The World War II Operation... To Save Wallis's Swimsuit

[cinrit]

Wallis Simpson ordered a top level diplomatic mission to rescue her swimming costume she had left behind at her luxury villa at the height of World War II.  The US-born wife of King Edward VIII made the American Minister in Lisbon and the American consul in Nice find the Nile green outfit at the property in the South of France.

The diplomats opened up the shuttered rental property even though that part of the coast was occupied by the Nazis at the time.

Andrew Morton, the biographer of Princess Diana, writes in his new biography of Edward that the task became known privately as 'Operation Cleopatra Whim'.

Morton is scathing of the Duke of Windsor and Mrs Simpson in: '17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis and the Biggest Cover-Up in History', which is also about their close ties to the Nazi regime.

He writes that after Edward abdicated in December 1936 he and his wife 'acted as if World War II was simply a minor inconvenience to their lifestyle' and that their 'self-indulgence knew no bounds'.  Despite millions being slaughtered in the conflict, in 1940 Mrs Simpson had 'other pressing concerns', notably her missing swimming costume.

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The WW" operation to save Wallis Simpson's swimsuit | Daily Mail Online

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