Operation Willi - Departure and Failure

Departure and Failure

Even while the Spanish ambassador to Lisbon was prevailed upon to make a last-minute appeal to the Windsors, the automobile carrying the ducal baggage was "sabotaged", according to Schellenberg, so the luggage arrived at the port late. A bomb threat on the liner Excalibur was also spread by the Germans, which further delayed its departure while Portuguese officials searched the ship.

Nevertheless, the Windsors departed that evening. While Schellenberg blamed the failure of the plot on Monckton, the collapse of the Spanish plan and the alleged "English mentality" of the Duke, it was also probable that Schellenberg deliberately refused to carry out the plan, which seemed doomed from the start. Even he admitted in his memoirs that his role in the affair was a ridiculous one.

As for the Duke of Windsor himself, upon the release of the German papers pertinent to the plot in 1957, he denounced the communications between Ribbentrop and his ambassadors as "complete fabrications and, in part, gross distortions of the truth", while the British government issued a formal statement declaring the Duke's unwavering loyalty during the war.

But the question persisted: did the Windsors have any pro-Nazi sympathies? Both the Americans and the British had suspicions. The Federal Bureau of Investigation initiated an investigation on Mrs. Simpson when President Roosevelt expressed concern over the political leanings of the Windsors. This investigation suggested that their pro-German leanings were stronger than previously thought.

This investigation, based on a combination of surveillance, informants and hearsay, alleged that the Windsors, especially the duchess, had been passing secrets to the Nazis to wreck the Allies' war effort, primarily through Ribbentrop, who was said to be Mrs. Simpson's lover. Ribbentrop was the ambassador to the Court of St. James's at the time of the abdication prior to becoming Foreign Minister. Ribbentrop himself tried to curry Edward's favor by using the Duke of Coburg, Edward's cousin and Nazi party member as an emissary, the latter brazenly attending the funeral of George V in his SA uniform.

Moreover, there was a memorandum by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that the British government had known for some time that Mrs. Simpson had pro-German sympathies. This, among other reasons, made her so obnoxious to the government that they would not permit the King to marry her.

In addition, according to files released in 2003 by the British Public Records Office, there were rumours that Mrs. Simpson had been passing information to Germany. Edward, being notoriously lax in security, often left top secret government files sent to him unguarded in his Fort Belvedere residence, giving Mrs. Simpson every opportunity to do so.

This was probably the reason why the Duke was appointed to the Bahamas post: to keep them as far away as possible from the war and to prevent Mrs. Simpson from having any contact with Ribbentrop as well as to make it easier for the FBI and the British to keep them under surveillance.