Women in Combat: The World War II Experience in the United ...

Women in Combat: The World War II Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union Author(s): D'Ann Campbell Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Military History, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Apr., 1993), pp. 301-323 Published by: Society for Military History Stable URL: . Accessed: 09/01/2013 11:38 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@. .

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Womenin Combat:The WorldWarII Experiencein theUnitedStates,Great Britain,Germany,and theSovietUnion

D'Ann Campbell

WO MEN are theinvisiblecombatantsofWorldWar11.1The concern

here is withregular combat soldiers in uniform,not resistance fighterosr guerrillas."Combat" means an organized lethalattackon an organized enemy (and does not include self-defensein emergency situations).2 Hundreds of thousands of women engaged in combat. They servedon both sides and on everyfront.German women soldiers

1. Researchsupportwasprovidedinpartbya grantfromtheNationalEndowment forthe Humanities,Divisionof Research,RO-20660-84. I especiallyappreciated thecommentsofCol. RobertDoughty,Col. KennethHamburger,Col. Paul Miles, Lt. Col. JudithLuckett,Capt. RichardHooker,Connie Devilbiss,Nancy Loring HarrisonR, ichardJensen,DennisShowaltera,ndJudithStiehm.Archivistlsi,brarians, and historianswere especially helpfulat Indiana Universityt;he U.S. Military Academy;theNationalArchives(NA); theDwightEisenhowerPresidentiaLl ibrary; theWACMuseumat FtMcClellan;MaxwellAirForceBase Libraryt; heNavyHistory Center,Washingtont; heFranklinD. RooseveltPresidentialLibraryt; heGeorgeC. MarshallLibrary(ML); the U.S. Air Force Academy; the ImperialWarMuseum (IWM), London; thePublicRecordOffice,London; theCanadian ArchivesO, ttawa; theMilitargeschichtlicheFsorschungsamt(MF) FreiburgG, ermany;MoscowState Universityt;he GeorgianState Museum,Tbilisi;the RoyalDutch MilitaryHistory Museum;and theAustrianFederalMilitaryHistoricalService(MSH), Vienna. The Russianarchivesprovedimpossibleto use. However,thereis in Moscow a Soviet Women's Center which helped arrange veryusefulinterviewsforme in 1986. Special thanksto LarryI. Bland (ML); Colonel (Dr.) Roland G. Foerster(MF); Dr. ErwinSchmidl (MSH); and Dr. V. S. Murmantseva.Invaluablewerethe excellent translationsmade forme byShannonJumper.

2. "Combat"is used as itwasdefinedat thetime,particularlybytheU.S.Army's JudgeAdvocateGeneral'sOfficea,nd also byBritishpolicymakerssuchas Winston Churchilland GeneralFrederickPile.

TheJournalofMilitaryHistory57 (April1993): 3(01-23 ? SocietyforMilitarylistory

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Tl'A\T\T CAMfPnPT.T.

helped inflictcasualties on American and Britishforces,and in turn they were killed, wounded, or captured. Likewise, Soviet and British women foughtbravely.

American women were not sent into combat. The question is why not-and whatdoes thattellus about genderrolesinAmerica?Historians in recentyearshave been exploringthechanges in gender roles during WorldWar II. The general consensus is thaton the home frontwomen temporarily assumed new roles ("Rosie the Riveter") but that no permanentor radical transformationtookplace.3 The question is more open regardingmilitaryroles: making women soldiers was the most dramaticgovernmentexperimentin changingtraditionalsex roles ever attempted. Puttingthese women soldiers into combat constituteda radical inversion of the traditional roles of women as the passive sweetheart/wife/seoxbject whose ultimatemissionwas to waitfortheir virilemenfolkto returnfromtheirmasculine mission of fightingand dying for"apple pie and motherhood" (that is, fortraditionalsocial values.) The Pentagon was well aware ofthe performanceof European women soldiers,and ArmyChiefofStaffGeorge C. Marshallconducted a full-scaleexperimentto see howwellAmericanwomen could perform. There was never a question ofan all-femaleunit; the issue at stake was whethermixed gender units could performcombat roles effectively. The experimentstunnedtheGeneral Staffm: ixedgenderunitsperformed betterthanall-male units.As thedraftscraped furtherand furtherdown the barrel, the availabilityof large numbers of potentiallyexcellent unutilizedsoldiersbecame more and more an anomaly. The demands ofmilitaryefficiencycalled forassigningwomen to combat.

The Luftwaffelost the Battle of Britain in 1940 but remained a powerfulforce.Ithad to be defeated,and thegroundsoldiers'preferred solution was strongantiaircraftunits(hereafterAA units).4In 1941 the Britishbegan using their women AuxiliaryTerritorialService (ATS) soldiersin "protected"AA units;protectedbecause these soldierswere immune from capture and their living conditions could be closely monitored.To help emphasize theimportance ofwomen servingin AA units to freemore men to fighton the European continent, Winston

3. D'AnnCampbell,Womenat WarwithAmerica:PrivateLives in a Patriotic Era (Cambridge,1984); Leila M. Rupp,MobilizingWomenforWar:German and AmericanPropaganda during WorldWarII (Princeton,1979); MaureenHoney, CreatingRosie theRiveter:Class, Gender,and Propaganda during WorldWar II (Amherst,1984); RuthMilkman,Genderat Work:The Dynamics ofJobSegregation by Sex During World War II (Urbana, 1987); Susan M. Hartmann,The HomeFrontand Beyond:American Womenin the1940s (Boston,1982). William Chafehas arguedforradicalchanges: The Paradox ofChange (NewYork,1992).

4. RobertR. Palmer,Bell I. Wiley,and WilliamR. Keast,TheProcurementand TrainingofGround Combat Troops (Washington,1948), 120-21.

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Womenin Combat

Churchill'sdaughterMaryserved in one such brigade. Marshallasked General Dwight Eisenhower to investigatethe effectivenessof these mixed-genderAA units.WhenEisenhowergavea positivereport,Marshall decided to conduct his own experiment.5 Security was tight-there wereno leaks whateveruntillong afterthe war.6

Marshall wanted to recruit for his experiment women who had already volunteered formilitaryservice. He turnedto the only official American women's organization at that time, the Women's Auxiliary ArmyCorps (WAAC) whichin Julyof1943 wouldbecome theWomen's ArmyCorps. Waacs fromthe 150th and 151st WAACTechnical Companies and the 62nd WAACOperations Company, a total of21 officers and 374 enrollees,wereselected forthisexperiment.From15 December 1942 to 15 April 1943, they were trained in the MilitaryDistrictof Washingtonon twocomposite antiaircraftgun batteriesand thenearby searchlightunits.The Waacs servedwiththe36th Coast ArtilleryBrigade AA. Colonel Edward W. Timberlake, the immediate commander of these experimentalunitshad nothingbut praise forthem. "The experiences . . . indicate thatall WAACpersonnel exhibitedan outstanding devotion to duty,willingnessand abilityto absorb and grasp technical informationconcerning theproblems,maintenance and tactical dispositionto all typesofequipment." Indeed the Waacs learned theirduties much more quicklythan the men, most ofwhomhad been classifiedas "limited-dutyservice." Colonel Timberlake recommended that in the futurethe training periods forwomen recruitscould be shortened. Whenevaluatingthesearchlightunits,he reported,"thesame willingness to learn and devotion to dutyhas been manifestedin these unitsas in thegun batteries."7

In contradictionto generallyexistingstereotypesofwomen being physicallytoo weak to performcombat jobs, Timberlake concluded thatwomen met thephysical,intellectual,and psychologicalstandards for this mission. In an echo of a widespread belief at the time, he reported,"WAACpersonnel were foundto be superiorin efficiencyto

5. Reportno. 1101, Eisenhowerto GeneralMarshall,12 August1942. Women's ArmyCorps,WDCSA, 1942-43, 291.9; Reel306, Item4688. Originalin NA,copy in ML. Marshallto Eisenhower,6 August1942, and MarshallMemorandum,18 November1942, in LarryI. Bland, ed. The Papers of George CatlettMarshall (Baltimore,1981- ), 3:288-89, 443-44, also 561; AlfredD. Chandler,ed., The Papers ofDwightDavid Eisenhower (Baltimore,1970- ), 1:450-51.

6. The firstmentionofthe experimentcame in the officialhistoryby Mattie Treadwell,The Women'sArmyCorps (Washington1954), 301-2. Treadwell'swork remains the best single source on the WAACand WAC (and the best on any women'sunitduringthewar).

7. U.S. WarDepartment,Organizationand TrainingDivision,G-3.291.9 WAAC 7 July1943, RG 165, Entry211, Box 199, 1-3. Copyin ML,Xerox2782.

MILITARY HISTORY

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D'ANN CAMPBELL

men in all functionsinvolvingdelicacy ofmanual dexterity."He specifically listed their operation at the director, height finder,radar, and searchlightstations,and concluded "theirperformanceof repetitious routinedutiesis considered superiorto thatofmen." Indeed he judged thatWAACpersonnel could be substitutedformen in 60 percent ofall AA positions. Because men and women were going to be workingin close proximityT, imberlakewas concerned about any possible scandals whichmightoccur. Promiscuity,or even rumorsofimproprietyc,ould undermine the unit's combat effectiveness.He was relieved to find, "The relationshipbetween the Armypersonnel and WAACpersonnel, both enlisted and commissioned, has been highlysatisfactory."No sexualharassmentwas noted;insteadhe found,"A mutualunderstanding and appreciation appears to exist." Timberlake asked his superior, Major General JohnT. Lewis ofthe MilitaryDistrictofWashington,to judge the experiment forhimself.Soon Lewis was as enthusiasticas Timberlake. Lewis wrote that Waacs could "efficientlyperformmany dutiesin theantiaircraftartilleryunit."Theirhighmorale and a paucity of disciplinary problems "increases materially the relative value of WAACpersonnel in antiaircraftartilleryin fixedpositions." Lewis was so proud ofhis Waacs thatin May 1943, he asked Marshallforauthority to continue the experiment, increase the number of Waacs to 103 commissioned and 2,315 enrollees, and replace halfthe 3,630 men in his AA Defense Command withthese more efficientsoldiers.8

Marshallnow had to make a choice. Ifhe let Lewis have thewomen, thewhole countrywould immediatelyhear thatwomen werebeing sent into combat. What would thatdo to proposals to draftwomen? What would conservativeSoutherncongressmen,who neverlikedthe WAAC in the firstplace, do to Marshall'splans to expand the WAAC?9Would the general public approve? Would women stop volunteering?Would themale soldiersreact favorablyor not? IfMarshallapproved,he could no longer keep thisexperimentsecret. The JudgeAdvocate General's Officesaid thatCongress would have to change the existinglegislation and itprovidedthewordingfora suitableamendment: thenew Section 20 would read, "Nothing in thisact shall preventany member of the Women'sArmyAuxiliaryCorps fromservicewithany combatantorganization withher own consent."10

8. Ibid.,5-10; 15 June1943 MemorandumforAsst.C/S G-3,/s/Lewis,291.9 WAAC7 RG 165, Entry212, Box 199, 1.

9. RepresentativeCarl Vinson, the major Congressional voice on military affairso,pposed womenin combat. MarilynA. Gordonand MaryJo Ludvigson,"A ConstitutionaAl nalysisoftheCombat ExclusionforAirForce Women,"Minerva 9 (Summer1991): 1-34.

10. ASF Directorof Administration0,20 WAAC,11-18-42, RG 160, Box 1. [JAGto CofS]Xerox2000, ML. Also see Marshall Papers, 3: 454.

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