How abdicated Edward VIII helped the Nazis bomb Buckingham Palace at the height ... trends now
Classified documents from The Royal Archives may reveal the truth of claims that the Duke of Windsor was a Nazi sympathiser who gave up detailed plans of Buckingham Palace allowing it to be bombed in World War Two.
The Duke, formerly known as King Edward VIII until his abdication in 1936 to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson, is the subject of many letters and correspondence in the archives that were collated by Alan Lascelles, royal secretary to four monarchs between 1920 and 1953.
Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday, royal expert Alexander Larman said that whilst he had been given access to the archives for a book on the royal family during the war he had been surprised at the level of condemnation thrown at the Duke, revealing a Royal archivist had told him: 'We are not in the business of protecting the Duke of Windsor's reputation.'
He said: 'The Nazi's knew what they were doing and that's because they had inside information [from the duke].
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth looking at the aftermath of a German bombing raid on 11 September 1940 which destroyed the palace chapel
A crater made by a bomb which was dropped and exploded outside Buckingham Palace, London, 14th September, 1940
A crater and damaged railings outside Buckingham Palace after one of the German bombing raids
Edward VIII encouraged the Nazis to bomb Britain into submission in World War Two and crown him as King. Above: The then former king Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson meeting Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in 1937
'I don't think he wanted to see him [his brother King George VI] dead but he was in a position where he knew exactly where everyone was in Buckingham Palace.'
During the conflict the Palace suffered nine direct bomb hits and one death - PC Steve Robertson, a policeman on duty there who was killed by flying debris in 1941.
After one raid in September 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, the Queen Mother wrote of the 'horrible' bombing of her home by the German Luftwaffe.
Referring to Buckingham Palace as 'dear old BP', the Queen Mother wrote: 'We heard the unmistakable whirr-whirr of a German plane.
'We said 'ah a German', and before anything else could be said, there was the noise of aircraft diving at great speed, and then the scream of a bomb.
'It all happened so quickly, that we had only time to look foolishly at each other, when
