Rudolf Hess was one of the first Nazis, having met Hitler during his student days. Like Hitler he had fought, and been wounded in the First World War and like Goering, he had been a fighter pilot.

He was Hitler’s longest, closest friend, his personal private secretary - and fellow cellmate during the days of struggle.We reveal that it was Hess, not Hitler, who brought the idea of lebensraum to Mein Kampf.

On the night of May 10th 1941 Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachuted into a Scottish field. He had come with a plan for peace and believed members of a British peace party eager to end the war would welcome him.

Instead he was placed under house arrest. Both Hitler and Churchill denounced him as a madman who had acted alone.He would spend the next 46 years as a solitary prisoner and, with the exception of a few weeks at the Nuremberg trials, was never seen in public again.