Chugalug,
Danny and his Laptop are glad to be back, both firing on all four cylinders. Thank you for rescuing this, our matchless Thread from the "Slough of Despond" (aka Page 2 of Military Aviation); and it would seem that we are several lengths ahead of the upstart "F-35 cancelled ...." and take our rightful place again as the Thread with the most Posts and hits of any "normal" Thread on this Forum. As I've said more than once: "Cliff Leach (RIP), aka 'Cliffnemo', the 'Onlie Begetter', builded better than he knew" when he started it nine years ago.
As for the Hess affair, it has been a mystery from the outset, and all those who knew the real answers will be dead now. The Wiki article reflects the general opinion at the time. In May, 1941 the B.o.B. had been lost by Hitler, an invasion of Britain was "out of the window"; the "blitz" had not broken our resolve; so he had decided to leave us "on the back burner", while he turned his attention to Russia and started "Barbarossa" in the June.
It would make sense to negotiate a peace with us in the meantime, leaving him free to crush Russia as he'd done with France, by a "blitzkrieg" before General Winter came to aid the Russians. Then he could take up the "unfinshed business" with Britain: any "Peace Agreement" made with us would not be worth the paper it was written on. As it was, it all went pear-shaped, and the rest we know.
All this is "rationalising after the event". The young Danny was sweating his way through ITW in a glorious Cornish summer ... and paying little heed to the momentous events passing over his head.