May 13: ON THIS DAY in 1941, ‘I have come to save humanity,’ says Hess

May 13, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Curtiss Field, L.I. – You can take your choice. Capt. Charles A. Lindbergh, the young Lochinvar of the prospective transatlantic air race, is favored as the best bet to win by one school of aerial thought at this center of flying, on the score of his youth, nerve and spectacular and brilliant record, to say nothing of his personality. And another school, largely for the same reasons, leans to the idea that ‘it would be a crime to let the kid start it’ – ‘it’ being the nonstop flight to Paris that has evidently brought a tragic end to the careers of the thoroughly schooled Nungesser and Coli – especially as he intends to make the hop alone in a ‘blind’ plane.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “London, May 13 (UP) – Rudolf Hess dropped by parachute on a Scottish farm with the words ‘I have come to save humanity.’ British quarters reported today in advancing the sensational theory that the No. 3 Nazi split with Adolf Hitler because he believed the Fuehrer is leading Germany toward full partnership with Communist Russia. British quarters reported that Hess’ intense hatred of the Communist regime and his belief that Hitler had embarked the Third Reich along a path of increasing collaboration with Russia well might prove to have motivated the Nazi leader’s strange flight to Britain. Hess, it was reported in Glasgow, narrowly escaped being shot down by British Spitfire fighters and the tail of his plane was found to be punctured by many bullet holes when it crashed on the estate of the Duke of Hamilton, a few miles from Glasgow.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Jerusalem, May 13 (U.P.) – The British dropped their bars against unlimited Jewish immigration to Palestine today and the first of an expected flood of many thousands of Jewish immigrants entered the Holy Land. A small Panamanian steamship brought about 360 Jews, mostly women and children, into Haifa. They were only the advance guard of great numbers who will follow, among them thousands of young men who will swell the ranks of the Jewish army. The new Jewish state, already an actuality, will be proclaimed to the world by its provisional government at one minute after midnight tomorrow – one minute after the 30-year British rule of Palestine formally ends.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “Washington (UPI) – President Kennedy cut short a weekend at Camp David, Md., and rushed back to Washington yesterday because of the explosive situation created by bombings and race riots in Birmingham, Ala. The president, who had planned to stay at his mountain retreat until this morning, returned last night, while Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy was meeting with his top aides to decide what, if anything, the federal government could or should do. They wanted to do nothing that would further inflame the situation or upset the three-day-old bi-racial agreement that ended the Negroes’ demonstrations in behalf of integrated department lunch counters and other rights.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle also reported, “Washington (UP) – A force of 22 ships and more than 100 aircraft were deployed around the world to recover astronaut L. Gordon Cooper and his spacecraft wherever they should land. The prime recovery area, where Cooper was scheduled to drop down from the skies after a full 22 orbits, was 80 miles southeast of Midway Island in the Pacific. But there were other recovery zones along all the tracks Faith 7 and its pilot would travel. The Pacific recovery fleet consisted of 10 ships – nine destroyers and one carrier – commanded by Rear Adm. C.A. Buchanan. In the Atlantic were 12 ships, including 10 destroyers, one carrier and an oiler. This task force was commanded by Rear Adm. Adam Bowen. Aside from these naval forces there were more than 100 aircraft around the world that could be called into action in the event Cooper had to make an emergency landing.”