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Ten Days to Destiny: The Secret Story of the Hess Peace Initiative & British Efforts to Strike a Deal with Hitler
A renowned historian reveals that Rudolf Hess went to England in 1941 at Hitler's direction and with the connivance of the British secret services, bearing a serious a shocking peace offer. A dramatic and scrupulously researched story that finally unlocks the secrets of Hess' mysterious visit. Photos.
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First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 18, 2021
This book bills itself as being about the secret truth behind the Hess Flight of May 1941, but that's really only a small part of it. What this book is really about is the continued manouevring to negotiate a compromise peace with Nazi Germany in the summer of 1940 by a determined minority of defeatists within the British government. The "ten days" of the title are a series of dates between 10 May 1940 (the day both that the Germans launched their lightning invasion of the Low Countries and that Churchill was chosen to succeed Neville Chamberlain as prime minister) and 4 September (when Hitler and Goering chose to shift the focus of the German bombing campaign over England from RAF airfields and radar stations to central London) on which choices were made that cemented Churchill's grip on power, increasing his ability to insist on British defiance in the face of German aggression and heading off any chance of negotiations with Hitler.
It's fascinating. Seven of the ten days come in May 1940, as the stunning German blitzkrieg advance along the Franco-Belgian border traps the entire British and French armies in Belgium and leaves all of France open to the German army. As such, the bulk of the book is devoted to a day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of the inner workings of the divided British and French cabinets as they scramble to come to terms with the disaster unfolding in front of them and to react to events. We think of the Fall of France as an instantaneous thing, because six weeks is a very short time in which to conquer an entire country, but the German attack on the Low Countries began on 10 May, the Dunkirk evacuation concluded on 4 June (at which time, contrary to our collective memory, the Germans had barely even entered France), Paris fell on the 14 June and the Franco-German armistice wasn't signed until the 22 June. Forty-four days is a long time when you're actually living through them, and it's rare to see this period treated in such detail rather than as a foregone conclusion.
There's also a whole lot of espionage here. There's Soviet penetration of the American embassy in Moscow, a cipher clerk at the American embassy in London giving away the whole of the US State Department's secret encryption protocols to the Germans (probably more because he was a fool than a Nazi), rank defeatism from the American ambassador to Britain (JFK's father), Nazi plots to make contact with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when they passed through Spain as they fled France, and the Pope trying to broker a deal between the British government and anti-Nazis in the German army high command. And, of course, then there's the Hess Flight, which Costello contends wasn't a literal flight of fancy by a madman but rather undertaken with Hitler's full backing, as a result of peace feelers that he and Hess thought had come from disaffected elements of the British aristocracy but had really been planted by MI-6. It's all backed up with documents that aren't just cited but are in many cases reproduced at the back of the book.
The idea that elements of the British leadership were soft on Hitler in 1940 and 1941 might have been sensationalist when the book was published thirty years ago, when you didn't have to be over ninety years old to consider the Second World War to still be within living memory. The idea of British unity and resolve in that moment of calamity was certainly important at the time and for many decades after. Nowadays I think we'd take it as unsurprising that some British ministers would have been happy to open talks with the Nazis, so the book doesn't really have much of a shock factor anymore. (Those who did had political careers for decades after the war, so it's unsurprising that such great lengths were gone to in order to hush up the sort of talks that Costello discusses; for instance, while the leader of the peace movement was obviously Lord Halifax, one of the book's central points is that his most eager and active lieutenant was his under-secretary at the Foreign Office, none other than a very young Rab Butler.) So in that sense, the book lacks the shock factor it promises. But it's still a great, well-researched read.
It's fascinating. Seven of the ten days come in May 1940, as the stunning German blitzkrieg advance along the Franco-Belgian border traps the entire British and French armies in Belgium and leaves all of France open to the German army. As such, the bulk of the book is devoted to a day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of the inner workings of the divided British and French cabinets as they scramble to come to terms with the disaster unfolding in front of them and to react to events. We think of the Fall of France as an instantaneous thing, because six weeks is a very short time in which to conquer an entire country, but the German attack on the Low Countries began on 10 May, the Dunkirk evacuation concluded on 4 June (at which time, contrary to our collective memory, the Germans had barely even entered France), Paris fell on the 14 June and the Franco-German armistice wasn't signed until the 22 June. Forty-four days is a long time when you're actually living through them, and it's rare to see this period treated in such detail rather than as a foregone conclusion.
There's also a whole lot of espionage here. There's Soviet penetration of the American embassy in Moscow, a cipher clerk at the American embassy in London giving away the whole of the US State Department's secret encryption protocols to the Germans (probably more because he was a fool than a Nazi), rank defeatism from the American ambassador to Britain (JFK's father), Nazi plots to make contact with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when they passed through Spain as they fled France, and the Pope trying to broker a deal between the British government and anti-Nazis in the German army high command. And, of course, then there's the Hess Flight, which Costello contends wasn't a literal flight of fancy by a madman but rather undertaken with Hitler's full backing, as a result of peace feelers that he and Hess thought had come from disaffected elements of the British aristocracy but had really been planted by MI-6. It's all backed up with documents that aren't just cited but are in many cases reproduced at the back of the book.
The idea that elements of the British leadership were soft on Hitler in 1940 and 1941 might have been sensationalist when the book was published thirty years ago, when you didn't have to be over ninety years old to consider the Second World War to still be within living memory. The idea of British unity and resolve in that moment of calamity was certainly important at the time and for many decades after. Nowadays I think we'd take it as unsurprising that some British ministers would have been happy to open talks with the Nazis, so the book doesn't really have much of a shock factor anymore. (Those who did had political careers for decades after the war, so it's unsurprising that such great lengths were gone to in order to hush up the sort of talks that Costello discusses; for instance, while the leader of the peace movement was obviously Lord Halifax, one of the book's central points is that his most eager and active lieutenant was his under-secretary at the Foreign Office, none other than a very young Rab Butler.) So in that sense, the book lacks the shock factor it promises. But it's still a great, well-researched read.
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May 10, 2025I’ve always been interested in the Rudolf Hess mystery. Why did Hess fly to England? Why are the Hess files sealed for so long? What was the real story? This was a book about the mystery or so I thought. Actually it’s about the various peace initiatives that were made even while Churchill, the new prime minister, had vowed to fight on and which eventually culminate in Hess arriving in the UK in the latter part of the book.
After the declaration of war in 1939 the government had to bring in Churchill who had long warned about the Nazi menace. Later, when the government realised that a national government was needed, comprising all the main parties, the opposition, the labour party led by Clement Attlee, refused to serve under Neville Chamberlain who they believed had actually caused the crisis by his policy of appeasement. Chamberlain wanted Lord Halifax to take over as prime minister and even put the question to Churchill, asking him would the country be willing to accept a leader in the Lords rather than the Commons. Churchill declined to answer and of course it was later that Chamberlain recommended Churchill to the King.
The author seems to think that part of the deal with Churchill was that Chamberlain should stay in the government and also still retain the leadership of the Conservative party. He even seems to think that Chamberlain had plans to return to number 10 Downing street at a later date. However, Chamberlain died of cancer not long afterwards.
Various others though, in particular Lord Halifax, seemed to be putting out peace feelers to representatives of Hitler who wanted to turn his attention to the Soviet Union rather than fight with the UK. Various people seemed to be trying to negotiate including Mussolini and the Pope. The flight of Hess seems to have come about because of letters intercepted by MI5 from Hess to the Duke of Devonshire. MI5 sent fake replies to Hess which encouraged him to come to the UK for unofficial talks.
Overall this was an interesting book but not not an easy one to read.
After the declaration of war in 1939 the government had to bring in Churchill who had long warned about the Nazi menace. Later, when the government realised that a national government was needed, comprising all the main parties, the opposition, the labour party led by Clement Attlee, refused to serve under Neville Chamberlain who they believed had actually caused the crisis by his policy of appeasement. Chamberlain wanted Lord Halifax to take over as prime minister and even put the question to Churchill, asking him would the country be willing to accept a leader in the Lords rather than the Commons. Churchill declined to answer and of course it was later that Chamberlain recommended Churchill to the King.
The author seems to think that part of the deal with Churchill was that Chamberlain should stay in the government and also still retain the leadership of the Conservative party. He even seems to think that Chamberlain had plans to return to number 10 Downing street at a later date. However, Chamberlain died of cancer not long afterwards.
Various others though, in particular Lord Halifax, seemed to be putting out peace feelers to representatives of Hitler who wanted to turn his attention to the Soviet Union rather than fight with the UK. Various people seemed to be trying to negotiate including Mussolini and the Pope. The flight of Hess seems to have come about because of letters intercepted by MI5 from Hess to the Duke of Devonshire. MI5 sent fake replies to Hess which encouraged him to come to the UK for unofficial talks.
Overall this was an interesting book but not not an easy one to read.
July 29, 2013
I was quite impressed by the research that went into this book and the apparently cautiously considerate approach to the data evinced by its author. The thesis substantiated by the text and ample notes and appendices is that the Hess flight to Scotland was based on the German desire to forge an alliance with the UK against the USSR on the eve of Barbarossa. MI6 encouraged the German belief that Hess' mission might, with the help of conservative MPs, cause the overthrow of the Churchill government, a belief which, in fact, was not so crazy as it might appear at first glance as there was a significant appeasement element in the British government, particularly during the first months of the war. This appeasement element and their approaches to Germany during 1939/40 is discussed in much detail and constitutes the bulk of the text, the Hess mission itself being a kind of coda.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews