Published: Wednesday, 1st July, 2009 9:24am

My dad got bits of Nazi Hess" plane

by Julie Gilbert

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Family secret is revealed after nearly 70 years

WRECKAGE from the German plane which brought Nazi Rudolph Hess to Scotland has been gathering dust in a Bankie"s closet for 68 years - the Post can reveal.

When the plane carrying Hitler"s right-hand-man crashed at Renfrewshire in 1941, a young wannabe pilot, Donald McMaster, now 88, travelled to the scene from Clydebank and picked up a few pieces of the wreckage.

For young Donald, aspiring to a career in the Royal Air Force, the site of Hess" plane wreck was quite a draw.

But the pieces he salvaged have been left in a drawer in Faifley for nearly seven decades.

Now his son Ken, 55, thinks it is time the people of Clydebank knew about these hidden pieces of national history.

Ken told the Post: 'My dad just decided to go up with one of his mates to have a look.

'There were people all over the place picking up bits of souvenirs and he took a piece of the wing and a piece of the engine.

'I remember dad was always very keen to explain about his time in the RAF.

'He said to me when I was about eleven that he actually had a little piece of Rudolf Hess" plane.

'Even at that time I knew who Rudolf Hess was and I was very surprised.'

However, Ken says his dad did not want to talk about the find too often.

He said: 'He had a lot of photographs and wartime memorabilia, but I think looking back on that stuff can bring back too many memories that you"d rather not think about.

'But [the plane wreckage] is not something everybody"s got and I thought perhaps the museum or library might want to display it in a little case.

'They have a copy of Mein Kampf that has got shrapnel in it from when Clydebank was bombed and it might be appropriate to put it beside that.'

Hess" reason for flying to Scotland has long been the subject of conspiracy theories, with some believing him trying to broker a peace deal.

Hess was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany, acting as Adolf Hitler"s deputy in the Nazi Party.

He took off from Augsburg in a Messerschmitt Bf 110 on May 10, 1941 at about 6pm, on the eve of Germany"s war with the Soviet Union, and made it to Scotland.

It is not clear exactly what happened that night but it is believed Hess parachuted out of his plane which then crashed.

Hess reportedly broke his ankle on landing at Floors Farm near Eaglesham and in a newsreel clip, farmhand David McLean claims to have arrested Hess with his pitchfork.

Hitler"s deputy became Britain"s most high profile prisoner of war.

Hess was detained by the British for the remainder of the war.

He then became a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials of the International Military Tribunal, where he was convicted of 'crimes against peace' and 'conspiracy' with other German leaders to commit crimes and given a life sentence.

He died in prison in 1987.

Ken is very proud to have had the plane pieces passed to him and intends to pass them down to his own children.