Author Martin Allen goes much further than this, arguing in his controversial book,
Hidden Agenda, that the duke spied for Hitler, especially in the critical phase in late-1939 and early-1940 prior to the Battle of France.
According to Allen, the duke made inspection tours of the French army's front line positions, including the Maginot line, and provided reports of troop deployments not only to the British (French-British co-operation not being what it should have been), but also to the Germans.
The link between the duke and the Nazis, according to Allen, was wealthy American industrialist Charles Bedaux (sometimes spelled Bedault), who was a close friend of the Windsors. Bedaux had loaned them his home, chateau Cande in France, for their wedding in June 1937, and he was almost certainly a Nazi intelligence asset; he knew Goring personally and had many German business contacts.
Martin Allen goes so far as to argue that the Duke of Windsor provided Bedaux with the crucial information about the French deployment, that this information, when passed on, induced Hitler to take the bold move and invade France through the poorly defended Ardennes forest, and that this is the primary explanation for the stunning Nazi victory in May-June 1940.
It is a devastating indictment: the Duke of Windsor was not only a traitor but the main reason for the German victory in the West and all that came with it (occupation, the Battle of Britain, and the persecution of Jews in these regions, among other developments).
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