TOP NAZI IN HEREFORDSHIRE

Some may consider Reichmarshall Hermann Goering's unauthorised intervention in Herefordshire's VBCW to have been somewhat, ...ahem...., far-fetched. But history is sometimes stranger than fiction, and while the Reichmarshall presently resides in the comfort of the Castle House Hotel, Hereford, at least one of his colleagues also acquired some real life familiarity with the Marches. This from pps. 117 - 118 of "Herefordshire & Worcestershire Airfields in the Second World War" by Robin J. Brooks [pub. Countryside Books, Newbury (2006)]:

“[in the late evening of Saturday, 10th May 1941] having baled out of his Messerchmitt Bf. Me110D and been captured by a local farmer some way from his intended destination, Dungavel House, the home of the 14th Duke of Hamilton (premier peer of Scotland), Rudolf Hess was transferred to Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow and then onward to the Tower of London. [He] later spent some months under psychiatric care at Mytchett Place near Aldershot in Hampshire, and finally, in June 1942, he was sent to Maindiff Court Hospital, Abergavenny, where he spent the next three years…..”

and:

“….On 6th October 1945, orders were received that Hess was to be tried at Nuremberg. Four days later, accompanied by Major D. Ellis-Jones of the Royal Army Medical Corps, he arrived at Madley airfield (in Herefordshire) prior to being flown to Brussels and then on to Nuremberg. A tight security cordon was thrown around the airfield as Hess was temporarily taken to an office in the control tower while arrangements were made for his flight. The senior air traffic controller at Madley, Flt.Lt. Tony Badman, was in charge of making these arrangements and allocated a Dominie for the first leg of the journey. With all the legal requirements satisfied, the aircraft left Madley at around 11.00 hrs to arrive in Brussels before lunch. Hess complained that it had been a rough flight and that he felt a little ‘queasy’. Upon landing at Nuremberg, Hess was handed over to the relevant authorities.”

Maindiff Court Hospital, Abergavenny

Madley Airfield. An essential plan for the Herefordshire VBCW.

Notes: Maindiff Court remains in use as a psychiatric hospital to this day. Madley Airfield is no longer in existence, albeit part of the site is still used as Madley Communications Centre, a BT earth satellite tracking station. More on Madley Airfield can be found HERE, courtesy of the ever excellent Ewyas Lacy Study Group (who also had the airfield plan above).