They Were All Young Girls

      More Letters From Paradise
      They Were All Young Girls
Most Americans know that women served as nurses in WWI and WWII. But few people know that during WWII, Soviet girls served in all branches of the military. When Hitler's army invaded Russia in 1941, every patriotic Russian quickly ran to recruiting offices. This included girls as young as 16 years of age. Many lied about their age and were accepted. A whole trainload of girls came from faraway Siberia.

Their introduction into military life was swift, and sometimes brutal. Russian girls all wore their hair in long braids. These were cut off and replaced by a short man's haircut. Shirts,pants, coats, hats, long men's underwear, and American-made boots way too large. Size 10 for a girl's foot requiring a size 5. No feminine  products either.
 
After a few months of training, they became drivers of trucks and tanks,  Some became nurse aids and snipers. During the four years of war, many girls were killed in combat. One 17 year girl received the "Florence Nightingale " award for dragging 147 wounded men to safety. Another young girl sniper was awarded the "Red Star" for having killed 75 Germans.

Tank girls wore canvas pants with padded knees and a helmet. When a tank was hit, the crew was most often on  fire, and the girls pulled them out of the burning tank.

When victory came at long last, the men who had fought, received all the credit. The role played by the female fighters was forgotten. Young girls returning home had a tough time. Young men refused to date them as they had soiled themselves by living with men. They were seen as having lost their feminism charm. They were often called whores.

Things began to change when  a book The "Unwomanly Face of War," by Svetlana Alexievich  was published in 1985. She went on to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in  2015. She spent years with her tape recorder talking with the old women who were once young girls. The book was translated into English and published  in 2017. Many women had waited years to tell their stories. Others had tried to forget. Many women refused to either wear or have the color red in their homes. It reminded them of so much blood. Some few married younger men, while others lived alone in apartment houses.

The Russians suffered greatly in WWII. One out of every eight people died in the war. See the battles for Leningrad and Stalingrad for examples. How did these young girls find the strength and courage to fight as they did? We may never know the answer.

    Aloha
    Grant