The King's WWII Secret - Did George VI Abuse His Power?

[Music] before I begin this program I would like to thank his majesty the king for his kind permission given to me to reproduce documents from the Royal archives our view of King Charles III's grandfather King George II is a very positive one he was the king dur World War II and he performed his duty splendidly along with the support and love of his wife Queen Elizabeth later known as the Queen Mother however whilst researching something completely different I started to come across the very outer edges of something which I think should be made public concerning King George V 6 in World War II this secret operation that I've uncovered you won't find referenced in any history books about George V 6 or the second world war or if you do there are the most oblique references possible you also won't find hardly anything about this in the National Archives at Q and London in fact the only place you will find references to this of the royal archives at Windsor Castle which is where I discovered the documents to make this video so why is that well it's because the operation was Kept Secret it was deliberately kept from the British people for a very good reason which I will outline shortly so how did I start to come across something which is a little bit critical of King George V 6 in World War II well it all has to do with a shotgun if you remember I made a video about a possible shotgun that once belonged to Kaiser vham II I came across this whilst in a gun shop in Milton keing of all places the gun turned out to have actually belong to the Kaiser's grandfather Emperor vilhelm I but whilst digging around online I Came Upon a pair of similar shotguns being auctioned and the auctioneers catalog description mentioned the Bare Bones of an intriguing operation at blankenburg Castle in 1945 I didn't initially believe that King George I 6 had actually been involved in such an operation however desperate to find information led me eventually to Windsor Castle and the royal archives so the bare bones of the information involves a secret operation ordered by George V 6 personally and using British military resources to help his own German Royal relatives many of whom were Nazis or Nazi supporters during the war an operation that had it been made public in 1945 would have caused Great disqui in Britain and I'm sure some direct criticism of the British royal family so bear with me but to understand the event that I'm going to recount to you later on you first need to understand just how German the British royal family still was in World War II and the Cozy Royal Trade union that existed across Europe that stood above National Politics the current royal house that sits on the British throne is primarily German in origin King George V 6 descended from the first king of that dynasty George I who was also king of Hanover in Germany subsequent kings and queens in this family largely married Continental cousins almost always German or partly German George VII himself was basically German his father George V was German and danish and his mother Queen Mary was also German with a dash of Hungarian it was George vth where changed the family name from the distinctly un-british Saka corber onot to to Windsor which it has remained so to the present day via Queen Victoria's large extended family George V 6 was closely related to most of the royal families of Europe as well as the many princely houses of Germany not the least of which being the house of Hanover from whom his own Dynasty had originated as I said with King George I way back in 1714 Ernest Augustus Duke of brunwick or ksog Von brag was second cousin of King George VII his great great-grandfather having been the fifth son of King George iiii of Great Britain that is the same George III that American viewers may be familiar with his father had even held a British title from 1878 until 1917 Duke of Cumberland and tatale that was until King George V somewhat reluctantly took the British title away from this German prince three years into World War I owing to the embarrassing fact that the Duke of Cumberland was serving as an officer in the German Army one of several Royal relatives whose German titles were so officially deprived to save the house of Windsor's British image so come World War II the same problem arose once again the British King's German relatives were on the wrong side and not only the wrong side but some of them had apparently gone to the dark side with particularly close relationships with a certain failed Austrian painter and his friends that would put them Beyond The Pale for decades to come Ernest Augustus Duke of Brunswick had married the daughter of Britain's arch enemy in World War I Kaiser vilhelm II a little aside to this video is something I found buried in the published Memoirs of the Kaiser's daughter Princess Victoria Louisa of Prussia this book is quite hard to find today but I examined the copy held by Cambridge University Library in it she wrote about a gathering that had taken place at house Dawn the Kaiser's Dutch residence where the Kaiser had lived in Exile since the early 1920s a gathering that took place in 1939 to celebrate the old Emperor's 80th birthday out of the blue a telegram had arrived from Buckingham Palace she writes quote what pleased my father particularly was the fact that he had been remembered by the king and queen of England throughout King George V's Reign the English Court had since 1914 completely ignored the Kaiser's very existence now 25 years after the outbreak of the first world war the King's son George VII had sent his heartiest congratulations end quote now I wonder what the millions of households across Britain who had lost Sons during the first world war against against the Kaiser's armies and the hundreds of thousands of living veterans who had survived that terrible War would have thought of their King sending birthday congratulations to the man who had started that terrible war and had in fact been officially listed as a war criminal at the end of it it seems an odd thing to have done but from the perspective of the Royals such social niceties only reinforce the Cozy relationship between the various Royal houses somehow disassociated from the realities of history and politics anyway this is a good indication that King George VII was very much a member of that Royal Trade union as some historians have called it and he was to aptly demonstrate this 6 years later at the conclusion of yet another bloody war against the Germans so how had the Duke of Brunswick managed r the Nazi period though his dynasty no longer ruled in Brunswick having lost their position at the end of World War I he still contained enormous land Holdings many different palaces and castles and enormous wealth Brunswick Palace was one such place and a trio of castles cuman castle at gunon in Austria and two in Germany marienburg near Hanover and blankenburg near Brunswick World War II was a tricky one for Ernest Augustus remembering that as well as being a German he had also like his father until 1917 been a British prince in the 1930s he had tried for Repro Mo between Hitler and Britain Hitler was also desirous of such a Repro Mo and had even asked the Juke to arrange a marriage between his daughter princess Frederica and the prince of Wales later King Edward VII the Duke had refused believing that the age difference between the two was too great interestingly in 193 36 following Edward's abdication the newly mentored jke of Windsor and his wife Wallace had stayed with the Juke at Cumberland Castle in Germany Ernest Augustus never formally joined the Nazi party though it has emerged he attempted to join in 1941 but he did donate funds to the Nazis and was close to several of the top Nazi leaders in 1999 Bill saong a German newspaper alleged that after an investigation that Ernest AUST profited from the expropriation of Germany's and Austria's Jews taking shares in a Jewish owned bank and an Austrian building firm as well as several other companies the Duke's grandson sued build over these allegations the World War II Grand Duke's son and Heir confusingly again nnest Augustus joined the SS in 1933 that left after 1 year during World War II he fought on the Russian front as an army officer and was later imprisoned by the Gusto after the 1944 July plot the Duke of Brunswick had married as I mentioned the Kaiser's daughter Princess Victoria Louisa of Prussia she herself was a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria towards the end of World War II The Duke and his wife resided at blankenburg Castle by April 1945 the US Army was rapidly approaching the village of blankenburg and the hars Mountains region which was being defended by what remained of the German 11th Army for the first time blankenburg was directly threatened by enemy action US Artillery fire struck the town an aircraft also attacked it patients from the local hospital were evacuated to the castle for safety including wounded German soldiers but the castle was also cram full of art treasures and precious items much of it owned by the royal family others evacuated to the castle from Museum for safekeeping the sellers were also crammed with boxes of German foreign office files from uim Fon ribbon trops Department containing all the documentary evidence of pre-war German diplomatic contacts with Britain and other nations the local military commandant informed the Duke that the castle would not be included in his Regional defense plan to hopefully spare it and its Treasures from destruction on the 20th of April 1945 Hitler's 56th and last birthday the headquarters staff of the 11th Army had been taken prisoner by the Americans blankenburg also fell US forces drove up to the castle itself according to Princess Victoria Louisa quote shooting wildly and indiscriminately behaving generally just like Texas Cowboys end quote the Americans were most interested in locating SS and Hitler Youth holdouts in the hars region and warned the Juke that any villages harboring such men or giving them sucker would suffer from us retaliation the Americans allowed the Juke to go out and speak to local communities to urge holdouts to give themselves up utilizing local Foresters to make contact with these so-called werewolves due to the agreed post-war occupation zones of Germany blankenberg was in the British Zone and British troops arrived to take over from the Americans Princess Victoria Louisa wrote the British authorities were most interested in the crates of German foreign office files and the castle sellers she wrote that the local British commander told her that the files contained copies of documents that had been distributed elsewhere and that they were not only requisitioning them that they would be taking them away as well however the princess revealed that before the British could organize the crates transfer us officers arrived and ordered the princess to open the cellers whereupon the crates were transferred to US Army trucks by a unit of black GIS and driven away she noted that the British returned a few days later and the Juke showed them the empty cellers quote there were some long faces among them noted the princess Princess Victoria Louisa went to some lengths in her book to badmouth the British occupation forces portraying them as being martinets until the Brunswick began to have dealings with the regional military government in Hanover whose officers were correct but nonetheless distinctly unfriendly though British troops were still under strict instructions at the time not to fraize with German civilians which brings me to the event that I discovered concerning the British king and his German Royal relatives in their castle at blankenburg according to the London protocol of 1944 the free state of Brunswick was supposed to form part of the British zone of occupation however a month after the Allies had C captured blankenburg the British made a geographical adjustment to the local boundary between the British and Soviet zones an adjustment that would place blankenburg in the Soviet zone of occupation the Duke was naturally horrified to learn that his castle and all of his own Treasures Antiques and assorted chattles would soon find themselves in Soviet hands as I mentioned the castle had also been operating as a collecting point for other Brunswick art Treasures from Regional Museum the Duke had also brought to the castle valuables from yet another of his own properties heren Housen to protect them from Allied bombing a special Allied art treasure collecting Center had been established at Keller 30 Mi Northwest of Brunswick under German art dealer EJ Otto at blankenburg Castle the provincial conservator Carl sedka was in overall charge of the treasures somehow news of the plight of the Brunswick reached Buckingham Palace and King George VII the Duke of Brunswick's cousin an order and it was an order as I will shortly show was issued by King George V 6 through the chain of command to the British 11th armor Division and its 159th infantry Brigade Brigadier JB churcher must have informed the commanding officer the first Battalion the cheshier regiment an infantry battalion to send a party of men several dozen strong and 30 Army trop trucks to blankenburg Castle Captain Paul McConnell was given command of the operation and absolutely no mention or word of this operation could be found in the first Battalion cheshier regiment's War diary even though I and the regimental historian checked it very carefully it was almost as if the operation was secret which becomes blindingly obvious once you start to research it in detail a British member the famous monuments men art protection unit was dis to blankenberg to help sort out the items and Aid in their removal that officer was Major Felix harbard of the royal Engineers the operation would involve the removal of the museum collections from blankenburg to the Allied art collection point at Keller but also and this is the important Point primarily the packing up and removal by British soldiers using British Army transport of the private Treasures property furniture and other chattles of the Duke of Brunswick and its removal to another of his properties Maran BG Castle in this case men of the cheshier regiment newly begun on occupation duties in defeated Germany were ordered by the highest authority of all that is King George VII to act as removals men tasked with days of hard labor carrying privately owned art antiques Furniture rugs tapestries in China and the entire contents of that castle and safely transporting this material to another private owned Castle diverting them from the duties that they had joined up to perform Royal removals not being part of the British infantry's Handbook of operations that this operation was ordered by King George V 6 to help his close German relative is undoubtedly true and that it was Kept Secret is undoubtedly true the first Battalion cheshier regiment War diary doesn't mention it there's no official correspondence of any of the officers involved and even the national archives contains absolutely nothing about this operation just a few oblique references to the Duke of Brunswick's art collection so some of you particularly those who are not British may be asking so what's the big deal why can't the king help out his close relative and what's wrong with saving beautiful things from the Soviets well of course I have no problem with the saving of art treasures and other historical items however the problem lies in the king's ordering of the use of British soldiers to perform the this operation the British monarch is a constitutional Monarch and they cannot carry on like this they are not supposed to interfere in state matters and certainly not in the military chain of command in order to obtain favors for their relatives and use State resources to complete that favor though I have the utmost respect for King George VII and his performance in World War II it is hard to defend this action I initially didn't believe that the king had actually ordered yes ordered British troops to be dispatched on what was a private property matter concerning the Duke of Brunswick a person with close links to the Nazis and an enemy of Britain until May 1945 the removals operation began on the 25th of June 1945 and included Captain harbard Captain McConnell and I presume several dozen soldiers from the cheshier first Battalion plus three Armored Cars the operation continued until the 23rd of July 1945 and saw relays of truck convoys escorted by Armored Cars Moving these Treasures out of the castle some of them going to Keller and of course the Brunswick's private and personal Collections and private property going to the new destination of outlined Marian Borg Castle saving them from the clutches of the Red Army the Soviets were due to take over blankenburg on the 22nd of July the day before the last truck left and using different routes harbard managed to keep the treasures moving as the the Soviets began to block off roads in the region around blankenburg it was a massive and a very successful operation but it was nonetheless a secret operation for obvious reasons the king undoubtedly aware that aiding and abetting a former enemy of Britain so soon after the end of horrific War would not have played well with the British public the proof of all this is the brunwick family and their effusive thanks to the King which shows absolutely that this operation was ordered by him on the 19th of December 1945 princess Frederica Louisa daughter of the Duke of Brunswick wrote to King George V 6 the princess having married the Crown Prince of Greece and writing from Cairo where she and her husband had fled ironically because of the German invasion of Greece in 1941 quote I feel I must thank you with all my heart for the courtesy and kindness that is being shown to my parents and brothers in Hanover I heard from English of officers who have been there that the British authorities have been extremely helpful to my family when the moment came that they should have to leave blankenburg I heard that they were given lores with which to save their private belongings which have been taken to Marian Borg outside Hanover I thank God they could save our most treasured belongings and for that I thank you and the British authorities who are following your instructions the term following your instructions proves that George II knowingly ordered this operation the Juke himself wrote to his cousin the King on the 27th of December 1945 to thank him it was such a pleasure to get your dear mother's letters I am deeply touched that you thought about helping us with our family Treasures note the words here Family Treasures the tons of items the Juke refers to were not evacuated Museum collections but the privately owned art Treasures wealth and household equipment of that Royal Dynasty on the 15th of February 1946 princess Frederica Louisa wrote to Queen Mary known to her as dear Aunt May confirming this quote my father writes to say that you have written him a most Charming Letter Full Of Interest sympathy and understanding apart from all the other help that my family got from the British authorities it is a kind gesture of writing to my Father which touched me most my parents and brothers in their letters cannot say enough of the help they were given by the English to save things from blankenburg end quote I can't help wondering whether the ordinary soldiers of the cheshier regiment were as delighted as these Royals to spend their days acting as removals men for a family of German Aristocrats two of whom had been fighting as soldiers in Hitler's Army 5 minutes earlier Captain McConnell certainly came out of the operation very well the good Captain received this pair of beautiful beautiful German 16 bore sidelock ejector shotguns as a gift from the Juke when I found these shotguns being auctioned online this was the clue that led me into this operation in the first place he was also presented with this rather nice 7mm man lier Shau sporting carbine which now resides at the national Army museum in London also as a personal gift from the good Juke the Royal letters also note praise for major Harbo and his action at blankenburg and Keller the fact that this operation was covered up and the only references to it in the Royal archives at Windsor Castle it is clear that King George VII and his advisers felt that the general public would not have approved of such an operation it wouldn't have played well especially as since 1917 the royal family had been strongly distancing itself from its germanness for obvious reasons British combat troops being used as labor for the king's rather political suspicious German relatives would have drawn attention once again to the Royal Family's essential germanness King George V 6 passed away in 1952 and the man at the center of all this Intrigue Ernest Augustus Duke of Brunswick he died the following year in 1953 and is interred in front of the royal melum at heren Housen Gardens in Hanover Captain McConnell went on to become a liutenant colonel in the Army and he moved to the United States in 1969 where he was a noted amateur golfer he died in October 1995 at San Raphael near San Francisco at the age of 80 in his long obituary no mention is made of the operation at blankenburg Castle which again is very telling major harbard ended the war with a stellar reputation for his work with The Monuments Men and later he became a famous interior designer and Theatrical designer including being art director for the Hollywood film the grass is greener in 1960 which starred Carrie Grant and Deborah Carr Harbor died in Paris in 1981 and is buried there of course this entire Affair leaves us with one important question what would you have done if you were King George V 6 in 1945 I'll leave the final word to princess Frederica Louisa who said to King George V 6 quote it is so refreshing to know that chivalry and acts of human decency still mean something in some parts of the world end quote many thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook Channel War stories with Mark Felton you can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 730,221

Keywords: Mark Felton, King George VI, Windsor Castle, Duke of Brunswick, Cheshire Regiment, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Huis Doorn

Id: mHNKcsu3MuU

Length: 25min 25sec (1525 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2024