Posted on 12/10/2010 10:24:24 PM PST by iowamark
Among the British elite were a number of very important Britons who were German-friendly and admired what Hitler was doing in Germany. Hitler was seen as a strongman whose policies were rebuilding Germany. That he might become a threat to the very existence of the UK was downplayed or ignored. Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) and Adolf Hitler were personal friends. Hilter often said that Edward's influence would be useful should the UK clash with Germany.
One of these highly connected establishment types was Sir Oswald Moseley, 6th Baronet of Ancoats, fourth cousin to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was the Earl of Strathmore's daughter, and fourth cousin once removed to Queen Elizabeth II. Oswald Moseley was head of the British Union of Fascists from 1932 to 1940. The BUF was a synthesis of both Italian Fascist and German NSDAP ideas. Prior to organizing the BUF, Moseley had been a Fabian Socialist in the 1920s through 1931.
Moseley was very closely connected to the newly ascendant German National Socialist Worker's Party (NSDAP or Nazis). In 1936, Moseley married his mistress Diana Mitford in the Berlin home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler was one of the guests. Moseley's Union of Fascists and their German ties were seen as an increasing national security risk as crisis after crisis headed to war on 1 September 1939. After the outbreak of war Moseley led the campaign for a negotiated peace.
The decision to go to war was not a popular one in England and Neville Chamberlain was prime minister until his government fell after the debacle in France in the Spring of 1940. The new PM Winston Churchill ordered Moseley's arrest, along with almost all other BUF leaders, and he was imprisoned until November 1943. Release from prison was followed by house arrest until the end of the war and defeat of Germany.
Edward VIII (now the Duke of Windsor) was opposed to war with Germany. Exactly why he was made a major general and assigned to the BEF in France is unclear. The German Minister in the Hague (February 1940) claimed Edward had leaked war plans about the defense of Belgium to the Germans.
When the German blitzkrieg rolled through the Low Countries and into France, the Windsors and their entourage fled, eventually finding lodging with a pro-German banker friend. While in Lisbon, Edward continued to undermine British war policy by making statements to the press and passing along information to the Germans.
An antiwar interview with the Duke, widely distributed, served as the last straw for the British government. Edward's continual interference with the war effort saw Prime Minister Winston Churchill threaten the Duke with a court-martial if he did not return to British soil. The Windsors did as Churchill demanded. In August 1940, a British warship dispatched the Windsors to the Bahamas. The Duke was appointed Governor General of the Bahamas by King George VI, Edward's successor to the throne. There, in Churchill's view, the Duke could do the least damage to the British war effort. The Duke was not happy and despised his posting. His wartime travel was effectively controlled by the British Foreign Office. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered covert surveillance of the Duke and Duchess when they visited Palm Beach, Florida, in April 1941. The Duke remained as Governor of the Bahamas until 28 July 1945.
One of the reasons why the Crown was able to control the Duke's affairs was through his allowance. Edward wasn't as rich as his lifestyle demanded. He had a title and substantial holdings (first as Duke of York and later as Duke of Windsor), but he depended, after his abdication of the throne, on the support of the British taxpayer to "live large." After his death from cancer in 1972, his widow continued to live off her husband's estate and his allowance until her death in 1986.
If I was British, I’ll vote to dismantle the Royal Family. It’s absurd to be paying people to play aa a Queen or a King, Princes and Princesses. They all need to be productive and actually contribute something to society.
There you go. This is why England should declare Queen Elizabeth II as the last ruling monarch of the British commonwealth and abolish it after her death.
They say love is blind.
Darn right! Amor vincit omni!
The English branch of my family love Queen Elizabeth and adored her mother. Well, all except the one young, hard-core, leftie who has been exiled to a country house. lol They do not like Camilla nor do they want her to be Queen. They also think Charles is a dolt.
I don’t live there so really don’t care if the UK chooses to continue the Monarchy or not.
I do wish they would disestablish the Church. Parliament chooses the Archbishop of Canterbury which has proven in recent years to be a disaster and I am not looking forward to Charles as the Defender of the Faith. I’m not sure he knows what THE Faith is.
getaway...with a handle like yours...who woulda thunk it...
I.know all this. You said he had a military command that he deserted and I said that was not true. Read your original post.
Now, the Duke was assigned to the British Military Mission to France that became the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The BEF made up 1/10 of the allied forces aligned against the Germans. The BEF was made up of a General Headquarters, three Army Corps, and the Saar Force (troops opposite Germany's Saar Region). At the time of the German attack on 10 May 1940, BEF numbers were well above 200,000 men.
If your definition of “military command” you mean the actual leading of troops, the Duke did not lead troops in the field. However, as a Major General, he would have been at the staff officer level. Records I have do not pin down his exact job in the BEF Order of Battle, 1940. But, as a Major General in the BEF he did have a job with reporting senior officers and subordinates. Therefore, he did have a military job and was assigned to a military command.
The Duke's headquarters chateau was located north of Paris. The Germans made their major push into France (10 to 16 May 1940). On the 17th these forces began their swing to the right and drive to the coast that effectively split the allied forces in two by 21 May 1940. The Brits counterattacked at Arras but failed. The BEF commander General Gort ordered a withdrawal to the port of Dunkirk. Between 26 May and 4 June, 189,000 troops of the BEF and 140,000 French/allied troops were evacuated to England.
Although the exact date of his departure from his headquarters north of Paris is muddy, in probability it was around the 14th to 16th. Rampaging German columns would have prevented a withdrawl to the north or west, so the Duke went south and west. The entourage went first to Biarritz, then to Spain in June, and the Windsors arrived in Lisbon by July 1940.
We are done here and these proceedings are closed.
What fantasy planet are you on writing to me — or anyone — in that ludicrous pompous tone?
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