Picture Queen Elizabeth with a Grease Rag and a Wrench

I'm deep in research about some of the most brutal aspects of WWII, so it's a nice break mark the 70th Anniversary of the war's end.

Japan's Emperor Akihito expressed "deep remorse" for his nation's wartime behavior during a brief ceremony in Tokyo.  More here...

Here's a bit of World War II trivia that brought a smile to my face.

Apparently,  a particular young woman had been arguing with her father some quite a number of months.  Like any young English woman of the time, she wanted to do her part to help win the war.


But like many a father, King George VI was slow to come around.

It was February 1945 when the princess got her way.

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2nd Lieutenant Elizabeth Windsor served in the British Auxiliary Territorial Service, or ATS, which recruited women to free up men for combat.


Mary Churchill, the youngest daughter of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill also served in the ATS. The women worked as telephonists, drivers, mess orderlies, butchers, bakers, postal workers, ammunition inspectors and military police.


Over 200-thousand women served in the ATS, 335 were killed during the war.

Princess Elizabeth trained to be a truck driver and mechanic. Other women held positions in the  Anti-Aircraft Command of the Royal Artillery finding enemy aircraft and controlling the direction of the gun, although officially they never fired the guns. Others operated searchlights.

Think she's checking the oil or the spark plugs? Maybe the fan belt?