Women of World War II (dial up warning, very pic heavy ! )

[steve2470]

Symbolic of the defense of Sevastopol, Crimea, is this Russian girl sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who, by the end of the war, had killed a confrimed 309 Germans -- the most successful female sniper in history. (AP Photo)



Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl looks through the lens of a large camera prior to filming the 1934 Nuremberg Rally in Germany. The footage would be composed into the 1935 film "Triumph of the Will", later hailed as one of the best propaganda films in history. (LOC) #



Japanese women look for possible flaws in the empty shells in a factory in Japan, on September 30, 1941. (AP Photo) #



Members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) pose at Camp Shanks, New York, before leaving from New York Port of Embarkation on Feb. 2, 1945. The women are with the first contingent of Black American WACs to go overseas for the war effort From left to right are, kneeling: Pvt. Rose Stone; Pvt. Virginia Blake; and Pfc. Marie B. Gillisspie. Second row: Pvt. Genevieve Marshall; T/5 Fanny L. Talbert; and Cpl. Callie K. Smith. Third row: Pvt. Gladys Schuster Carter; T/4 Evelyn C. Martin; and Pfc. Theodora Palmer. (AP Photo)



Woman workers inspect a partly inflated barrage balloon in New Bedford, Massachusetts on May 11, 1943. Each part of the balloon must be stamped by the worker who does the particular job, also by the work inspector of the division, and finally by the "G" inspector, who gives final approval. (AP Photo)



With some of New York's skyscrapers looming through clouds of gas, some U.S. army nurses at the hospital post at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York, wear gas masks as they drill on defense precautions, on November 27, 1941. (AP Photo)



Three Soviet guerrillas in action in Russia during World War II. (LOC)



An Auxiliary Territorial Service girl crew, dressed in warm winter coats, works a searchlight near London, on January 19, 1943, trying to find German bombers for the anti-aircraft guns to hit. (AP Photo)



The German Aviatrix, Captain Hanna Reitsch, shakes hands with German chancellor Adolf Hitler after being awarded the Iron Cross second class at the Reich Chancellory in Berlin, Germany, in April 1941, for her service in the development of airplane armament instruments during World War II. In back, center is Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering. At the extreme right is Lt. Gen. Karl Bodenschatz of the German air ministry. (AP Photo)



The art assembly line of female students busily engaged in copying World War II propaganda posters in Port Washington, New York, on July 8, 1942. The master poster is hanging in the background. (AP Photo/Marty Zimmerman)



A group of young Jewish resistance fighters are being held under arrest by German SS soldiers in April/May 1943, during the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto by German troops after an uprising in the Jewish quarter. (AP Photo)



More and more girls are joining the Luftwaffe under Germany's total conscription campaign. They are replacing men transferred to the army to take up arms instead of planes against the advancing allied forces. Here, German girls are shown in training with men of the Luftwaffe, somewhere in Germany, on December 7, 1944. (AP Photo)



Specially chosen airwomen are being trained for police duties in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). They have to be quick-witted, intelligent and observant woman of the world - They attend an intensive course at the highly sufficient RAF police school - where their training runs parallel with that of the men. Keeping a man "in his place" - A WAAF member demonstrates self-defense on January 15, 1942. (AP Photo)



The first "Women Guerrilla" corps has just been formed in the Philippines and Filipino women, trained in their local women's auxiliary service, are seen here hard at work practicing on November 8, 1941, at a rifle range in Manila. (AP Photo)



Little known to the outside world, although they have been fighting fascist regimes since 1927, the Italian "Maquis" carry on their battle for freedom under the most hazardous conditions. Germans and fascist Italians are targets for their guns; and the icy, eternally snow-clad peaks of the French-Italian border are their battlefield. This school teacher of the Valley of Aosta fights side-by-side with her husband in the "White Patrol" above the pass of Little Saint Bernard in Italy, on January 4, 1945. (AP Photo)



Women of the defense corps form a "V" for victory with crossed hose lines at a demonstration of their abilities in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on November 14, 1941. (AP Photo)



A nurse wraps a bandage around the hand of a Chinese soldier as another wounded soldier limps up for first aid treatment during fighting on the Salween River front in Yunnan Province, China, on June 22, 1943. (AP Photo)



Women workers groom lines of transparent noses for the A-20J attack bombers at Douglas Aircraft's in Long Beach, California, in October of 1942. (AP Photo/Office of War Information)



American film actress Veronica Lake, illustrates what can happen to women war workers who wear their hair long while working at their benches, in a factory somewhere in America, on November 9, 1943. (AP Photo)



Ack-Ack Girls, members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), run to action at an anti-aircraft gun emplacement in the London area on May 20, 1941 when the alarm is sounded. (AP Photo)



Two women of the German anti-aircraft gun auxiliary operating field telephones during World War II. (LOC)



Young Soviet girl tractor-drivers of Kirghizia (now Kyrgyzstan), efficiently replace their friends, brothers and fathers who went to the front. Here, a girl tractor driver sows sugar beets on August 26, 1942. (AP Photo)



Mrs. Paul Titus, 77-year-old air raid spotter of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, carries a gun as she patrols her beat, on December 20, 1941. Mrs. Titus signed-up the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. "I can carry a gun any time they want me to," she declared. (AP Photo)



Several more at this link, enjoy !: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/world-war-ii-women-at-war/100145/

[Abin Sur]

1. Wonderful photos. n/t

[FSogol]

2. Cool thanks for posting.

Veronica Lake!!! :9

[treestar]

3. Neat stuff!

Thanks for posting.

[devilgrrl]

4. Aviatrix Hanna Reitsch was a Fascist Scum to the very end.

Sorry. Those who enthusiastically served under the Third Reich can rot in hell.

[Auggie]

5. Sad to consider the many that perished...

re: the Warsaw ghetto resistance women.

[Honeycombe8]

6. What a great post! Thanks! Makes me proud to be a woman.

The world forgets how women can and do contribute and sacrifice for their countries and the world.

:patriot:

[Loge23]

7. My Mother was a WAVE in WW2

She later served as the first woman Commander of her American Legion post. She served many years as Adjutant and, after her day job, spent many hours hand-writing letters to the local boys in Vietnam. She was no right-wing kook and voted Dem. In her later and last productive years, she spearheaded a successful movement to erect a statue of a woman soldier at the local Memorial Park where she lived (and I was raised). Her last years were spent in a living hell of Alzheimer's Disease until her death in 2006. She was buried with military honors in Calverton Cemetery on Long Island.
Her name was Edith. May she rest in Peace.

[dana_b]

10. what a wonderful role model for you

rip, Edith.

[RZM]

8. Great pics. Thanks.

Interesting thing about the Soviet tractor photo from Central Asia. With so much of Soviet production capacity going to the front, having access to a tractor like that would have been exceedingly rare (it was rare enough even before the war). In reality a lot of Soviet women during the war had to get out there and plant/harvest crops without the aid of machines. Often this meant by hand, sometimes with livestock not intended for that purpose (such as a dairy cow). This photo was almost certainly staged for allied consumption. In reality, they usually had it even harder.

[Ilsa]

9. Wonderful pix. I have one of my mother and her coworkers from the War Department

Branch in Houston. 1943 or 44, I believe.

[dana_b]

11. fantastic shots!

thanks :thumbsup:

[FogerRox]

12. How can you pass over, JACQUELINE “JACKIE”COCHRAN who won the 1938 Bendix air race

Set numerous air records, male or female it didnt matter she broke them anyway, first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic, first woman to break the sound barrier. She was also the first woman in American History to win the Distinguished Flying Cross. Shes on this list of great pilots, she transcended sex in her achievements.
http://blackhawkflightfoundation.org/?page_id=43

Jackie founded the WASPS and ran the group from its inception in 1943.

From wiki

Known by her friends as "Jackie," and maintaining the Cochran name, she flew in the MacRobertson Air Race in 1934. In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race. She worked with Amelia Earhart to open the race for women.<3> That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States. She had won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records (by this time she was no longer just breaking women's records but was setting overall records).<4> She was the first woman to break the sound barrier (with Chuck Yeager right on her wing), the first woman to fly a jet across the ocean, and the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the "Speed Queen," at the time of her death, no pilot, man or woman, held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history, than Jackie Cochran.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Cochran

[blue neen]

13. That's such a terrific series of photographs.

Thanks! :)

[Poll_Blind]

14. I'm suprised this doesn't have 4,000 recs by now. I'll give it one!

What an amazing set of pictures- I really haven't seen a collection like that before.

PB

[Odin2005]

15. Truly awesome pics!

[WillyT]

16. K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

:hi:

:kick:

[JNelson6563]

17. That was great!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. Another was Lydia Litvyak, the White Rose of Stalingrad.

One of only two female fighter aces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Litvyak

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. My late aunt, Wilma Pontzius.

She served as a nurse.



She passed away earlier this year. She was 95.

[csziggy]

21. My Mom was also a Navy nurse

She's still going strong at 90, but she was very young when she enlisted almost straight out of nursing school.

Mom served in Virginia Beach and then in Hawaii until the end of the war.

[a la izquierda]

20. Phenomenal photos...

even the ones of Nazi women (I echo the other sentiments here), which are important for posterity.

[glowing]

22. I know that these are war time photos, but how many fat people do you see in these photos?

How unusual would it be today to see a photos of Americans looking fit, trim, and with smiles on their faces. They seem to have a sparkle about them.. a common cause.. a feel good purpose. How many people feel that today? How many people feel as if they are doing for their country or that their country is worth doing for? It seems more people are on anti-depressants and more people are tired, listless, and without a sparkle or feeling of a common cause.

I've looked thru old photos of when my grandmother was young. There were always people around, smiling, laughing, enjoying beverages, dancing, and having a good time entertaining on a Friday evening. My mom says she remembers looking out the upstairs window and watching the adults arrive at the Grange Hall for a Friday evening of dancing. She said my grandparents loved to dance and they were good at it.. And since she had a house that was across from the hall, after the dancing, people would come over and keep on going into the wee hours. It looks and sounds so magical. Who does that anymore in their community and with one another. Today, people work so hard, achieve so little, and sit listlessly in front of a TV.

[BzaDem]

23. K&R.

[Skittles]

24. yet according to THE PACIFIC

all women did was pine for the men or fuck them