Women in Combat for T2K

[helbent4]

Rae,

I just finished reading a fascinating history book called "Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-45" by Catherine Merridale. It's a largely anecdotal history of Soviet soldiers during the "Great Patriotic War", based on personal stories, letters (censored) and diaries (banned), statistics and official records (off-limits until recently).

Women, at least in the past, were accepted for front-line positions (for the same reasons as the Twilight War: manpower) including infantry, snipers, tankers, pilots (fighters and bombers) and so on. The Soviets experimented with mixed-sex and same-sex units as part of their overall reorganisation. The best story was of a married couple that saved enough to donate and pay for a SU152 assault gun; then she served as commander and he as driver. Obviously, they were used as a propaganda tool but amusing.

Tony