11. Lord Londonderry came to be regarded by the Nazi High Command as a key ally in Britain, though he claimed he only ever wanted peace.
Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry served with distinction during the First World War. In the post-war years, he was then put in charge of overseeing the development of the nascent Royal Air Force, a task he approached with relish. However, while he has been credited with building up Britain’s air defenses during the inter-war years, he was pushed aside when war broke out a second time. His evident Nazi sympathies made him a liability and he was forced into early retirement when Winston Churchill took charge of the war effort.
That Churchill views Lord Londonderry with suspicion was hardly surprising. After all, he visited Nazi Germany six times between 1936 and 1938. Moreover, the Nazis saw in him a key ally, believing he could use his social status and political influence to prevent Britain from declaring war on Germany. The Nazis even informed Londonderry of their plans to invade both Poland and Czechoslovakia two years in advance. Though he passed this information on to the government right away, and while he insisted he was no great fan of Hitler or Nazism but only interested in preserving peace, he was never trusted again.