I joined up for love..& was soon helping shoot Nazi planes

MARTIN FRICKER

- WWII vet Grace turns 100

A WOMAN who joined the Army so she could meet a soldier and ended up helping shoot down Nazi planes has turned 100.

Grace Taylor was 16 when she fell for the handsome young man at a dance who then announced he was going away to fight.

So she lied about her age to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service in April 1941 hoping to meeting him again. The required age was 17.

But instead of finding her man, Grace ended up in the thick of the action as an anti-aircraft "gunner girl" on the south coast, shooting German bombers as they made deadly raids on British towns and cities.