Fighting On All Fronts: Women At War exhibition article - Women's Armed Services

Women's Armed Services

During World War Two, women participated in the hostilities in the newly created branches of their country’s military services. In Britain, this included the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and Women’s Land Army (WLA), that were attached to the British Army; the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), attached to the Royal Air Force; and the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens), attached to the Royal Navy. During World War One, there were about 100,000 women in the armed forces of Great Britain but, after the end of war, the role of women in the military gradually faded away. With the rising complication of international relations during the 1930s, several prominent women from the high society of Great Britain advocated the return of women to the army.

So, in September 1938, the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was formed. The historical predecessor of this organisation was the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (1917-1921). Like their predecessors, women in the ATS performed non-combat functions: they were drivers, cooks, office clerks, signal workers etc. Separately, nurses joined the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (established 1902). In 1941, an air defence command was created as part of the ATS, and women almost became equal in their functions with men: they worked with reflectors, radios, directed cannon fire, engaged in aerial surveillance with binoculars etc. In 1949, the ATS became the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; disbanded in 1992). The future Queen Elizabeth II also served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and mechanic, and receiving the military rank of Hon. Junior Commander. In April 1939, the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) was created followed by the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) two months later. The navy and air force still use the terms Wren and Waaf informally, although women no longer serve in separate units to men.

In the field of aviation, one of the most important functions of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was air defence. Initially, the role of women was limited to managing searchlights, but later they were included in anti-aircraft crews. By law, women were not allowed to use weapons, but there is considerable evidence that, during the raids, women furiously fired at enemy aircraft with anti-aircraft guns. Members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service worked primarily in naval aviation, folding parachutes and charging aircraft batteries. Their powers were expanded in 1944, when women were allowed to occupy any position in the ranks of the naval aviation maintenance units that did not require special training. Those who were trained as radio operators served both on the ground and in the air, later becoming the first female aviators in the RAF. In the army, women could hold 75 different positions, including the meteorological service, ground radar stations and aircraft maintenance, up to servicing tables with operational maps at unit headquarters. Three members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force received a George Cross award; 100 women from the Royal Naval Service and over 335 from the Auxiliary Territorial Service died during the performance of their duties.

Similar services were created in other countries of the Commonwealth. In Canada, the government founded the Canadian Women's Army Corps (1941), the Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division (1941), and Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (1942). By the end of the war, the Canadian Women's Army Corps totalled about 21,000 members. Women were initially trained to be drivers, cooks, clerks, typists, stenographers, telephone operators, couriers and quartermasters. These duties were then expanded to include more traditionally male jobs such as driving trucks and ambulances and working as mechanics and radar operators.

In the United States, in May 1941, a bill was introduced to Congress giving women the right to occupy non-combat positions in the army. This did not receive universal approval and passed with a minimal margin of only 11 votes. As a result, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was created in May 1942. The recruitment requirements were high, so 90% of the enlisted American women were university graduates. By April 1945, there were about 100,000 women in the WAAC. Women's support units were also created in the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps, and in the civilian Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) division of more than 1,000 women pilots who transported military aircraft.

In the Soviet Union, women's military units of the armed forces were created on the basis of decisions by the State Defence Committee formed on 30 June 1941. The first mass mobilisation of women according to the decree of the Committee in March 1942, sent 100,000 Komsomol girls to the country’s air defence units to replace the Red Army telephone operators, radio operators, air scouts and air observers of anti-aircraft artillery and other male military positions. The second mobilisation in April 1942 sent 30,000 women to the front to serve in the signal troops, and women replaced male field postal workers, freight forwarders, telegraph technicians, clerks, draughtsmen, clerks and orderlies. Less than a week later, the third mobilisation was announced and 40,000 women were sent to positions of administrative and economic service specialists (warehouse managers, drivers, tractor drivers, cooks, storekeepers, accountants), as well as to the signal troops to supplement the previous call. Some of the mobilised women received training before being sent to the front, while some were sent immediately after the call. Soviet women were integrated into the main army units and participated as medics and in active combat duty from firing guns in sniper units to flying with the air force.

Women's armed service units were not only created by the Allies. In Germany, in 1940, the Luftwaffe-Helferin women's organisation was created to free up as many men as possible for service at the front. The development of this service, created mainly as an office and secretariat, acquired its own mechanics and operators of anti-aircraft searchlights and a woman was even able to become a jet test pilot. Over 500,000 women volunteered to join the nursing services and the auxiliary units of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) in the navy, air force and army.