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Women in the War

History and Backround Information
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"For historians interested in gender in 20th Century Britain, the Second World War has formed the focus for consideration of the ways in which relationships between the sexes is defined, and the ways in which that definition might change. The total war of 1939-45 posed an arguably unique challenge to the characterisation of war as being primarily a masculine affair, and was a time when force of circumstances meant that gendered definitions- of work and of behaviour - were if not up for grabs, then at least open to question."

(Tessa Stone: Creating a (Gendered?) Military Identity: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Great Britain in the Second World War).

So why did things change so much during the Second World War? The following extract from 'Women Who Went to War 1938-1946' highlights some relevant background infomration on the events that changed the way we lived.

It was war that was to break down traditional barriers as the frontier which developed combatant from non-combatant became completely blurred. Now everyone was in it, and as those traditional barriers crumbled, so also did ideas on the role of able-bodied women in war-time. Now, surely, it would be absurd to debar women from military service simply because it might endanger life and limb, since they were in equal danger with men at home, from aerial bombardment.

Women were keen to serve. Thousands queued outside recruiting offices to join the three highly organised women's services: the WRNS (Women's Royal Navy Service) and the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force). Amazingly on the day following the outbreak of war, 17,000 enrolled voluntarily in the ATS, pledging themselves to serve their country in whatever capacity and whatever place authorities required.

The Auxiliary Territorial Service had been first in the field, being set up technically in 1938 though its pedigree could be traced back to the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps of World War I. Partly incorporated into the ATS was the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), sometimes known as the Women's Transport Services (WTS), and at first a branch of the ATS was the embryo of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. By 1939 the Navy too had its own womens Service (WRNS).

These three chief women's Services, linked directly with the fighting forces, were to expand rapidly with the introduction of conscription by the National Service Act of December 1941, when all direct recruiting was cancelled. Initially, though, there was no shortage of volunteers for all Services.

It is not easy in retrospect to analyse accurately the reasons women had for leaving home to enlist in these auxiliary Services. Apart from the fact that patriotism was a much more meaningful and positive force than it is today, there were other factors: opportunities for tackling jobs that formerly had been considered too tough or technical for the 'weaker sex', and liberation from old restructions and attitudes, from low-paid jobs or from being economically dependent on a husband's hand-out. For the young married woman, exasperated by the narrow confines of home, a future beckoned.

Taylor, E., 1988. Women Who Went to War 1938-1946. London: Grafton Books.

WRNS

The WRNS of the First World War was demobilized in 1919 but many of its original members enrolled again when the Service was re-formed in April 1939. It was set up to replace various categories of naval personnel in shore establishments and thus to release men for active service. Although serving mainly on shore, the Wrens conformed to naval usage and naval ways of speech. Though living in buildings, they went 'ashore', and slept 'below decks' in 'cabins'. They never used a kitchen but worked in 'galleys'.

Many of the first Wrens were recruited from the families of naval personnel living near the ports at which WRNS units were being formed. Many of these were classed as 'immobile' - that is, they continued to live in their own homes after they had joined the Service. Manya of them later volunteered for 'mobile' service.

WRNS units were attached to nearly every naval shore establishment in the United Kingdom, and many served abroad in both the Middle and Far East theatres of operations. Many Wrens were employed in highly secret communications duties, and there was a specially trained class of cyphering personnel decoding German messages.

In all their duties Wrens displayed tremendous courage and spirit....There is one story which particularly typifies their sense of commitment. A Wren cyphering officer had just finished her watch and gone into a hotel during an air raid when the building was struck and she was buried up to her neck in debris. Fire broke out in the upper storeys of the wrecked hotel and crept steadily nearer to the trapped Wren as the rescue party worked frantically to get her out. They succeeded with a bare margin of time and were trying to put her in an ambulance for hospital when she struggled off the stretcher saying there was something she must do first. She had realised that the key to the secret cyphering office was still in her possession. Terribly bruised and shaken as she was, she insisted on going straight back to the duty officer to give up her key. Then she collapsed. Weeks later she was still in hospital recovering from her injuries.

She was the spirit of the WRNS, proving the sister if the Senior Service not unworthy of its ancestry.

Taylor, E., 1988. Women Who Went to War 1938-1946. London: Grafton Books.

WAAF

The WAAF was not formed until June 1939, although the Women's Royal Air Force had started at the same time as the Royal Air Force in the First World War. Before its formation in 1939 personnel of the WAAF had been on duty for nearly a year in the RAF comanies of the ATS. This experience revealed the need for women who could undertake a different range of duties from those who were needed by the Army, and so a separate women's services was formed under the direct command of the RAF.

As in other women's services, the main object of the WAAF was to release men for combatant posts. Recruits were accepted between the ages of seventeen and forty-four. They joined for 'the duration' and had to be prepared to serve anywhere, at home or abroad.

The work done by the WAAF covered nearly every activity of the Service barring flying. There were well over fifty different trades. They handled balloons - no light job - worked in 'operations rooms', where intelligence and quickness on the uptake were essential qualities, and at fighter stations acted as plotters, often under dangerous conditions. During the Battle of Britain they won high praise from men of the RAF for their stedfastness under bombardment.

They were closely connected with the best-kept secret of the early days of war, radio-location, specially selected for their perfect eyesight, clear voices and integrity of character, working side by side with men through long hours and often under conditions of great strain.

The Service appealed to girls and women with initiative and the spirit of adventure. In its ranks were women from all parts of the Empire, and many went overseas with Air Forces of the Dominions.

Taylor, E., 1988. Women Who Went to War 1938-1946. London: Grafton Books.

ATS

In the winter of 1937-8 the problem of increasing the manpower resources of Great Britain became a matter of urgency. Consequently, wheels were set in motion to consider the best and most economical scheme under which women could be made available for duty with the Armed Forces on mobilization. An advisory council was set up to plan the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1938 and included representatives of the Territorial Army (to which the new corps was to be attached), the Territorial Associations and the three women's services recognized by the Army Council: the Women's Transport Service, the Motor Transport Section of the Women's Legion (dating from the First World War) and the Emergency Service (a recently created group of ex-servicewomen concerned with recruitment of previously trained officers in the event of war breaking out).

It was decided that in each county the TA Association should nominate a woman to be County Commandant; she, in turn, would put forward names of women to fill the appointments of junior officers. The status of these women, both officers and memberss, was that of 'camp-followers' as defined by the Army Act. In principle it was decided that women would receive two-thirds of the soldiers' pay. Such was the organisation on 9 September 1938 when the ATS came into being by Royal Warrant. Some companies were reised for duties with the RAF but, on the formation of the WAAF in the summer of 1939, the War Department ceased to have any responsibility for them. The FANY was to help recruit and train a number of motor driver companies.

In September 1939 the ATS went into camp for the first time with the Territorial Army, cooking, clerking and storekeeping, while other members spent their holidays in the Army record or pay offices.

Ver soon the Army wanted more and more women. Three hundred were sent out to France, and on the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940 ATS telephonists were the last to leave Paris, carrying on their duties at the exchange whilst lorries waited to rush them to the coast. Three times on the journey to Le Mans they were machine-gunned. The last unit of about twenty-five ATS embarked at St Malo and reached Britain on the day France capitulated.

A new army of women now grew rapidly. The age limits were set at seventeen to forty-three but veterans of the First World War were accepted up to the age of fifty. The range of jobs done by auxiliaries widened steadily and included confidential work of vital importance calling for the highest standard of integrity; some jobs involved duties needing characteristics formally regarded as masculine - manual dexterity and cleverness with gear and gadgets for the installation, maintenance and repair, the testing and so forth of technical apparatus. They also undertook secret work including the testing of ammunition and other gunnery experiments.

As they grew in strength, ao also did they establish a distingushed war record for courage and devotion to duty.

Taylor, E., 1988. Women Who Went to War 1938-1946. London: Grafton Books.