{"id":61,"date":"2007-03-06T08:28:36","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T13:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/womens-contributions-to-wwii\/"},"modified":"2007-03-06T08:28:36","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T13:28:36","slug":"womens-contributions-to-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/61\/womens-contributions-to-wwii\/","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Contributions to WWII"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"147322a129097e1fa44d6732c925fd6d\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-8134560547846945\";\r\n\/* 468x60 tha *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"1487607395\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">In   1941, the New York Herald Tribune   published a letter from a woman who was tired of sitting at home worrying about   the war. &#8220;If I were only a man, there would be a place for me,&#8221; she wrote. Many   women shared similar feelings of frustration, eager to play an active role in   the conflict, but held back because by law and tradition. But as the war   escalated, many countries found they could not afford to exclude half of their   adult populations and doors began to open for women. They went to work in   factories. Capital cities became overrun with female office workers. Nurses   joined the front line troops. And many women were allowed to fly.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">The   Soviet Union, which already had a tradition of women in combat, was the first   nation to use women pilots. After suffering huge battle casualties in 1941, the   government ordered all women without children who were not already engaged in   war work to join the military. There were three all-woman regiments: fighter,   bomber, and night bomber. Other women flew with male regiments and pilot   Valentina Grizodubova was even the commander of a 300-man, long-range bomber   squadron. With the exception of Turkey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sabiha Gokcen, the Soviet women were   the only women who flew in combat. German pilots were often surprised suddenly   to be circled by Russian planes and hear female voices shouting to each other.   Lily Litvyak became an ace, downing 12 German planes until she was shot down in   1943. Twenty-three women were given the &#8220;Hero of the Soviet Union&#8221; medal. When   Marina Raskova, who had helped organize the female pilots, was killed in combat   in 1943, the government held its first state funeral of World War II, entombing   her ashes in the wall of the Kremlin as a sign of gratitude for all Soviet   women who flew. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">Fascist ideology dictated that a women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in   society was as a mother and frowned upon women working in any capacity. A few   German women did find ways to work, some in jobs such as ferrying and test   pilots. Melitta Schiller was awarded the Iron Cross for conducting 1,500 test   dives of new dive bombers. And Hitler favorite Hanna Reitsch, a record-breaking   glider and test pilot before the war, flew every Luftwaffe plane and   helicopter. Denied permission to organize a women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flight squadron, she organized   a suicide squadron that would use V-1 rockets   modified with seats to hold pilots to attack British industrial centers. The   program was eventually dropped. In the final days of the war, she flew a   Luftwaffe general through Soviet artillery fire and fighters to land on a road   in central Berlin and meet with Hitler just days before he killed himself.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">Although Canada and Australia did not allow women to   fly military planes, Great Britain used women to ferry planes as part of the   Air Transport Auxiliary. Organized by Pauline Gower, eight women began ferrying   single-engine Tiger Moth trainers around England in 1940. Despite their   unpopularity among the male pilots, the women proved themselves capable pilots.   The variety of planes increased and more women joined the program&#8211;not only   from England, but also from the Commonwealth nations and from Poland, Chile,   and the United States. Ferrying planes in England was not without dangers, and   pilots encountered barrage balloons, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries, Royal   Air Force training flights, radio silence, and German planes. The women were   expected to fly anything assigned to them, even if they had to consult the Ferry Pilots\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Notes to learn the basic   information on an aircraft before taking off. The ATA women survived all their   obstacles admirably, with an accident rate equal to their male counterparts,   earning the respect of their countrymen.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">In   the United States, with the support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who called   them a &#8220;weapon waiting to be used,&#8221; record-breaking pilot Jacqueline Cochran   tried to use her influence to form a woman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s squadron, but seeing that it was   hopeless, she took a group of women pilots to England to fly with the British   ATA. During her absence, the U.S. Army organized the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Auxiliary Army   Corps in 1941 (WAAC) (changed to the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Army Corps (WACs) when the group   was militarized in 1943). The WACs were assigned to non-flying aviation   positions such as Link trainer instructors, radio operators, mechanics, photo   interpreters and parachute riggers. The Navy established the WAVES (Women   Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1942 to perform the same   assignments as the WACs, as well as become control tower operators, a controversial   decision since detractors worried that women could not handle the multiple   tasks required. But the women excelled and the only problem was that the WAVES   uniform skirt was too snug for climbing the ladders into the towers. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">The U.S. Air Transport Command had been   investigating, through pilot Nancy Love, using women to ferry planes from the   factories to stateside military bases. Although U.S. Army Air Force Chief of   Staff Henry &#8220;Hap&#8221; Arnold had promised Jacqueline   Cochran and the White House that Cochran would have command of any women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s   unit, that was not to pass. Military politics led to the announcement on   September 10, 1942 of the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), under the   command of Love. The first WAFS group arrived, after an intensive screening   process, at New Castle Air Base in October. Although civilians, they began   flying military planes in the contiguous United States.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">As a peace offering to the angry Cochran, Arnold   organized the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) to train pilots. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">The WFTD training school was at Avenger Field in   Sweetwater, Texas, where 1,074 women were taught to fly &#8220;the Army way&#8221; while   living the military lifestyle with uniforms, drills, regulations, and morning   reveille. Although never officially made members of the military, the women   still behaved as if they had been. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">In August 1943 the two women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s groups were merged, under   Cochran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s command and renamed the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs). The   WASPs accumulated an amazing record. They flew every airplane in the USAAF\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s   inventory, including half of all pursuit planes delivered during the war. When   male pilots were afraid to fly the new B-29   Superfortress because of mechanical difficulties experienced during   testing, two WASPs took one, Ladybird,   on a tour of air bases to show the men how safe the plane was. And the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s   duties increased beyond ferrying. They towed targets for aerial gunnery   practice, simulated strafing, served as flight instructors, and ran check   flights for recently repaired aircraft. And Ann Baumgartner worked as a test   pilot at Wright Field where she became the first woman to fly the YP-59 jet.   Thirty-eight WASPs were killed performing their duties. In total, the female   pilots logged 60 million miles flying their planes.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">By the end of 1944 it was apparent the war in Europe   would end soon. Male pilots, wanting to avoid being sent to the Pacific,   lobbied hard for the duties the WASPs were performing. It was announced that on   December 20, 1944, the WASPs would be deactivated. Cochran lobbied for a   one-day militarization, which would at least give her women veteran status and   access to GI Bill benefits, but she was denied. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">Hap Arnold called the program a success, saying, &#8220;We   will not again look upon a woman flying as an experiment.&#8221; They had proved   themselves, but there was still no place for them. The women were crestfallen.   Some volunteered to work without pay. One unit received letters from an airline   only to find offers for stewardess jobs. Like all women who had kept the   homefront running during the war, when the men returned home, they were   expected to return to their traditional roles as housewives. Many, like Nancy   Love, did. Others held out hope for flying futures, but these hopes were dashed   when the establishment of the independent U.S. Air Force in 1948 brought only   non-flying positions for women. The WASPs slipped into obscurity. In 1977 the   air force announced that &#8220;for the first time, the Air Force is allowing women   to fly its airplanes.&#8221; The WASPs found each other again, and with the help of   former ferrying pilot Senator Barry Goldwater fought for, and in November 1977,   received military recognition and veteran status. Their efforts were finally   recognized. But although they could be interned at Arlington National Cemetery,   WASPs did not begin to receive military honors until June 2002, when Irene   Englund became the first WASP thus recognized. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\">Throughout World War II, women contributed to the   war effort in many ways, earning the respect of society and laying the   foundations for the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s movement. As a group of male Russian pilots said to   their combat partners: &#8220;Even if we were to place at your feet all the flowers   of the earth they would not be big enough tribute to your valor.&#8221;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"basic\"><font class=\"essayText\"> <\/font><\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehistoricalarchive.com%2Fhappenings%2F61%2Fwomens-contributions-to-wwii%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;margin-top:5px;\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1941, the New York Herald Tribune published a letter from a woman who was tired of sitting at home worrying about the war. &#8220;If I were only a man, there would be a place for me,&#8221; she wrote. Many women shared similar feelings of frustration, eager to play an active role in the conflict, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}