THE WINDSOR SECRET: New Revelations of the Nazi Connection

Pulp intrigue--with a somewhat intriguing new twist. ""The bitter resentment they both felt at being blown aside amid the public censure of their marriage was to ferment in the coming years, until by the spring of 1940 it needed only the torrid Spanish heat to come to the boil."" That, supposedly, is why the Duke and Duchess of Windsor lent an ear to Nazi suggestions--as often alleged--that they take refuge in Spain, instead of acceding to virtual exile in the Bahamas; why they entertained thoughts of the Duke's returning to power, and making peace with Germany. But suppose that the Nazis, bent on getting Britain out of the war before invading Russia, sent Rudolph Hess to Portugal to see the Duke--and British Intelligence knew it? Suppose Hitler, pinning his hopes on these efforts, deliberately let the British get away at Dunkirk, then bombed Britain (as the Duke may have inadvertently suggested) to make the country ready for peace? Suppose British Intelligence lured the Duke off to the Bahamas, and enticed Hess to Britain in May 1941, by pretending interest in the peace plan? Suppose Hess was murdered in Britain--as also much-rumored--and a false Hess returned to Germany? Suppose this was done, and the Duke's other contacts were ""eradicated"" (including his brother the Duke of Kent), so that word of the Duke's infamy would never get out? One can only say that equally strange things have happened--but it isn't proven here. Most of the Nazi dispatches referring to the Duke, on which the case largely rests, came to light and were dismissed as tainted long ago; in this regard as in others, Allen charges cover-up. He is at pains to establish other, incidental things--that shady Windsor confident Charles Bedaux was a German agent from way back in WW I Grand Rapids; or, that the Nazis' entire strategy depended on avoiding a two-front war. And he repeatedly plays up the Windsors' distress at the Duchess not being called Royal Highness--almost as if the whole plot hinged on this grievance. Until Allen gets to Hess and the British counter-conspiracy, the book is stale and sleazy--then some eyes might widen.