WRECKAGE from a German fighter plane flown to Scotland by Hitler's right hand man in an attempt to agree a peace deal in 1941 was secretly squirrelled away by a farmer at the scene and is now up for sale for £3,000.

The section of fuselage was retrieved from Bonnytons Farm in Eaglesham, Renfrewshire where the Messerschmitt plane, piloted by Nazi party deputy Rudolf Hess, had crashed.

The Deputy Führer had flown alone from Germany on May 10 1941 in the hope of bringing Britain to the negotiating table for coming peace talks.

When he got dangerously low on fuel he bailed out, parachuting in a field on Floors Farm in Eaglesham, while his plane crashed in the neighbouring field.

Dave McLean, the foreman at Floors Farm who apprehended Hess and handed him over to the police, managed to recover several parts of the aircraft and hid them in bushes.

The section of fuselage was given to Stanley Boyd, an 18-year-old Floors Farm worker as a souvenir.

It was only when the plane wreckage was put on display in Trafalgar Square in London that they found that its pilot was not Captain Albert Horn, as Hess had identified himself to Mr McLean, but Hitler's second in command.

In a previously unseen letter, Mr Boyd wrote: "The pilot had a broken ankle so was taken to Maryhill Barracks Military Hospital for treatment ... His fighter plane had crashed in the next field which was Bonnytons Farm and Dave had gone over on his cycle and hidden a few souvenirs in the bushes!

"The whole wreckage was taken away by the Army Maintenance unit from Carluke and nothing was left. Dave went back later in the tractor and retrieved the items of which he gave me the section you are having for your collection.

"When we all found out later that the pilot was the German deputy leader under Hitler we really couldn't believe it!"

It is estimated that the fuselage will fetch £3,000 when it goes under the hammer at auction house Bonhams in New York next Thursday.

Several other pieces of the plane still exist, with one engine at the RAF Museum in London and the other in the Imperial War Museum in London.