess wanted nothing other than to bring Britain to its knees,' Harris said.

'His intention was to depose Churchill, who would never agree to peace with Germany, and replace him with a pro-Nazi leader.'



Mr Harris said the link was one of the most important discoveries in modern military history.

He continued: 'This is the answer people have been looking for since the 1940s. My research confirms, categorically, that Tancred Borenius played a pivotal role in winning the war.



'He convinced Hitler's second-in-command to visit the UK and, when he was here, had him captured and imprisoned.

'The incredible plot that led to Hess's capture bought the UK time from a planned German invasion and ultimately was a pivotal turning point in defeating Hitler and winning the war.



'Without Tancred's involvement, there can be little doubt that Great Britain, and much of Europe, would be speaking German today.

Rudolph Hess was a prominent Nazi official acting as Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party.



He became one of the war's most mysterious figures from the moment he flew solo into Scotland on the night of May 1941.



He was captured by Allied Forces on the ground near Glasgow after his plane ran out of fuel, forcing him to parachute to safety.



Hess himself never fully revealed the reason he visited Scotland, though it was widely reported that he had planned to broker a secret peace deal.



On Hess' arrest, Hitler claimed he had gone AWOL, while Prime Minister Winston Churchill maintained he was 'something of an envoy'.



MI6 records on the Hess affair have never been released and other 'key documents' are said to have gone missing.'

Hess was kept imprisoned in the Tower of London until after the war when he was moved to Spandau Prison, in Berlin, where he was kept in isolation until his death in 1987.

The official line is that he committed suicide, hanging himself with an electrical cord. He was an invalid 93-year-old man at the time.