Yesterday, me and my friend where playing Red orchestra 2 and he brought up an interesting question. Were there any woman in combat roles during WWII? Not nurses in tents, not weapon nor weapon ammunition manufacturing, but real combat roles (what can be classified as combat roles can be someone who works in a tank in the battlefield, pilot, someone who works on a ship, or even just a plane ol' solder.) If there were non, were there informal cases (i.e. woman picks up gun and shoots ally/axis forces.)?
In advance, thank you.
I can only speak for the USSR in this regard, but, the book 'Russias war' by Richard overy has a passage which details the role of women in a combat enviroment on the eastern front.
'some of the bombing strikes (of operation bagration) where carried out by women pilots in biplanes with open cockpits. Despite some opposition from male aviators, women were introduced in larger numbers into actual combat. the 46th womens guards night light-bomber regiment was run entirely by women, from armourers to pilots and mechanics. twenty three of its members became heroes of the soviet union. Others served in the army; by 1945 there were 246,000 women in uniform at the front. few concessions were made. The first Belorussian front boasted a chief gynecologist, but sanitary and medical amenities for women at the front were rudimentary or non existent. Male comrades and officers expected women to bear the same hardships that they did, while the women themselves volunteered for more hazardous work to prove themselves to the men'
Other than that I don't really know, but I have heard of an anti air battalion being manned by teenage girls during the battle of Berlin, and there were women partisans operating as well
hi! not discouraging other input, but FYI, you'll find a few posts on WWII in the FAQ (link on sidebar):