Two sections of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 flown by Rudolf Hess to Scotland in 1941, comprising part of the rubber fuel tank and part of the framework strut, with the former displaying painted instructions in German. Mounted in a frame: together with an exhibition format press photograph of the fusilage on a truck on its way to London, titled, "the remains of the plane flown by Rudolf Hess ... on a giant lorry going through the streets of Oxford."
Provenance: Mrs. Edith Mackenzie, Glasgow; The Mountfitchet Castle Museum, Essex.

In one of the more curious episodes of World War II, the 11 May 1941 saw the unsanctioned flight of Rudolf Hess from Germany to Britain, where he intended to open peace negotiations with the British government. As he passed over Scotland his plane began to run out of fuel, and parachuting from his plane landed at Floors Farm, Eaglesham, South of Glasgow. He was promptly arrested, take to London, and held in the Tower of London for the remainder of the war. An enraged Hitler publicly denounced Hess as a madman and stripped him of all party and state offices, ordering his summary execution should he ever return to Germany. For the crashed plane, the local farmers spirited away bits that had scattered around the fields and the main fusilage was trucked down to London and exhibited as a trophy in Trafalgar Square. Today the largest parts are in the Imperial War Museum, London, and other pieces are in the RAF Museum. These plane sections were obtained in the 1970s, from a Mrs. Edith Mackenzie, who lived near Glasgow, and who had acquired them from a farm hand from near Floors Farm where the Hess aircraft crashed.
Frame: 20.5 x 20.5in (52 x 52 cm)