Shortly before eleven P.M., the Luftwaffe began a massive moonlit assault on London. Although the official targets included docks and Battersea Power Station, the scale and pattern of bombing spread destruction across civilian districts and struck some of Britain’s most symbolic sites. Over six hours, 505 bombers dropped thousands of incendiaries and hundreds of tons of explosives, damaging Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the Law Courts, and Big Ben’s tower, while fire swept part of Westminster Hall. The British Museum also burned, destroying many books and rooms, though key exhibits had already been removed for safety.

The raid also produced grotesque scenes across the city, showing how total the attack had become. A bomb hit the Peek Frean factory, parachute mines blasted open a cemetery, and a bomb killed many members of the Group for Sacrifice and Service as they held a full-moon service in Regent’s Park. Their leader, Bertha Orton, died there, an image that underscored the raid’s indiscriminate violence.

Meanwhile, Rudolf Hess was nearing the end of his secret solo flight to Scotland. Unable to find the landing ground near Dungavel House and running out of fuel, Hess climbed, shut off his engines, and bailed out of his Me 110. He landed near Floors Farm, was taken first to a cottage and then to the police station at Giffnock, where he gave the false name Hauptmann Alfred Horn and insisted he carried an important message for the Duke of Hamilton.

As London burned through the night, Harriman’s secretary Robert Meiklejohn experienced the raid from a shelter after incendiaries and high explosives fell near his building and ignited a gas main. In Scotland, Major Donald inspected Hess’s wrecked aircraft, realized the prisoner was likely Rudolf Hess, and warned authorities to treat him as an exceptionally important captive. The next morning, after initial disbelief among officials, the Duke of Hamilton met the prisoner at a military hospital, and Hess openly identified himself, confirming that one of Hitler’s top lieutenants had arrived in Britain in the middle of one of the war’s cruelest air raids.