Photo taken between 1941 and 1943.
Source: Soviet Partisans
Eleonore Prochaska
Eleonore Prochaska was a German soldier who fought in the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars.
Born in 1785 to a poor Prussian army officer, Prochaska spent her childhood in an orphanage following the death of her mother and seemed destined to a life of domestic service. However when war broke out against Napoleon in 1812 she chose to disguise herself as a man and enlist in the army under the name August Renz. She had no qualms about the deception, and in a letter to her brother wrote that she was convinced of the rightness of her actions.
As a member of the 1st Jägerbataillon of the Lützow Free Corps, Prochaska served first as a drummer and then as an infantryman. Her military career was cut short however when she was severely wounded at the Battle of the Göhrde. The surgeons treating her discovered she was a woman and took her to Dannenberg, where she eventually died of her wounds three weeks later.
Retrospectively Prochaska was hailed as a war heroine and was seen as a ’Joan of Arc’ of her time. Her life inspired numerous plays and poems, as well as a piece of music dedicated to her by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Linda Bray
Linda Bray was a Captain in the US Military Police who became the first woman to lead US troops in battle.
Bray commanded a unit of 45 soldiers in the 988th Military Police Company during the US invasion of Panama in 1989. During this time a routine mission went awry when her unit encountered a unit of Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) stationed at a dog kennel. The 40-odd PDF troops refused to surrender their position, leading to a firefight that lasted 3 hours.
Eventually Bray’s unit took the kennel and forced the PDF into retreat, having killed 3 PDF soldiers and taken 1 prisoner while suffering no casualties of their own. Judging by the money, uniforms and arsenal of weapons discovered within the kennels, it is assumed that it was in fact a Special Ops base for the PDF.
Instead of being praised for her actions, Bray came under serious criticism by her superiors as military police are supposed to be non-combative. “The responses of my superior officers were very degrading, like, `What were you doing there?’” Bray later said. “A lot of people couldn’t believe what I had done, or did not want to believe it."
Disenchanted by her experiences, Bray requested to be discharged from the army. She received the Army Commendation Medal for Valor. Her actions sparked a controversial proposal in US congress that women should be able to perform all roles within the US army, which was ultimately defeated. When similar legislation was successfully passed more recently in 2013, Bray stated that she was "thrilled”.
Maria Bochkareva
Maria Bochkareva was a Russian soldier who fought in World War I and the founder of the Women’s Battalion of Death.
A peasant girl from Novgorod, Bochkareva suffered two abusive romantic relationships until the beginning of the World War 1 when she left her partner to join the army. While initially rejected she made a personal petition to Tsar Nicholas II who granted her request.
Bochkareva endured ridicule and sexual harassment within her regiment, but also won many of her fellow soldier’s respect. In her first battle, following an ill-fated attack by her unit, Bochkareva crept out into No Man’s Land and dragged over 50 wounded men to safety before she was herself wounded in the leg. Bochkareva participated in at least 100 more excursions into No Man’s Land over the course of the war, during which she was wounded twice more and decorated three times for bravery.
After the Tsar’s abdication in 1917, she petitioned the Minister of War for permission to create an all-female shock battalion. After a month of intensive training the Battalion of Death, numbering 300 women, was deployed to the Russian Western Front. The Battalion performed admirably in battle near Smorgon, taking three German trenches. However it was later disbanded due to male hostility amid the crumbling war effort.
Bochkareva’s political opposition to the Bolsheviks put her life in danger following the October Revolution and she was forced to flee to the US. There she met with President Woodrow Wilson, who was reportedly moved to tears by her pleas that he intervene in Russia. She returned to Russia in August 1918 in hopes of raising a peasant army to fight the Bolsheviks, but this ultimately failed. She was later captured by the Bolsheviks, stripped of her uniform and executed by firing squad in 1920.
Jeanne de Clisson
Jeanne de Clisson, also known as the Lioness of Brittany, was a Breton pirate who launched a reign of terror across the English Channel in the 14th century.
Jeanne became embroiled in the events of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France when her husband, Oliver, placed his support behind the English candidate to rule Brittany. For this he was tried and executed for treason by King Philip VI of France.
Enraged, Jeanne swore vengeance for the betrayal. She sold her husband’s remaining land so that she could buy three warships, which she had painted black with red sails. Under Jeanne’s command the ‘Black Fleet’ raided the English Channel for the next 13 years, destroying any French warships they came across. Each time Jeanne had the crew slaughtered, save for one or two French sailors which she sent back to the French king to let him know what she had done.
While an independent privateer, Jeanne formed an alliance of convenience with the English and helped to keep supplies available to the English forces for the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Even after Philip VI died in 1350, Jeanne continued to wreak havoc on French shipping. She made a point of targeting ships carrying French noblemen, which she boarded so that she could personally behead the aristocrats with her axe.
In 1356, Jeanne retired from piracy and married an English lieutenant. She later returned to France, where she died in 1359.
Frances Wills and Harriet Ida Pickens
“Frances Wills (left) and Harriet Ida Pickens being sworn in as Apprentice Seamen by Lieutenant Rosamond D. Selle, USNR, at New York City. In December 1944, they became the Navy’s first African-American “WAVES” officers.”
Source: demons
Soviet Sniper
Source: Unknown. Sorry.
The Aufseherinnen
The Aufseherinnen were female guards in Nazi concentration camps during The Holocaust, of which there were about 3,700.
Aufseherinnen recruits were primarily trained and worked at Ravensbrück, a women’s concentration camp, but as World War II escalated they were often transferred to other camps to help with manpower shortages. SS men were instructed to treat female guards as equals and comrades in their work and the Aufseherinnen received similar training to male guards
Herta Ehlert, an SS woman, described her “physically and emotionally demanding” training as including how to punish prisoners and how to look out for sabotage and work slowdowns. However toward the end of the war little, if any, training was given to fresh recruits, many of which were forcibly transferred from factory work.
The enthusiasm with which Aufseherinnen embraced their work varied greatly. Ilse Koch, the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp was infamous for her cruelty and her war crimes trial after the war received worldwide media attention. Conversely, a camp guard named Klara Kunig is recorded as being dismissed for being too polite and kind toward the inmates.
As the Allies liberated the camps, SS women were generally still in active service and many were captured. The US imprisoned between 500 and 1000 SS women, although the majority were later released and only the higher ranking Aufseherinnen went to trial.
Soldiers fighting for Franco
Female soldiers fighting for Franco, 1936.
Source: titovka-and-bergmutzen
Soldiers of the Free French Forces
“Soldiers of the Free French Forces (Forces françaises libres), military units who joined “Free France” (la France libre), the Resistance organisation founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1940, assist in mopping up pockets of the German garrison in Paris just prior to Germany’s capitulation and withdrawal from the city. Paris, Île-de-France, France. 16 August 1944.”
Source: bag-of-dirt
Finnish soldiers bandaging a wounded Russian female soldier
Poventsa, 1942.01.07
Source: http://sa-kuva.fi/
Onna-bugeisha
“The picture above is a vintage photograph of an onna-bugeisha, one of the female warriors of the upper social classes in feudal Japan.
Often mistakenly referred to as “female samurai”, female warriors have a long history in Japan, beginning long before samurai emerged as a warrior class. However, they did fight alongside of samurai warriors. They were wives, widows and daughters who answered the call of duty to protect their families, households and honor in times of war.
Onna Bugeisha were the exception, rather than the rule, but they still played an important role nonetheless. One famous example is empress Jingu, who reportedly lead a successful conquest against Korea in 200 AD without shedding a single drop of blood (or so the legends say).”
Source: Unknown. Sorry.
Lozen
Lozen was a warrior and prophetess of the Chihenne Chiricahua Apache who fought in the Apache wars of the 19th century.
Lozen was born into the Chihenne during the late 1840’s in a region of Arizona and northern Mexico known at that time as Apacheria. From an early age she rejected traditional women’s duties, preferring to ride horses and receive warrior training from her brother Victorio.
By the 1870s the Chihenne had been moved to the harsh conditions of the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. By this time Victorio had become a chief of the Chihenne and described Lozen as his right hand. They led their followers in a breakout from the reservation in 1877 and began a rampage of attacks against Americans who had appropriated their homeland around Black Mountain.
Lozen became known as a ‘shield for her people’ who protected Apache bands from attack. She rode on horseback armed with a rifle and a knife. She was also believed to have mystical powers that allowed her to foresee the enemy’s movements and no band under her leadership was ever caught by the Americans.
In 1880, following a a solo mission to escort a new mother through enemy territory, Lozen received word that Victorio had been killed in an ambush along with hundreds of others. She returned to assist in leading the remnants of her people and also fought alongside Geronimo in the final campaign of the Apache wars.
Lozen was never captured, but was a member of the final group of free Apache’s who surrendered in 1866. Like many other Apache’s she was imprisoned and ultimately died of tuberculosis. Her legacy as the Apache’s famous warrior woman is respected even today.
Polish Soldiers
Polish female soldiers during the Polish-Soviet war in 1920
Sourced from Enigma.
The Bluebird Brigade
“Members of the Bosnian government Army’s female unit, the “Bluebird Brigade” at their bombed-out base near Sarajevo on October 10, 1992. Many of the women in the unit are widows of soldiers who have died in the war.”
Photo by Morten Hvaal /Felix Features.
Member of a Vietnamese Militia
“A woman in the militia helps defend Binh Da hamlet, one of many northern villages whose inhabitants readily took up arms during the Vietnam War (1968).
She carries an m44 Mosin Nagant.”
Photograph by Mai Nam. Sourced from 336BC.
Ching Shih
Ching Shih was a legendary Pirate Queen who terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century and is regarded as one of the most successful pirates in all of history.
Shih’s early life was spent working as a prostitute in Canton until she was kidnapped by pirates. In 1801 she married the pirate Zheng Yi, who was a member of a notorious crime family. Shih fought actively alongside Zheng Yi as he amassed one of the largest pirate forces in China, known as the Red Flag Fleet.
When Zheng Yi died in 1807, Shih quickly maneuvered herself into becoming the new leader using her good relationships with the fleet’s captains and by marrying Zheng Yi’s adopted nephew, Chang Pao.
Once in control of the fleet Shih set up about unifying it with a rigorously enforced code of conduct. The code punished disobedience with beheading, forbade stealing publicly owned money, and set up a system to redistribute loot to help fund the needs of the fleet. The code also punished pirates committing rape, adultery or sex out of wedlock with death.
Under Shih’s leadership the Red Flag Fleet established dominance over many coastal villages, some of whom were heavily taxed, but in turn the fleet was forbidden from attacking allied settlements. Shih’s fleet numbered over 300 Junks (ships) and tens of thousands of sailors, which included men, women and children. Reports from the British admiralty at the time called Ching Shih “The Terror of the South China Sea".
The Chinese navy lost 63 ships trying to defeat the Red Flag Fleet and even the hired navies of Portugal and Britain proved useless. In 1810 an amnesty was offered to all pirates which Ching Shih took advantage of and retired. She kept her amassed wealth and used it to open a gambling house. She died in 1844, at the age of 69.
Zaynab
This guest post was previously submitted anonymously to The Female Soldier tumblr blog in 2014:
Zaynab was an early follower of the Bab, a Shi'ite reform movement that laid the foundations for the later Baha'i Faith. Her story is recorded in The Dawn-Breakers, one of the key religious texts of the Baha'is.
A Bab'i insurrection was taking place across Iran due to the heavy handed suppression of the movement by the Shah, whose regime regarded them as heretics. A small town in northwestern Iran called Zanjan became a stronghold of the Bab'is, which brought it under attack by the Iranian army.
After several of the men of the 2,000 strong Bab'i garrison had died, Zaynab donned men’s wear, a sword, shield, and musket, and joined in defense of her faith. From The Dawn-Breakers:
“ Further evidence of the spirit of sublime renunciation animating those valiant companions was afforded by the behaviour of a village maiden, who, of her own accord, threw in her lot with the band of women and children who had joined the defenders of the fort. Her name was Zaynab, her home a tiny hamlet in the near neighbourhood of Zanjan. She was comely and fair of face, was fired with a lofty faith, and endowed with intrepid courage.
The sight of the trials and hardships which her men companions were made to endure stirred in her an irrepressible yearning to disguise herself in male attire and share in repulsing the repeated attacks of the enemy. Donning a tunic and wearing a head-dress like those of her men companions, she cut off her locks, girt on a sword, and, seizing a musket and a shield, introduced herself into their ranks. No one suspected her of being a maid when she leaped forward to take her place behind the barricade.
As soon as the enemy charged, she bared her sword and, raising the cry of "Ya Sahibu'z-Zaman!” flung herself with incredible audacity upon the forces arrayed against her. Friend and foe marvelled that day at a courage and resourcefulness the equal of which their eyes had scarcely ever beheld. Her enemies pronounced her the curse which an angry Providence had hurled upon them. Overwhelmed with despair and abandoning their barricades, they fled in disgraceful rout before her
Italian Partisan
A member of the pro-Allied Partisan Resistance in Italy during World War 2.
Source: http://www.teenagefilm.com/archives/archive-fever/italian-partisans-wwii/
Mariya Dolina
Mariya Dolina was a Soviet pilot who served with the distinguished Borisov Guards dive bomber regiment during the Second World War.
Beginning her military service in July 1941, aged only 18, she initially flew biplanes before moving on to Petlyakov Pe-2 medium range bombers (pictured). Despite describing herself as “impulsive and excessively restless”, she became one of the best pilots of her unit.
During her military career she carried out 72 sorties and dropped a total of 45 tons of bombs on the enemy. On June 2 1943 her plane was hit by enemy anti-aircraft guns, disabling an engine and setting the plane on fire. Despite having lost her fighter escort her crew continued to successfully bomb the target and on the way back engaged 6 German fighters, 2 of which they destroyed.
By the end of the war Dolina had advanced to the rank of Guards Captain and was acting squadron commander of the Borisov Guards. She was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in recognition of her accomplishments.