The Duchess Of Windsor (54 page)

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Authors: Greg King

BOOK: The Duchess Of Windsor
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Aside from his one meeting with Bertie at Buckingham Palace, David saw no member of his family. The day before he and Wallis arrived, Queen Mary had come up to London from Badminton House in Gloucestershire, where she was staying for the duration of the war, to meet with George VI. The elderly Queen was fearful lest Bertie, under the emotional pressure of the moment, relent and agree to receive Wallis. Queen Mary herself, who had not seen her eldest son in nearly three years, expressed no desire to meet with him again while he was in London; indeed, she deliberately returned to Gloucestershire before he arrived. When the Duke of Kent declared that he intended to visit David while his brother was in London, he was forbidden by Bertie from doing so.
The reaction of the Royal Family left an indelible impression on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The way in which they had been ignored was hurtful and humiliating. It was not that the Royal Family was too busy with the war to extend the courtesies expected; through the six years of conflict, the Royal Family never failed to dispatch at least a junior member to meet a visiting royal or important dignitary or ensure that appropriate arrangements for their comfort had been made. The Windsors were the exceptions, the only two people deliberately snubbed in such blatant ways. Michael Bloch writes of the Duke: “He was determined not to expose himself to such treatment when he next returned home. It is important to remember this when considering his attitude nine months later.”
25
The Windsors left England aboard the destroyer
Express
on September 29. The crossing to Cherbourg was rough, and Wallis was happy to be back on land. Wallis returned to Paris, while David immediately went to Nogent-sur-Marne, near French General Headquarters at Vincennes, to report to the commander, Maj. Gen. Sir Richard Howard-Vyse.
Along their German borders, the French had built a series of expensive forts—the famous Maginot Line—connected by underground trains and equipped with such luxuries as sun-ray rooms and movie theaters. The Maginot Line was popularly believed to be the last word in defense; the French, convinced that it guaranteed their victory in any conflict, were lulled into dangerous complacency. The French command, led by Gen. Maurice Gustave Gamelin, was ill prepared for a twentieth-century conflict. They believed in playing a careful, drawn-out game of attrition, one which was undoubtedly to prolong the war and result in millions of unnecessary casualties.
The first seven months of the war saw little military action. The French had more than a hundred divisions in readiness, while the German Army on the Western front was incomplete. Their Siegfried Line was punctured with enormous, unfinished gaps. Only twenty-five reserve divisions, with enough ammunition for only three days’ battle, stood poised along the border. The Luftwaffe had yet to stockpile any substantial amount of bombs. Had the French attacked in force when the war erupted, they could undoubtedly have reached the Rhine within a few weeks and very possibly won the war. But Gamelin kept his huge army inactive, waiting for the Germans to move. He remained at his headquarters in a French château, without radio or telephone, sending important dispatches by motorcycle.
Gamelin was notoriously uncooperative with the British command. No member of the British command had been allowed to visit the French defenses, including the all-important Maginot Line. There is substantial evidence that the British command at Vincennes used the Duke of Windsor to spy on the French General Staff, who at that time were renowned for their secrecy. He managed to tour French defenses, question officers, and make reports, all without Gamelin suspecting a thing. At Vincennes, the value of this information was appreciated; but when forwarded to London, it was largely ignored, simply because it had come from the Duke, who was thought by both the King and certain members of the government to be incapable of faithfully reporting what he had seen.
26
It has often been alleged that the Duke of Windsor, while in his post with the British command, was responsible for leaking secrets to the Axis powers. Specifically, the German minister to The Hague, Count Julius von Zech-Burkersroda, reported in a memo to Berlin that the Duke was unhappy in his role and that he freely and indiscreetly talked of confidential plans. But there seems to be absolutely no evidence to support such a conclusion; certainly, at times, the Duke may have spoken without thought, and it is impossible to say that the wrong ears may not have picked up carelessly divulged details. But there is nothing to substantiate the recent, popular assertions that the Duke was a traitor. All of his loyalties remained with England.
Undoubtedly, there were times when David was intensely frustrated. His brother the Duke of Gloucester once came to visit the French military headquarters; as the two brothers were leaving, the Duke of Windsor inadvertently, and without intent, walked out first, thus receiving the salute of the staff, which had been meant for the Duke of Gloucester. A few days later, he was formally reprimanded by the British Military Staff for having taken the salute intended for his brother.
27
“In that one respect,” Wallis later wrote, “we had two wars to deal with—the big and still leisurely war, in which everybody was caught up, and the little cold war with the Palace, in which no quarter was given.... It seemed to me tragic that this unique gift, humbly proffered, was never really called upon, out of fear, I judged, that it might once more shine brightly, too brightly.”
28
Wallis, meanwhile, was engaged in her own war work. After several months in a small flat at Versailles, she finally decided to return to Paris. She was accompanied by Maj. Gray Phillips of the Black Watch Regiment, an old friend of the Duke’s, who now took over the position of comptroller of their household. Because the Windsors had been at La Croë for the summer, the house on boulevard Suchet had been closed for the season: When Wallis and Phillips arrived, the carpets were rolled and lying against the walls, dust covers remained on the furniture, and the chandeliers had been taken down and stood on the bare floors for fear that any bombardment would bring them crashing down. Wallis decided to open only those rooms which they would need for daily use: the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, the second-floor sitting room, and the dining room.
Most of the windows remained shuttered; across those that were opened Wallis stretched tape to prevent breakage and heavy black curtains to disguise light.
29
These quickly proved a necessity, as Paris was often subject to air raids. Wallis stubbornly refused to go to any shelter. “I suffer from claustrophobia,” she explained. “Anyway, if you are at war, you must accept your chances. Being killed by a bomb is something like being killed in an automobile accident if you are a careful driver. A sort of act of God. It is unpredictable and there isn’t much you can do about it.”
30
Wishing to make herself useful, Wallis became honorary president of the French relief organization
Colis de Trianon
, which was controlled by her friend Elsie, Lady Mendl. She wrote to her friend Sibyl Colefax, “The British have not asked me to help them—so time and money have gone to the French.”
31
Every morning, she dressed in her khaki uniform of mid-length skirt, jacket, and jaunty military-style cap and reported to work. The organization distributed kits to French troops containing knitted sweaters, socks, gloves, toiletries, soap, and cigarettes. These articles were collected and packed by Wallis and other volunteers, then delivered to the front.
32
Wallis learned to knit in order to help supply some of the items herself and dipped into her bank accounts for those provisions which could not be made. Among her other projects, she lent her financial support to a soup kitchen for the poor in Montmartre.
33
She also joined the
Section Sanitaire
of the French Red Cross and volunteered herself and her Buick for frequent and dangerous delivery missions to the front. Several times a week, Wallis would collect plasma, boxes of bandages, and cartons of cigarettes, load them into her car, and accompanied by a driver, set off for the field hospitals behind the Maginot Line, making stops at each. She was usually gone by seven in the morning and almost never returned to Paris until long after night had fallen. In between supply drops, she often visited soldiers in the field hospitals, asking if there were any supplies or favors they needed.
34
This was dangerous work: On at least one occasion, unexpected hostilities forced her to remain just behind the line for the night; from her makeshift bed she could hear the booming guns of enemy artillery.
35
On the days when she was not carrying out these duties with the French Red Cross, Wallis continued to work for Lady Mendl. She continued to fund projects from her personal fortune: Through her efforts, soldiers’ recreation centers in France were supplied with gramophones and records.
36
Wallis may have been anathema to the Royal Family and the court back in England, but the French were quick to recognize her generosity and invaluable contribution, and she won many fans among the soldiers. A certain Captain Colliere, commander of the First Battalion of the 423rd Regiment of Pioneers, wrote to Wallis asking for a signed photograph to hang in their mess. She duly sent the picture and asked if there was anything else she could do. She was somewhat surprised when Colliere requested a regimental banner in Wallis blue, but she had one made up at her own expense in a shop on the rue de Rennes and dispatched to hang alongside the photograph.
37
Their respective work kept the Duke and Duchess of Windsor apart until the spring of 1940. They telephoned each other when possible and wrote letters, but David’s leaves of absence were rare. It was often impossible to coordinate their schedules; Wallis might be at the front when the Duke returned to Paris.
The spring of 1940 came early in Paris; Wallis noted that the flowers were out, the chestnut trees lining the avenues were in bloom, and the sun was warm.
38
The war seemed distant, unreal. It was all a mirage. For nine months the French army had remained silent, sitting behind their Maginot Line, waiting for Germany to direct an attack. French and British troops had massed along the frontiers of Belgium and Holland, expecting the Nazis to eventually march from the north across the Belgian plain.
Then, on May 10, two diverse events occurred which were to profoundly affect the outcome of the war: In London, Winston Churchill became prime minister of Great Britain; and in the Ardennes Forest, Panzer divisions invaded Luxembourg, while the planes of the Luftwaffe dropped hundreds of paratroopers into Holland. The Nazis moved swiftly west, bypassing the dreaded Maginot Line; within a week, they had circumvented the Allied forces and breached the front. The French, with no reserves and no backup defenses, were quickly on the run.
Within the space of a week, half of France had fallen to the Germans. Nazi troops were crossing the Loire and quickly gaining ground in Bordeaux, where the last government of the Third Republic huddled in fear. On May 15, David suddenly appeared at their house in Paris and told Wallis that she must leave immediately. She was rather reluctant to do as he wished, believing that such an act would be interpreted as cowardice, but David insisted.
39
The wives of all British diplomats and officials were already being evacuated from the capital, and so she finally consented.
Wallis left Paris on the following day; Major Phillips remained at the house on boulevard Suchet, expecting that the British command would be relocated to Paris and that the Duke himself would soon return to take up residence. A long line of cars, horns blaring and worried refugees hanging from their windows, jammed the roadways out of Paris. The Duke and Duchess initially decided to go only as far as Blois in the Loire Valley. When they arrived at a hotel there, however, they were told that there was no room for them. As it was too late to leave that evening, the manager eventually found two cots, which he set up for them in his own sitting room.
40
David decided that Wallis should go to Biarritz; after making the arrangements, he returned to his post with the French Military Mission, and she continued on, this time to a room at the Hotel du Palais, where she remained for a week.
41
A few days into her stay, David telephoned and told her that Paris was about to fall and that she must leave France altogether. He explained that he would join her shortly. At the time, David was still accompanied by Fruity Metcalfe, who continued to serve as an unpaid aide-de-camp. One morning, Metcalfe went to call on the Duke, only, in the words of his son David, “to find that the Duke had buggered off to get the Duchess, without bothering to inform him he was even leaving. My father was terribly upset and betrayed, but the Duke didn’t give a shit about anyone but the Duchess.” Not until after the war would the two men resume their friendship.
42
It has often been alleged that the Duke of Windsor deserted his post to join Wallis. This is simply not true. When he appealed to Maj. Gen. Howard-Vyse for leave, his commanding officer told the Duke that the British expected to evacuate at any moment and that he was free to go. Thus, David, without formally resigning his post, was directed to leave it by his superior officer.
43

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