The new documentary by Channel 4 revealed that Winston Churchill sent his own Tommy gun to King George VI, so that the whole royal family, including the 14 year old Elizabeth, could practice shooting, following his evacuation refusal in 1940. Queen Elizabeth did not miss the chance, as she used the Tommy gun to practice shooting Nazi soldiers.
The documentary revealed how Princess Elizabeth trained to fire this automatic weapon in Buckingham Palace Gardens, during the height of World War II. It is also revealed how her father, George VI, refused the plea of MI6 to evacuate the whole family to Canada in 1940.
Professor Richard Aldrich of Warwick University adds here, “He says everybody is going to stay and going to fight. He says, ‘I want to get my German. I want to at least kill one of the invaders and we will all fight to the last.’ When Churchill hears of this he says, ‘You need to be able to kill more than one German.’”
Following this, he sent the King a Tommy gun. When they received the special gift, the Queen Mother, Princess Elizabeth, and Princess Margaret all learnt to use the weapon.
Professor Aldrich continues, “The royal family and equerries are all practicing with pistols, rifles and Churchill’s Tommy gun. The Queen Mother enjoys taking pot-shots at rats in Buckingham Palace’s gardens. The King and Queen and the whole royal family are practicing with firearms in the gardens of the Palace and at Windsor.”
“The King expects German paratroopers to turn up at any moment. He never goes anywhere in his car without a rifle and a pistol. It is symbolic. The King is showing this off to Cabinet ministers and visiting diplomats. He is sending out the message that we’re not going to run.”
One other thig revealed was that in 1944, the King visited numerous military bases around his country, in order to confuse Hitler and make him believe that the D-Day invasion of the Allied forces may not after all be on the beaches of Normandy.
At the RAF Tempsford, which is near Bedford, viewed the MI6 weapons, and the Queen says the following, “She calls the King over and says, ‘Amazing. Exploding horse manure.’”
“D-Day: The King Who Fooled Hitler” premiered on Sunday, May 5, 2019.
Nina Smith