Ladies Getting Dirty

[xoxoxoBruce]

In WW II women filled in so the men could go to war.
We've discussed many times how the war was a national effort, how the women contributed, and the changes
in how women were viewed by men and by themselves as a result. Britain did the same thing there.

But WW I was different for us, when it started in the middle of 1914 we stayed out of the European war.
But the German U-boats pissed us off so we jumped in for the last 18 months before the end in 1918.
We only mobilized 4 million troops so women weren't needed in industry.

Britain was a different story, like WW II the nation was at war and women filled in on the home front,
not only in industry, but service industries, and agriculture.



Fortunately they had a man to supervise them.



The man supervising could sit there all smug and shit.



Much of it was tedious dirty work, but proper dress was a given.



Even in the dirtiest jobs one could make an effort to shine one's shoes.



Tough broads, proper breeding you know.

[Sundae]

My Great Aunt Alice was in the ATS and "manned" an ack-ack gun in Hyde Park in WWII.
She was a range-finder from what I have understood.

[Carruthers]

In WW1 thousands of troops were stationed on a local Rothschild Estate which had been lent to the War Office for use as a training camp.
The estate also had considerable reserves of standing timber which were to be used in the construction of trenches in France and Belgium.
When Canadian troops arrived many were deployed as lumberjacks and as workers in the timber yard which had been established at the local railway station.
The women in the picture, judging by the uniform, would have been from the Women's Forestry Corps.

[xoxoxoBruce]

When Canadian troops arrived many were deployed as lumberjacks and as workers in the timber yard which had been established at the local railway station.
The women in the picture, judging by the uniform, would have been from the Women's Forestry Corps.

......... .........

♫Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lava-try.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'♫
And have buttered scones for tea.

I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
♪I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.

I chop down trees, I wear high heels,
♪Suspenders and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa.♫

[Gravdigr]

I was kinda hoping these dirty ladies would be the dirty kind.

[fargon]

Me too, I'm a pervert.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Besides you perverts, some people appreciate the ladies war effort.

Since the war ended, seventy years ago, hundreds of memorials have been erected all around the world dedicated to the brave men and women who served in the war, but only a handful of them commemorate women exclusively.

Here's one in London, I rather like it.
link

[Sundae]

I took a photo which looks almost exactly the same as the first one, when we walked back from Westminster Pier to The Strand at Christmas. Just forgot to post it.
It is a very moving tribute.

Made me think not just of Auntie Alice, who served, but also those who "kept the home fires burning". Nanny Robinson (Dad's Mum) came back to London so she could be there when her sons and husband were able to come back and visit. She missed quite a bit of Uncle Charlie's childhood as he was evacuated and she couldn't go with him. It was very hard to get billeted with two boys of such different ages (Dads was born in 1940).

Nan (Mum's Mum) also lived through the Blitz in London. She was younger than Alice and Daisy and had no children, but she literally risked her life to earn money and help keep the family fed, including smuggling leftover food home in her underwear - something she could have been imprisoned for. One day they'd be eating powdered egg or potato milk pudding from their official rations, the next day smoked salmon which she'd stuffed into her Liberty bodice.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Women have always don't what they had to do. Even in the 50's up when there was the opportunity to be homemakers, stay at home moms, it was no picnic.