Churchill's bid to cover up Duke's link to the Nazis

Churchill's bid to cover up Duke's link to the Nazis

Winston Churchill tried to conceal documents which revealed that the 'disloyal' Duke of Windsor supported the Nazis, newly-declassified files reveal.

Hitler had planned to install the former monarch as the puppet king in Britain if the Germans had won the war.

And files released by The National Archives at Kew, West London, now show Churchill feared these revelations could have brought down the House of Windsor.

Revealed: Churchill tried to conceal files which revealed the Duke of Windsor supported the Nazis. Hitler (right) had planned to install the former monarch (pictured centre, next to his wife the Duchess of Windsor) as the puppet king in Britain if the Germans had won the war

The wartime prime minister attempted to have the papers blocked for 20 years thinking that the truth would scandalise the nation with the suggestion that the Duke was colluding with the Nazis.

But American academics fought for the files to be published, which they were in 1957 after 12 years of delay by the British. 

Conversations revealed that the Duke (pictured) was angered at being forced to abdicate the throne in 1936 so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson

The intercepted telegrams highlighted the former King Edward VIII's Nazi leanings and his willingness to deal with the Hitler regime to win back the throne.

They documented the wartime activities of the Duke and his wife, the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and the couple's links to the German dictator. 

The latest declassified files now reveal Churchill's attempts to block the first set of documents.

The Duke and Mrs Simpson had been living in Paris, but after the fall of France in 1940, the couple moved briefly to Spain and Portugal.

While there, their unguarded comments were recorded by Nazi sympathisers, who sent the mat erial to Berlin, where Hitler pored over them.

The conversations revealed that the Duke was angered at being forced to abdicate the throne in 1936 so he could marry Mrs Simpson.

He believed only the continued heavy bombing of British cities would bring the United Kingdom to the negotiating table.

Hitler and his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, became convinced that Edward was willing to be installed as the puppet king of Britain.

Officials had to quash claim jailed Hess was 'lookalike' 

The capture of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess after he parachuted into Scotland remains one of the s trangest episodes of the Second World War. 

Hess flew to Britain in a secret attempt to broker a peace deal in May 1941 but had to bail out when his Messerschmitt plane ran low on fuel.

He was captured and sentenced to life in Spandau prison in West Berlin in 1947. Newly-released files show Foreign Office officials were engaged in a behind-the-scenes bid to quash claims made by a former British Army surgeon that the man who was jailed was an imposter and lookalike.

Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess (pictured) flew to Britain in a secret attempt to broker a peace deal in May 1941 but had to bail out when his Messerschmitt plane ran low on fuel

By 1979 Dr Hugh Thomas, who had seen Hess in jail, claimed it could not be the old Nazi because he did not have scarring left by a bullet that was known to have penetrated Hess's lung during the First World War.

A doctor accused the British government of a cover-up and alleged Hess's plane had been shot down on the orders of his rival, SS chief Heinrich Himmler (pictured)

Dr Thomas accused the British government of a cover-up and alleged Hess's plane had been shot down on the orders of his rival, SS chief Heinrich Himmler. 

He claimed Himmler sent someone else on the mission instead.

To stop the allegations being revived in future, officials quietly commissioned a series of reports. 

One used evidence from another British physician who said the man in prison had a scar that did correspond to Hess's war wound.

The Foreign Office then published a response stating: 'On the basis of these studies, we have no doubt the prisoner in Spandau is Rudolf Hess.' In 1987 Hess, 93, was found dead in S pandau having apparently hanged himself. 

They contrived an elaborate plot â€" codenamed Operation Willi â€" to tempt the couple to Spain to wait for the Germans to invade the UK before putting the Duke back on the throne.

Within days of the Duke and Mrs Simpson's arrival in Madrid, German diplomats were working with their Spanish allies to try to convince the former king to remain in Spain.

The couple were offered a small fortune and a palace in Ronda in southern Spain to sit out the war.

Victory: Documents show Churchill (above) tried to delay the dossier's publication for up to 20 years in case they damaged the Duke's reputation and raised doubts about his loyalty

The Duke notified Churchill, who ordered that he be moved to neighbouring Portugal. 

How Cambridge spy No5 beat the courts 

The fifth Cambridge spy was spared prosecution because his brother was the government’s chief economic adviser, the files reveal.

John Cairncross is believed to have passed atomic secrets to his Russian handlers during the Cold War.

But offic ials feared they did not have enough evidence to prosecute and also that damaging headlines would embarrass his brother Alec.

In a note to prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, cabinet secretary Burke Trend wrote: ‘Apart from the distress and embarrassment this would inflict on an individual whose integrity we have no reason to question, we have to ask ourselves what would be the probable result… if it became known the government were employing, as their chief economic adviser, a man who is the brother of a self-confessed Communist spy.’

John Cairncross was one of the notorious Cambridge spies recruited by Soviet intelligence while at university in the 1930s. He was the last of the group to be identified. The others were Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt.

Cairncross held a series of sensitive government posts, including working at the Bletchley Park codebr eaking centre, and is thought to have been the first to alert the Soviets to Britain’s plans to develop an atomic bomb.

According to German diplomats, the Duke was seen as 'the only Englishman with whom Hitler would negotiate any peace terms, the logical director of England's destiny after the war'.

Hitler ordered his spy chief, Walter Schellenberg, to travel to Lisbon to entice â€" or if necessary kidnap â€" the Windsors. 

The Germans recorded their every word and noted their movements and gestures, the files reveal. 

According to their notes, the Duke considered his younger brother, King George VI, 'utterly stupid', the Queen an intriguer and Churchill a warmonger.

The Nazis at one point even tried to convince the couple that Churchill would order thei r assassination in the Bahamas. 

Hitler's plot came to nothing, but when he was shown the dossier after the war, Churchill immediately insisted that it should be destroyed as he feared it would damage the monarchy.

The documents just released show Churchill tried to delay the dossier's publication for up to 20 years in case they damaged the Duke's reputation and raised doubts about his loyalty.

In 1953 he even wrote to US President Dwight Eisenhower, appealing to his sense of 'justice and chivalry' to prohibit their release for another ten or 20 years.

'If they were to be included in an official publication they might leave the impression that the Duke was in close touch with German agents and was listening to suggestions that were disloyal,' he wrote.

Appeal: In 1953 Churchill (above) wrote to US President Dwight Eisenhower, appealing to his sense of 'justice and chivalry' to prohibit their release for another ten or 20 years. 'If they were to be included in an official publication they might leave the impression that the Duke was in close touch with German agents and was listening to suggestions that were disloyal,' he wrote.

 

قالب وردپرس

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: