Warrior Queens

When the armies of Nazi Germany stormed into Poland in Septemher 1939, Great Britain was thrust against her will into another world war. The tremendous sacrifices of the "war to end all wars" that had heen made only two decades earlier proved fruitless in the face of Nazi tyranny. The German blitzkrieg destroyed Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's illusion that peace and Nazism could coexist, compelling Great Britain to aid her Polish ally.
The decision to once more defend Europe created a critical need for the British to assemble her troops from all corners of her far-flung empire. Fortunately, Great Britain proved yet again its capability as the world's greatest maritime power. The passenger liners of her merchant fleet were easily transformed into troopships able to carry thousands of soldiers on every passage thus transporting the garrisons of Britain's colonies home to defend the Isles. Because of their great speed and size, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth proved to be the crown jewels of this fleet.
The wartime service career's of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were nothing short of spectacular. Conversions in America had made the two Queens capable of each ferrying more than 16,000 troops during a crossing, the equivalent of an entire army division. Together they logged over one million nautical miles and carried more than one million military personnel, solidifying themselves in the annals of military history as two of the most useful seafaring vessels.