Yeah, and his crimes against humanity were not on the level of many.
Well, if it wasn’t really Hess…
I don’t think Churchill et al. were ever in doubt as to Hess’s sanity, or lack thereof. As far as they were concerned, he was a nonentity. They never fully exploited the propaganda advantage his capture offered them, and there’s no evidence they took any account of whatever “intelligence” he supplied.
What sources are you using? I recommend Ian Kershaw’s two-volume biography of Hitler in particular.
It was.
I’m pulling it out of my ass since the scenario we are discussing never happened. FWIW, I’ve read several of Kershaw’s books albeit decades ago.
Obviously, we are talking about two entirely different things. It doesn’t matter what Churchill, Hitler, Hess, Goebbels or anybody else “in the know” thought. I’m talking about what they wanted everybody else, especially a defeated British public, to think.
I have a better idea for a work of fiction: Conservatives and the National Party conspire to have Wallis Simpson whacked before Edward VIII abdicates, ensuring that Britain will side with Nazi Germany. The final chapter closes with the SS “Kaledonia” Division marching into Moscow with a bagpipe band leading the way.
I wonder if that’s better or worse than the alt-history story where Japan joins the Allies and the Soviet Union launches an attack on Pearl Harbor to hit both the American and Japanese naval forces present there.
I’d like to see one where the Soviet Union and Japan go to war against each other in 1940 or '41. Both countries are drained to the point of collapse, leaving the Pacific an American lake and Europe free of Communism.
As a long-time althist fan would like to read that - do you recall the title?
Yeah I’ll see if I can find it. It was REALLY dumb but in an enjoyable way. It was basically a “What if the Soviets joined the Axis?” stories and as a result Japan winds up going Allies out of self-defense.
Also in this timeline with German help the Soviets are able to complete (somehow) all their naval ambitions that were never close to completion in real life, so by 1942 somehow the Soviets have dozens of battleships and aircraft carriers in the Pacific already.
Okay, but there were doubts.