Michael Bloch 1st edit/1 print Operation Willi The Plot to Kidnap the Duke of Windsor July 1940 [Paperback] Bloch, Michael [Paperback] Bloch, Michael

by Michael Bloch

This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection

Genres: History, Biography

Paperback

First published May 8, 1986

Reviews

[Mike McClanahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of the intrigue behind a plot that could have changed the outcome of WWII.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Bloch's Operation Willi thoroughly documents one of the stranger sideshows of World War II: the German conspiracy to kidnap the Duke of Windsor to use him as a puppet in their planned invasion of England. Bloch, author of several books on the Duke (including the more thorough The Duke of Windsor's War) offers an impressive amount of research: not only the so-called "Marburg File" about Windsor's contacts with the Nazis but British and German archives and firsthand interviews with those involved. After the fall of France, the Duke and Wallis Simpson relocated to Spain, then Portugal while remaining in touch with German diplomats, who hoped to use him as an intermediary for peace talks with the UK. The kidnapping was the brainchild of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's overeager Foreign Minister who'd been friends with the Duke during his reign as Edward VIII; it was arranged by ambitious SD official Walter Schellenberg, with the assistance of Abwehr agents and fascist officials in Spain. Bloch demonstrates that the scheme was very real, though he also argues that the Duke was a befuddled pawn rather than an active conspirator against his homeland; that while intricate plans were worked out for the kidnapping, from the Spanish government luring Windsor from Portugal to staged assassination plots by the Abwehr, the Duke's own actions (witting or unwitting) and those of a few keen-eyed British diplomats prevented them from coming to fruition. It's a fascinating "for want of a nail" scenario, which has inspired several novels, films and luridly speculative "nonfiction" books where historical facts needn't stand in the way of a good story. But Bloch shows that, for those interested in World War II and international intrigue, there's story enough without embellishment.