And she did it wearing white gloves!

[Arkansas Granny]

Queen Elizabeth II fires a British L85 battle rifle (1993)

[secondwind]

1. In the rain!!

[Fla Dem]

2. ANd I bet she had some kind of heels on too! nt

[onethatcares]

3. she's a lefty too

you go Queen.

[Brother Buzz]

12. She's firing it right handed, and by all accounts, she's right handed

It's an odd rifle, the pistolgrip trigger group is in front of the magazine, and the action of the rifle inside the buttstock.

[onethatcares]

16. looked like her right arm was out

with her left on the trigger. My eyes are getting worse as the days go by but when I shoot a long rifle, my left hand is on the barrel stock, my right forefinger is on the trigger.

I apologize for seeing something different.

[Doc_Technical]

25. This design of rifle is called a bullpup.

It allows a long barrel but a short overall length.

[yonder]

4. Near as I can tell, she has no eye/ear protection.

[CottonBear]

5. Both the Queen, then The Princess Elizabeth, & her future husband served in WWII.

The Princess Elizabeth was an auto mechanic in a branch of the British Armed Forces that was based in the UK, called the Auxiliary Territorial Service.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_Territorial_Service

Prince Philip, then Lt. Philip Mountbatten, who was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, served in the Royal (British) Navy on active duty from 1939-1952. He saw combat in many sea battles and was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in January 1946. He continued his career in the navy until his wife became queen in 1952.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Philip,_Duke_of_Edinburgh

[braddy]

6. That is myth about her being an actual mechanic, it was all a publicity/myth making show in which

she never spent a night away from the palace and never learned the actual job of being a mechanic, and it was done after the war was all but over with Germany, when the end was known and decided and weeks/months away.

[shenmue]

8. Not true

[braddy]

9. Yes true, it was all fake image building, and evidently very effective, the future Queen slept every

night at the palace and never learned, or worked at being a real-life mechanic.

"She was enlisted as 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the ATS, [March, 1945] and sent to train as a transport officer at Camberley. The course was three weeks and Princess Elizabeth did not associate too closely with her fellow trainees.
She lunched in the officers' mess and slept the night at Windsor; 50 years later, her grandsons would eat cadet food, iron their own uniforms, polish their own boots and be shouted at on the drill square.
Despite her kid-glove treatment, Princess Elizabeth greatly appreciated her spell in the ATS, believing it gave her a confidence she had previously lacked
The war in Europe was now drawing to a close and on May 8, 1945, the two princesses were allowed out of the Palace with their Guards officer friends to mingle with the crowds in the Mall and join in the shouts of "We want the King"

The entire WWII experience as a military member for Princess Elizabeth seems to have consisted of about 6 or 7 weeks when she lived in Windsor Castle, enlisted as a Lieutenant, attended a personalized 3 week course, had some photos taken of her touching trucks, never left the house, was promoted to Captain and was finished with the entire charade by the 6th or 7th week.

[pazzyanne]

11. Do you have a link for the information you quoted above?

I couldn't find anything the coordinates with what you said here. Thank you in advance.

[Soph0571]

18. You might find this interesting

In 1942, at age 16, Elizabeth registered with the Labour Exchange –the British employment agency at the time – and was extremely keen to join a division of the women’s armed forces. Her father was reluctant to let her do so, but eventually relented. Once in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, Elizabeth learned how to change a wheel, deconstruct and rebuild engines, and drive ambulances and other vehicles.

Joining the ATS as an honorary Second Subaltern, Elizabeth achieved the rank of honorary Junior Commander within five months. Here she can be seen maintaining an Austin K2 ambulance and a "Tilly" light truck.

Unlike the other members of the ATS, Elizabeth returned each night to sleep in the royal residence of Windsor Castle.

[link:https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/queen-elizabeth-ii-war-years-mm.html|

Of course she went back to the Palace - wouldn't you? And one must remember at that time that Buckingham Palace was targeted by German Bombers. It would probably have been safer if she stayed away

[sarge43]

20. Returning to Windsor Castle at night was the compromise for getting Dad to agree.

I'd read women registered at 18. I know, details

After Buck House was bombed during 1940s blitz, the family was more or less ordered to move to Windsor Castle to get out of range of German bombers.

[pazzyanne]

22. Thank you, Soph0571!

That is exactly what I was looking for. I knew she enlisted and trained, but didn't know she slept at Buckingham Palace. You are right, she and her family were very brave to continue living at Buckingham Palace during the war years.

[braddy]

26. That is not a dig into the details history, it is just more positive feel good about the myth,

lacking in details and specifics and precise dates, it took me some work a few years ago to get into the true meat of the charade.

[smirkymonkey]

27. Yeah, but at least she didn't completely Nelly out by claiming bone-spurs five times

for avoiding service altogether. She's still 100 times more bad-ass than candy-ass Trump.

[braddy]

28. I agree it was a pleasing gesture and probably meant a lot to her subjects, I just disagree with

Americans maintaining this facade by the foreign rich and powerful to the degree that we do as if we are obligated to play along, even in this day of stolen valor corrections.

[Brother Buzz]

17. I understood she was a driver with the Woman's Auxiliary, and not a mechanic

And all the photos we saw of her working on the ambulances was just routine maintenance expected to be performed by drivers; changing a tire, checking the fluids under the hood, and what not.

[sarge43]

19. Actually she was a driver.

Military drivers are trained in basic auto mechanics. Pre flight checks and you never know if the beast will have a flat or worse and General Whoitis is sure not getting out to help.

Story is she went rounds with her father about signing up. In the UK during WWII single women 18 or over were required to register for what amount to the draft. They were placed in farm or factory work, nursing or the military. When she turned 18, she told dad she wanted to step up. Dad said no; she was doing enough with royal work. Wasn't enough in her opinion and she won the final round.

She's the last living head of state who is a WWII veteran.

Yeah, that's not the first gun she's ever fired.

[JuJuYoshida]

7. no kickback?

[Brother Buzz]

10. There's no kickback when the rifle is locked down in a benchrest.

[Roadside Attraction]

13. Was her target . . .

. . . a silhouette of Trump?

[pazzyanne]

23. One could hope!

[TimeToGo]

14. From 1993?

I'm having some trouble figuring out the reason this was posted now.

[Arkansas Granny]

21. I just found the photo online and was struck by it. Nothing more.

[saidsimplesimon]

15. Granny, worth the laugh

I tried skeet shooting, in my youth. A 12 gauge shotgun left me with bruises and ringing ears, even with the appropriate protection.

[VOX]

24. Sometimes I wish the U.S. was part of the Commonwealth.

Just for cool, insane stuff like this. Also, we could move to London without a huge hassle.

[Rhiannon12866]

29. Very cool, this is something she's never forgotten.

This was taken long after WWII.

[Donkees]

30. :)

[Arkansas Granny]

31. One of my favorite characters.