The Princess Elizabeth at War
—Jason and Chrissie

Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/bqn1/hwts132

The recent passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has left many around the world feeling a combination of grief and loss, uncertainty, anger, and even indifference. However one might feel about what she and her family represent, there is no doubt that she  had an influential role in most of the major events of the twentieth century.

The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 began the most destructive conflict in human history.  While wartime military service was expected of the male members of the Royal Family, King George VI’s daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were both too young and, more importantly, were girls, and so not expected to actively participate.  Despite this, Princess Elizabeth took it upon herself to help inspire her fellow British children and, once she came of age, entered the military auxiliary services.

The Fall of France on 22 June 1940 enabled the German Luftwaffe to take over French airbases which they then used to launch the aerial phase of Operation Sealion: the invasion of Great Britain.  The Germans needed to destroy the British Royal Air Force and Royal Navy to ensure their forces could successfully land along the southern and southeastern shores of England.  Until these forces had been shattered, Hitler was confident of success against this enemy.

The Battle of Britain started on 10 July 1940 with attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar installations.  Fierce aerial battles took place over the cities and countryside of England as wave after wave of German fighters and bombers filled the skies.  Further British military installations, dockyards, and factories were bombed by the Nazis to cut the RAF off from replacements.  The sustained daylight raids by the Germans were supplemented by nighttime attacks to sow further disruption among the civilian population.  Despite numerical superiority, the Luftwaffe was not able to break the Royal Air Force.

The Nazis transitioned from targeted military strikes to terror bombing between October 1940 and May 1941 as they enacted The Blitz.  Instead of bombing targets of military value, indiscriminate attacks on all areas of British cities were enacted.  The violence and increasing intensity of The Blitz left entire neighborhoods of British cities firebombed wrecks.  Despite the hundreds killed and injured morale among the civilian population did not break.

The 13-year-old Elizabeth and 9-year-old Margaret were evacuated from London to Windsor Castle in late summer of 1940 in response to the threat of German bombing of London. The Princesses were the first of nearly three million children who were evacuated from their homes in the cities to the countryside over the course of the war. Elizabeth and Margaret could be counted among those lucky children who were able to stay with relatives and family friends whom they knew; many were placed in the care of strangers in hopes of saving their lives. The future Queen gave her first public address on 13 October 1940 on the BBC’s Children’s Hour, speaking to the children who were being separated from their families. 

In wishing you all 'good evening' I feel that I am speaking to friends and companions who have shared with my sister and myself many a happy Children's Hour.

Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers. My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you as we know from experience what it means to be away from those we love most of all.

To you, living in new surroundings, we send a message of true sympathy and at the same time we would like to thank the kind people who have welcomed you to their homes in the country.

All of us children who are still at home think continually of our friends and relations who have gone overseas - who have travelled thousands of miles to find a wartime home and a kindly welcome in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America.

My sister and I feel we know quite a lot about these countries. Our father and mother have so often talked to us of their visits to different parts of the world. So it is not difficult for us to picture the sort of life you are all leading, and to think of all the new sights you must be seeing, and the adventures you must be having.

But I am sure that you, too, are often thinking of the Old Country. I know you won't forget us; it is just because we are not forgetting you that I want, on behalf of all the children at home, to send you our love and best wishes - to you and to your kind hosts as well.

Before I finish I can truthfully say to you all that we children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage. We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.

We know, everyone of us, that in the end all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace. And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.

My sister is by my side and we are both going to say goodnight to you.

Come on, Margaret.

Goodnight, children.

Goodnight, and good luck to you all.[1]

While the speech was viewed by some as simply propaganda, the sentiment of Princess Elizabeth was genuine.  Buckingham Palace itself had been targeted by German munitions in September 1940.  Though no one in the family or staff were seriously injured or killed and the physical damage was superficial, it did give the Royal Family a small taste of what was happening throughout Great Britain.  To that end, Elizabeth and her sister made a point of showing their solidarity with the country and the world by making some restrictions in their own lives similar to what was asked of the general public and by tending their own vegetable gardens at Windsor as part of the campaign to reduce shortages by encouraging people to grow their own vegetables.

On 21 April 1942, Princess Elizabeth’s sixteenth birthday, she enacted her first military role with an inspection of the 21st Grenadier Guards.   She had been given the role of honorary colonel of the Guards, which symbolized her military involvement in the war effort.   Princess Elizabeth’s service did not stop with honorary titles and ceremonial inspections; she volunteered to join Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, as soon as she turned 18 in 1944. In doing so, she joined the thousands of British women who worked toward the war effort, either in military service or needed industry. Though King George VI ensured that his daughter received no special rank, she was trained at a camp near to Windsor Castle, so she could return there every night.

She later transferred to the Mechanical Transport Training Section in Camberley, Surrey where she learned auto mechanics.  In this, she was among the countless women of the era who defied gender roles in service to the state. She finished her training as a driver and mechanic in April 1945, just a month before Germany surrendered. Although Princess Elizabeth did not go to the frontlines, her insistence that she serve alongside her fellow countrymen and women ensured she had some experience of the hardships of war.  Queen Elizabeth II was the first and, as of now only, female member of the Royal Family to serve in the British Army.  When Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, there were spontaneous celebrations across Great Britain and the world. The Royal Family made a celebratory appearance with Prime Minister Churchill on the balcony at Buckingham Palace in the afternoon. As the celebrations continued into the night, Elizabeth and Margaret snuck out into the crowd, taking care not to be recognized.

With the end of the war came the end of her time in the ATS, though she continued to use the knowledge earned in the service. She frustrated family and friends by insisting on driving herself places even after she ascended to the throne and was known to offer advice in the royal garages from time to time long after the War was over.

[1] https://www.royal.uk/wartime-broadcast-1940