Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell how Prince Philip became a decorated war hero in World War 2.----more----
Prince Philip is a young Greek prince. He has been forced to leave Greece so he goes to Britain and joins the Royal Navy. While training he meets the young Princess Elizabeth and they later fall in love. But first World War 2 breaks out. Prince Philip is first sent to the Far East and he helps Australian convoys get their soldiers to Europe. But when Italy declares war on Britain everything changes. Now the Mediterranean is a battleground between Brtain and Italy. Prince Philip is posted to one of the main battleships.
The Italians have a powerful battlefleet and it sets sail to fight the British. The British airplanes damage one of the Italian ships and most of the Italian fleets turn for home. But they leave some of their ships to help their damaged ship. In the middle of the night the British fleet find the Italians. They are able to find them because the British have radar which the Italians do not.
However, the British still need to see the Italians to be able to fire at them. Prince Philip is in charge of his battleship’s searchlights. He turns the searchlights on and shines them onto one of the Italian ships. Quickly the British ships sink that ship. Then another Italian ship opens fire on the British. All the Italians can see is the British searchlights being held by Prince Philip. It is as if the whole Italian fleet is aiming at him. But he doesn’t flinch. He aims the searchlights at the new Italian ship. The British guns blow the ship out of the water. After the battle the British Admiral ensures that Prince Philip is given an award for bravery.
Prince Philip then returns to Britain and helped convoys get to Britain.
Then Prince Philip returns to the Mediterranean for the invasion of Sicily. By now he has been promoted. He is the second in command of a small ship. His ship comes under attack by a German bomber. It’s looking bad for the British. But Prince Philip has an idea. He decides to make a raft, set it on fire and throw it overboard. In the dark the German bomber was confused. It started to bomb the burning raft. The British ship slowly slipped away. Prince Philip had saved everyone.
Then Prince Philip is sent to fight the Japanese in the Far East. He is present in Tokyo harbour when the Japanese surrender.
After the war, Philip marries Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes Queen, he gives up his navy career to support her.
We all know him for how he supported her over the next 70 years. But before then he was a decorated war hero.
PATRONS CLUB
If you liked this episode you might like to join our Patrons’ Club. You can join at www.patreon.com/historystorytime