Women at War

[Lang]

I think there is not enough written on the work the women did during WW2. They certainly performed a great service to their nations. Unfortunately there is a pretty constant beat-up on the heroic nature of this service.

Only a very small percentage were deliberately placed in direct harm's way (Air Transport pilots, clearing station nurses etc). Dodging V2's and bombs in England sounds pretty serious but the other 55 million people there were doing the same thing. They were certainly used in areas where they COULD have been killed by bombs, ship sinking etc but not deliberately placed in positions it was LIKELY they would meet that fate. The low female casualty figures attest to this.

The girls gave years of their life to support their countries in vital roles in logistics, communications, administration and should be recognized for that the same as the majority of male servicemen who never fired a shot in anger.

The position of the girls in other nations was not so protected. The Russians used hundreds of thousands of women in direct combat operations. The Night Witches who flew every night over Stalingrad in the Russian version of Tiger Moths dropping small bombs to unsettle the Germans are just a small example of women operating as combat pilots. Thousands died in horrible circumstances in direct ground combat operations.

In this modern day we now have women in direct combat units in just about every position. If we have a real war I wonder what the community attitude will be to thousands of killed and horribly maimed girls. Isn't young men dying enough?