Italian resistance fighters who helped South African troops in Pistoia locate German snipers during the Second World War.
Emilia Gierczak
Emilia Gierczak (1925-1945) was a Polish commander who fought for the Soviet-aligned Polish army during World War 2.
Raised by a family of patriotic farmers, Gierczak graduated school in 1938 and became a teacher and scout leader. When World War 2 broke out in the following year, Gierczak’s family was one of the first to be deported to work on Russian farms following the Soviet Invasion of Eastern Poland.
In 1943 both Gierczak and her father were called up for military service and initially served in the Tadeusz Kosciuszko 1st Division. She then served as a platoon commander in the newly created all-female military unit in the Polish army, known as the Emilia Plater Independent Women’s Battalion (named after Emilia Plater, the leader of a Polish uprising, who Gierczak may herself have been named after). Gierczak later went on to provide her expertise as an officer commanding male platoons.
Gierczak fought with distinction on the Pomeranian Rampart near Kolobrzeg (formerly known as Kolberg). She was killed there on March 17th 1945, on a mission to assault a heavily defended enemy building. According to one witness Gierczak could have waited until night to gain an advantage, but chose not to as she didn’t want to be seen as cowardly by doing so. During the assault she was shot in the head. On seeing this her men reportedly flew into a vengeful rage, pushing forward and completing the mission in her name.
A street in Kolobrzeg is named after Gierczak, as well as a number of schools and scouting organisations.
Zoe Dunning
“Zoe Dunning (born as Maria Zoe Dunning) was the only openly gay person allowed to remain on active duty in the U.S. military prior to the end of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. She graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1985, and was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy Supply Corps. After attending Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Georgia, she was assigned to the USS Lexington homeported in Pensacola, FL. At the end of her obligated active duty service, she transferred into the United States Navy Reserve and attended Stanford Graduate School of Business.
At a January 1993 rally in support of Keith Meinhold, who had outed himself to the Navy in 1992 to fight the pre-Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ban on gays in the military, Dunning announced, “I am both a naval officer and a lesbian, and I refuse to live a lie anymore.”
On June 10, 1993, a three-member Navy administrative board recommended that she be honorably discharged despite arguments that the action violated a Federal judge’s ruling the previous winter.
Dunning appealed and argued that she made a statement of status and not conduct. In December 1994, another three-member Navy administrative board unanimously agreed with Dunning’s argument that her public statement that she was a lesbian did not violate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. She was also promoted between those hearings. Afterwards the military released regulations that made any future use of that defense impossible.
In a letter dated May 24, 1995, the Chief of Naval Personnel wrote Dunning, “Your administrative separation case proceedings are closed, and you will be retained in the Naval Service,” ending a two-year battle.
Dunning retired from the Navy Reserve in 2007. By the time of her retirement she had risen to the rank of commander and had been awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal.”
From an anonymous submission to The Female Soldier tumblr.
Rabbi Bonnie Koppell
“Bonnie Koppell was the first female rabbi to serve in the U.S. military; she joined the army reserves in 1978 while a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was ordained in 1981. Bonnie served in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Noble Eagle. She spent Passover in Iraq in 2005 and Hanukkah 2005/2006 with Jewish service members in Kuwait and Afghanistan, and was deployed to Iraq for Passover 2006. Bonnie also made a Passover trip to Kuwait in 2010. She has received many military awards, including three Meritorious Service medals, two Army Achievement Medals, Physical Fitness Excellence awards, and an Army Commendation Medal. ”
From an anonymous submission to The Female Soldier tumblr.
Alexandra Kudasheva
Colonel Alexandra Kudasheva was a Russian soldier and sportswoman who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was famed for her endurance horse riding skills and for commanding one of the first mixed-sex military units.
Born around 1875, Kudasheva is believed to be the daughter of a soldier in the Orenburg Cossacks, and although details of her childhood are uncorroborated it seems she was raised among Cossack soldiers. She married a cavalry officer in the 6th Ural Cossack Regiment, and according to some sources fought alongside him in the Russo-Japanese War. However her husband died, leaving her to raise their children alone.
In 1910, once her children had left home, Kudasheva decided to ride solo across Eurasia from Harbin, China to St Petersburg in order to demonstrate the physical prowess of a female Cossack. She set out on the 8000 mile journey in May 1910, equipped with only her traditional Cossack uniform and weapons, and what she could carry in her saddlebags. She was honoured by a number of Cossack regiments along her way and had become a celebrity in the media by the time she reached St Petersburg in August 1911. In 1913-4 she undertook a second cross-continental ride from Vladivostok to St Petersburg, for which she rode the Tsar’s personal horse. She published a diary about her experiences as well as writing poetry.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Kudasheva enlisted in her husband’s old regiment as a volunteer and fought alongside them in East Prussia. Her bravery earned her a promotion to lieutenant and the Order of St George medal, the highest military decoration. By 1915, she had risen to command the 600-strong light cavalry regiment, which was notable for containing women troopers and officers among its ranks. By 1917 women formed approximately half the regiment, including the notable woman soldier Olga Kokovtseva.
In 1917 Kudasheva was travelling incognito through Central Asia, possibly on an espionage mission, after which records of her cease. It is possible that she was the woman named Alexandra Kudachev who is recorded as being executed in Kazakhstan in 1921, however her fate is not definitively known.
Russian Snipers
“Female snipers of 3rd army, 1st Belorussian front.
From left to right :
1st row down is a senior non-commission officer V.N. Stepanova (20 kills), a senior non-commission officer Y.P. Belousova (80 kills , a senior non-commission officer А.Е. Vinogradova (83 kills);
2nd row is the second lieutenant Е.К. Zibovskaya (24 enemies), a senior non-commission officer К.F. Мarinkina (79 enemies), a senior non-commission officer О.S. Маrjenkina (70 enemies);
3rd row is the second lieutenant N.P. Belobrova (70 kills) , a lieutenant N.А. Lobkovskaya (89 kills) , the second lieutenant V.I. Аrtamonova, a senior non-commission officer М.G. Zubchenkо (24 kills);
4th row is non-commission officer N.P. Оbuchovskaya (64 kills), a non-commission officer А.R. Belyakova (24 kills)”
Source: Tales of War
Ilse Hirsch
Ilse Hirsch was a Nazi resistance fighter who played a key role in the assassination of Franz Oppenhoff in the later days of World War Two.
Born in 1922, Hirsch joined the League of German Girls, part of the Hitler Youth movement, when she was 16 years old and became one of the organisation’s leaders. In 1945 she became involved with the Nazi resistance force, dubbed ’The Werewolves’, whose mission was to work behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced into Germany.
Hirsch was selected to take part in Operation Carnival, a mission to assassinate Dr. Franz Oppenhoff, who had recently been appointed mayor of Aachen by the Americans who had taken control of the city. Hirsch knew the ground well and acted as a guide for the team. Along with 5 other Werewolves she was parachuted in near Aachen and guided them to Oppenhoff’s countryside home outside the city. Oppenhoff was shot by SS Lieutenant Leitgeb on the steps of his home, after which Hirsch attempted to lead the Werewolves to safety. However she caught her foot on a trip-wire and triggered a landmine, gravely injuring her and killing Leitgeb.
Hirch’s injuries kept her in hospital for a long time but she eventually returned home. In 1949 the surviving members of the team, barring one, were arrested and became the subject of Aachen ‘Werewolf Trial’. All were found guilty and sentenced to 1-4 years in prison, but Hirsch was released. Following the war Hirsch continued to live in the Aachen area, marrying and having two sons.
Nadezhda Fedutenko
Nadezhda Fedutenko (1915-1978) was a Soviet pilot and squadron commander who served during World War II.
From a young age Fedutenko had a fascination with planes and was a member of an aircraft modelling club in her teens. In 1935 she qualified as both a pilot and parachute instructor and begun a career as a civil aviation pilot ferrying passengers and cargo.
With the advent of World War II she continued to serve as a pilot, flying the Polikarpov R-5, a lightweight reconnaissance bomber. She frequently flew at low altitude with no escort, delivering supplies and evacuating wounded from enemy-occupied territory. Having accumulated several thousand flying hours, Fedutenko went on to become a squadron commander in the ‘Borisov Guards’ dive bomber regiment, flying Petlyakov Pe-2 medium range bombers from January 1943 until the end of the war.
From 1943 to 1945, Fedutenko’s squadron flew more than 500 missions in support of Soviet ground troops, including 56 daylight missions. One of her most significant missions occurred on 2nd September 1943 when her divisional leader was shot down. Taking command, Fedutenko led the 54 aircraft in a successful attack on a fortified enemy position near El'nia, enabling ground troops to launch their offensive.
At the end of the war, Fedutenko’s was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest military decoration available, in addition to several further medals in recognition of her outstanding service.
Nancy Hart
Nancy Hart was a Confederate guerrilla soldier and spy during the American Civil War (not to be confused with revolutionary heroine Nancy Morgan Hart).
Born circa 1846, Hart was raised in Roane County in western Virginia, where she learned to be a skilled horse rider and an excellent shot with both rifles and pistols. In 1861 her brother-in-law William Price, a Confederate supporter, was abducted and killed by Union soldiers. The act drove Hart into a fury and just days later she joined the Moccasin Rangers, a pro-Confederacy guerrilla regiment led by Perry Conley.
For nearly two years Hart worked for the Moccasin Rangers as a spy and a scout, posing as a farm girl to gather intelligence. She saved the lives of a number of wounded Confederate soldiers by hiding them with sympathizers. She also personally led several cavalry raids against federal outposts. After one such skirmish she was briefly captured, but she persuaded the Union soldiers to let her go based on the fact she was a woman.
Conley died in the summer of 1862, and with his loss the Moccasin Rangers disbanded, although Hart continued to spy on Union movements. Her work prompted federal officials to put a large price on her head, ultimately leading to her capture and imprisonment in a Union camp. She did not remain in captivity long however, as she seduced a guard to steal his gun, killed him and escaped on horseback. A week later Hart returned to the Union camp with 200 Confederate Cavalrymen, capturing a number of federal officers with minimal resistance.
Hart married a fellow Moccasin Ranger named Joshua Douglas and after the war they had two sons. Hart died in 1902 and is buried on Manning Knob in Greenbrier County.
Yuenü
Yuenü or ‘the Lady of Yue’ was a legendary Chinese swordswoman from the state of Yue, in the province of Zhejiang, during the 5th century BCE.
While also known as Aliao and Maiden of the Southern Forest, the actual name of Yuenü is undocumented. It is known that she served during the reign of King Goujian of Yue at the end of the ’Spring and Autumn era’. Caught in an ongoing war with the Wu state to the north, Goujian sought military specialists to better train his troops. Having already recruited a champion archer from Chu, he was advised of a young woman of the Southern Forest whose skill with the sword was infamous.
Goujian invited the woman to attend his court, where she demonstrated the ability to counter the attacks of several opponents at once. The woman claimed to have developed her own sword-fighting style for protection in her native forest, and was also known to be a skilled archer. Impressed by her skills, Goujian gave her the title of Yuenü and enlisted her to train his best officers and soldiers in her techniques.
Yuenü’s techniques were described as simple but powerful, based around a philosophy of strengthening the spirit while remaining openly calm in combat. She likened the art of the sword to a door, which can be divided in yin and yang. Hers is the earliest known exposition on the art of the sword, which influenced Chinese martial arts for generations, introducing the concept of using agility and fluid speed to counter the advantages of physical strength.
Yuenü is also credited with developing a new form of metallurgy that could create untarnishable bronze swords with flexible cores and extremely sharp edges, which became known as 'Yuenü swords’. In 1965 archeologists discovered one such sword buried alongside the remains of King Goujian.
Erika Szeles
Erika Szeles was a young soldier and nurse in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. When her photo was taken by a Danish photographer her image graced the covers of several European magazines and she became an international symbol of the revolution.
Szeles was born to Jewish parents in 1941 and raised solely by her mother after her father’s death in a Nazi concentration camp. At age 14 she trained as a cook at the Hotel Béke in Budapest. While her mother was a hardline communist, Szeles had an older boyfriend who converted her to the anti-communist cause.
When Hungary’s revolution against the Soviet Union began on October 23rd 1956, she was 15 years old. When her boyfriend formed a resistance group with some fellow students she chose to join them. She quickly learned how to use a sub-machine gun and fought alongside the group in several skirmishes with Soviet soldiers.
The iconic photo above of Szeles holding her sub-machine gun was taken around November 1st 1956. A few days afterward she was approached by friends who, knowing that Russian divisions were pouring into Hungary, feared for her safety. They argued that she was too young to be fighting and she agreed to put down her gun and to instead serve the resistance as a Red Cross nurse.
On November 8th the resistance group she was with became involved in a heavy firefight with Russian soldiers in the center of Budapest. When a friend of hers was wounded she ran forward to help him. Despite being unarmed and wearing a Red Cross uniform she was gunned down and died instantly. She was buried in the Kerepesi Churchyard in Budapest.
Szeles’s story remained largely unknown for some 50 years, until in 2008 journalists were able to uncover the truth about the young woman from the infamous picture. She is now recognised as a martyr of the Hungarian Revolution.
The Siege of the Alcázar
Women at the Siege of the Alcázar in Toledo, during the Spanish Civil War.
Source: fnhfal
Soldaderas
Female soldiers during the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1920).
Source: Ut i Vida Världen
Kurdish YPG fighter
Source: fnhfal
Liudmyla Pavlychenko
Liudmyla Pavlychenko was a Soviet soldier during World War 2 and is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history, with a total record of 309 kills.
Born in a small village in Ukraine in 1916, Pavlychenko and her family later moved to Kiev when she was 9 years old. When she was 14 she joined a shooting club and became adept at firing rifles. As a young woman she studied history at Kiev university, during which time she also practiced sprinting, pole vaulting, and took classes at a sniper’s school to improve her marksmanship.
When Nazi Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Pavlychenko was among the first group of volunteers at the army recruiting office. Despite providing her marksmanship certificate, she was initially laughed at and told she could be a nurse instead. However she went on to prove her worth to the army by shooting two Romanian soldiers near Belyayevka, Odessa, using a Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle with 3.5X telescopic sight. Following this demonstration she was accepted into the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division.
Pavlychenko was initially hesitant about taking human lives, but was shocked into action after witnessing the death of a young soldier next to her. “He was such a nice, happy boy,” she recalled. “And he was killed just next to me. After that, nothing could stop me.” For the next two and half months she spent in Odessa, Pavlychenko racked up a tally of 187 kills.
After Odessa fell to Romanian forces, Pavlychenko’s unit was relocated to fight in the 8-month long Siege of Sevastopol. During the siege she continued to excel, adding a further 257 kills to her record. As her kill count rose she was assigned to increasingly dangerous missions, including countersniping hunts which could last for entire days and nights at a time. By May 1942, Pavlychenko had dispatched 36 enemy snipers in this manner. She became so notorious that the Germans broadcast radio messages trying to bribe her to defect.
Despite being wounded on four separate occasions, Pavlychenko remained in active service until June 1942, when her position was bombed and shrapnel struck her face. Because of her fame she was withdrawn from duty and sent to the United States on a publicity visit, where she became the first Soviet citizen to be received by a US President. Pavlychenko was disappointed by the disparaging comments by the American press about her appearance in uniform, but emboldened by her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt she lashed out at them at a press event in Chicago, saying "I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist occupants by now. Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”
On returning home, Pavlychenko was promoted to Major and became a sniper instructor. In 1943, she was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for her heroic service. After the war she went on to complete her education and became a historian attached to the Soviet navy. She died aged 58 and is buried in the Novodevichye Cemetery in Moscow.
Russian Soldiers Under Instruction
Female Russian soldiers under instruction during World War 1.
Source: Time Travel Team
Nîgar Husseinî
Nîgar Husseinî from East-Kurdistan, martyred near Kerkuk.
Source: Kurdistania
Osh-Tisch
Osh-Tisch, or ‘Finds Them and Kills Them’, was a boté spiritual leader and warrior of the Crow Nation who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Boté was a Crow term referring to an individual possessing a gender identity different to their assigned sex, or to someone who possessed an identity of both male and female characteristics. Boté genders were considered separate to male or female genders and were distinct identities in their own right, a concept common to Native American societies and now sometimes captured under the modern umbrella term 'Two Spirit’ (see this link for more info).
Osh-Tisch was a male-assigned-at-birth boté who lived as a woman and expressed a preference for women’s work. In her life she took on a number of roles including artist, medicine woman, shaman and warrior. She was also a skilled craftswoman who made intricate leather goods and large tipis, and is known to have constructed the huge buffalo-skin lodge of the Crow Chief Iron Bull.
According to the testimony of Pretty Shield, Osh-Tisch fought at the Battle of the Rosebud in 1876, where the Crow fought as part of a US-led coalition against the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne. When a wounded Crow warrior fell from his horse, Osh-Tisch leapt from her own horse and defended the fallen man with a salvo of rifle shots. At the same time a woman warrior named The Other Magpie was attacking the Lakota with a coup stick. Moments after The Other Magpie struck a Lakota with the coup stick he was killed by Osh-Tisch’s bullet, leading to her gaining the epithet of 'Finds Them and Kills Them’.
By the 1890s the Crows had been forced into living in reservations by the US government. During this time Osh-Tisch and two other boté were targeted by an agent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs named Briskow, who had them imprisoned, their hair cut, and forced them to wear men’s clothing. The Crow rallied to the protection of the boté and Chief Pretty Eagle used what little power he had to have Briskow removed from the reservation. Osh-Tisch’s friend and Crow historian Joe Medicine Crow later described this attack on the boté as a 'tragedy’.
Osh-Tisch continued to be targeted by preachers and other managers of the reservation for the rest of her life. Along with the gradual internalisation of United States cultural norms, this persecution led to a shift away from boté acceptance among the Crow and Osh-Tisch ultimately died in 1929 as one of the last of her kind.
(This post inspired by the Rejected Princesses article on Osh-Tisch: http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/post/92639871808/osh-tisch-princess-of-two-spirits-1854-1929)
Phoebe Hessel
Phoebe Hessel was a British soldier and local legend who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Raised in Stepney, London, Hessel fell in love with a soldier named Samuel Golding when she was 15 years old and disguised herself as a man so that she could join the army to accompany him. She became a member of the 5th Regiment of Foot with Golding and served in the West Indies and Gibraltar. The two remained together in the British army for 17 years.
In 1745 she fought against the French in the Battle of Fontenoy where she received a bayonet wound to the arm. Eventually she revealed herself as a woman, although accounts vary as to whether this occurred when she was stripped to be whipped as a punishment, or if she did so voluntarily in order to stay with Golding when he was wounded. She was not disciplined for her deception and was paid the same amount as any soldier leaving the army.
She and Golding remained married for twenty years in Plymouth until his death, after which she remarried and moved to Brighton, where she became a well-known local figure and traveling saleswoman. She died in 1821 at the impressive age of 108. In her native Stepney both Hessel Street and Amazon Street are named after her, the latter due to her nickname as the ‘Stepney Amazon’.
Mandukhai Khatun
Mandukhai Khatun was empress of the Northern Yuan Dynasty (also known as Post-Imperial Mongolia) during the late 15th century. Khatun is the female honorific equivalent to Khan, meaning ‘military ruler’.
Sole daughter of an aristocratic Ongud family, Mandukhai was married at the age of 18 to Manduul Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire. She bore one daughter to Manduul, increasing her seniority over his other childless wife. However when Manduul was assassinated in 1479 the empire was left with no recognised heir. Mandukhai then adopted the 7-year-old orphan Batmunkh, the last living descendant of the legendary Genghis Khan. Mandukhai named Batmunkh as “Dayan Khan” and through him became effective ruler of the Mongolian empire.
Under Mandhukai’s leadership the empire went to war with the the Oirats in Western Mongolia and defeated them to great acclaim. In doing so she united the warring Mongolian tribes and instituted a number of codes to enforce the Oirat’s loyalty.
Mandukhai refused the marriage offer of one of her generals and instead married Dayan Khan when he reached the age of 19. Together the two led raids against Ming China in response to Chinese attempts to strangle the Mongols by closing trade. To contain her, the Chinese expanded the Great Wall and deployed gunpowder artillery, but this did not deter the raiding. The pair also had to contend with an Oirat rebellion, during which Mandukhai fought in the battles personally, even though she was pregnant with twins.
Mandukhai died in 1510 of natural causes according to most sources, although some legends claim she was murdered by Ming agents. In her life she bore seven sons and three daughters, and it was from her line that successive khans and nobles of Mongolia were descended.