tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43040845598465864722024-02-06T19:36:28.367-08:00Women Heroes of World War IKathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-70727367726953187372016-08-04T06:46:00.000-07:002016-08-05T03:39:38.049-07:00Edith Cavell: The Germans close in<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Suspicious men not familiar with the password began coming to the clinic, asking for help. There were more random searches. Then, on July 31, the German secret police suddenly appeared at the Brussels home of Philippe Baucq and arrested him. Louise Thuliez, who had been staying with the Baucq family for the night, was also arrested. Over the next five days, 35 people involved in the escape network were taken into German custody.</div>
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Prince Reginald de Croy managed to get word to those not yet arrested, including Edith Cavell, urging them to go into hiding. Edith, who didn't think she had a chance of escape, chose instead to wait for the inevitable while destroying any letters that might incriminate her or anyone else.</div>
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On the afternoon of August 5, officers from the German secret police -- Pinkhoff and Mayer -- arrived at the clinic..."</div>
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From "Edith Cavell: Patriotism is Not Enough" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable-ebook/dp/B00K4JX2P2/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470318238&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i">Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics. </a></i></div>
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-55700649271783160862016-07-30T12:27:00.003-07:002016-07-30T12:32:01.585-07:00Ecaterina Teodoroiu: Capture!<div>
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Ecaterina Teodoroiu</div>
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"On November 4, 1916, the soldiers from Ecaterina's regiment defending the south side of Targu Jiu were outnumbered and nearly surrounded by the Germans, who requested that they surrender and become prisoners. when the Germans approached, Ecaterina stepped forward out of the lines and explained, in German, that the regiment had decided to surrender. Then she suddenly began shooting, killing several Germans., In the confusion that followed, most of the company was able to escape while Ecaterina and several other soldiers were captured..." </div>
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Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-10611853939644998812016-07-30T12:27:00.001-07:002016-07-30T12:27:08.446-07:00Ecaterina Teodoroiu joins the Romanian army<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"...Ecaterina decided to fight beside her brother Nicolae, who was now a sergeant-instructor. Though not officially part of Nicholae's regiment, Ecaterina was accepted by them all as an unofficial fellow-soldier. One of the regiment officers, Major Liviu Teieseanu, later said that during this time Ecaterina was a "True example fo the soldiers," patiently enduring with them "the brunt of war" and participating in all their actions, even dangerous bayonet charges.<br />
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One day, Ecaterina -- just a little ways off from her brother -- heard the whistle of a shell coming closer and closer. It fell near Nicolae and killed him instantly.<br />
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Wanting to avenge her brother's death, Ecaterina requested to serve in his place. Romanian women weren't normally allowed to be part of the military, but understanding the sincere and intense motive behind Ecaterina's request, the military leaders agreed."<br />
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From "Ecaterina Teodoroiu: Lieutenant Girl" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613735952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469906767&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i+16">Women Heroes of World War I. </a></i><br />
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-38967601068907420242016-07-21T12:12:00.002-07:002017-04-25T08:44:34.490-07:00Olive King joins the Serbian Army<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Olive King in her Serbian army uniform</div>
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Australian War Memorial</div>
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"Back in Salonika, where the Allied armies were regrouping, the [Scottish Women's Hospitals] staff set up another hospital in the midst of a very wet, muddy winter. Olive was very busy but in a mundane sort of way. She wrote to her father that her real dream was to be "in the thick of things." She was also growing tired of how the matron seemed more interested in rule enforcement than in making the workers feel appreciated. And Olive's new romance with a Serbian officer -- Captain Milan Yovitchitch -- was beginning to clash with the SWH's close supervision of its off-duty employees. So in the summer of 1916 Olive quit the SWH and joined the Serbian army as an ambulance driver attached to medical headquarters. She moved into an apartment with two other female ambulance drivers who had also just left the SWH."</div>
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Excerpt from: "Olive King: Adventurous Ambulance Driver" from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613735952?ie=UTF8&ref_=zg_bs_10367685011_59">Women Heroes of World War I. </a></i></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-50393202118671218602015-10-12T09:57:00.001-07:002016-08-04T06:47:00.914-07:00The last moments of Edith Cavell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Early in the morning of October 12, 1915, Edith was taken by car to the Tir National shooting range. Philippe Baucq was to be shot with her. Their sentences were read aloud before a large group of German soldiers. The firing squad of 16 was advised to not hesitate to shoot the woman before them: the nature of her crimes deserved it. Pastor Le Seur was with her and she asked him to relay a message to Rev. Gahan. Speaking in French, she asked that her mother be told that her soul was safe, her conscience at peace, and that "<em>Je meurs pour Dieu et ma patri</em>" (she was dying for God and her country).<br />
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Pastor Le Seur then led her to the pole and waited while she was loosely tied and blindfolded...<br />
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Excerpt from "Edith Cavell: Patriotism is not Enough" from <em><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable-ebook/dp/B00K4JX2P2/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470318238&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i">Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Spies, Soldiers, and Medics.</a></em> Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-74162770959409421252015-10-11T13:22:00.001-07:002016-08-04T06:47:39.499-07:00The trial and sentencing of Edith Cavell <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Edith Cavell</div>
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Courtesy of St. Mary's Church, Swardeston, Norfolk</div>
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On October 7, 35 resisters were tried as a group in Belgium's senate chamber. Edith was the first defendant to take the stand. She was asked, "Do you realize that by [helping men escape] it has been to the disadvantage of Germany and to the advantage of the enemy?" Edith replied, "My aim was not to help your enemy but to help those men who asked for my help to reach the frontier. Once across the frontier, they were free."<br />
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On October 11, the defendants were marched into a room in the Saint-Gilles prison to hear their sentences read. Some of them were acquitted; some were sentenced to hard labor and others to prison. Five of them heard their names read followed by the German word<em> todesstrafe:</em> the death penalty. One of these was Edith Cavell.<br />
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A German pastor named Paul Le Seur escorted Edith to her cell and was given the task of telling her she had only hours to live: her sentence was to be carried out the very next day at dawn.<br />
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From "Edith Cavell: Patriotism is Not Enough" from <em><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable-ebook/dp/B00K4JX2P2/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470318238&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i">Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Spies, Soldiers, and Medics.</a></em> Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-22603773131981150552015-10-11T12:53:00.000-07:002016-07-30T11:56:00.206-07:00Trial and sentence of French resister Louise Thuliez<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Louise Thuliez</div>
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Courtesy of Vincent Boez</div>
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"Louise, Philippe, Edith, and many others were all brought to trial on the same day, October 7, 1915. Louise was called to the stand directly after Edith. She was asked many questions designed to reveal the organization system of the escape network; the Germans wanted to know who was in charge. But they were disappointed: this group has worked together on terms of equality. There was no "chief."<br />
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When they had finished questioning Louise, and she was in the process of returning to her seat, the prosecutor suddenly asked her one more question: What was her motive for becoming involved in rescuing Allied soldiers? "Because I am a Frenchwoman" she replied.<br />
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All of the court proceedings were conducted in German, with French translations for the prisoners. When they heard their sentences read on October 11, the prisoners heard one German word repeated five times: "<em>Todesstrafe</em>." When the interpreter read the sentences in French, they realized what <em>Todesstrafe </em>meant: five of them, including Philippe, Edith, and Louise, had been sentenced to death.<br />
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Louise woke up at six the following morning with a feeling of dread. 'I am afraid,' she said to her cellmate, 'afraid for Edith Cavell.'"<br />
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From "Louise Thuliez: Because I am a Frenchwoman" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable-ebook/dp/B00K4JX2P2/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies and Medics.</a></em> <br />
<br />Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-3289696259321443852015-09-27T04:09:00.003-07:002015-09-27T04:13:03.184-07:00Emilienne Moreau and the Germans <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br />
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"...The Moreau house was not large, and the wounded kept coming. The rescue station was expanded to include the house next door. An enormous hole was made in one of the walls so the wounded men could be moved in and out more easily.<br />
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Shortly afterwards, Emilienne was caring for a wounded soldier in the expanded station when a bullet suddenly whizzed through a hole in the wall and just past her head. When she turned to see where the bullet had come from, she saw the silhouettes of two approaching Germans. She grabbed a revolver that had been left by one of the male nurses and fired..."<br />
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Excerpt from "Emilienne Moreau: The Teen Who Became a National Symbol" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable-ebook/dp/B00K4JX2P2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resissters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics.</a></em> Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-57700011937451195642015-09-27T03:58:00.002-07:002015-09-27T04:14:36.060-07:00Emilienne Moreau and the Scottish soldiers in Loos<br />
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"...Emilienne ran down the stairs, out of the house, and towards the tombs. She saw what looked like "strange beings with enormous eyes" who seemed to have pipes for noses. And to top it off, these strange creatures were wearing skirts. They were Scottish soldiers wearing kilts and gas masks: the Highlanders of the Ninth Black Watch, so named because their kilts were dark.<br />
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Emilienne, who didn't speak English, frantically tried to make one of the officers understand that his men were walking towards their deaths. She offered to guide them in such a way that they would avoid the gun nests in the tower bridge and the long slag heap.<br />
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With Emilienne's help the Scottish troops moved safely around the gun nests and took them out..."<br />
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Excerpt from "Emilienne Moreau: The Teen Who Became a National Symbol" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable-ebook/dp/B00K4JX2P2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics.</a> </em>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-83148874067976765092014-08-25T15:37:00.003-07:002016-03-21T19:07:24.843-07:00Six Famous Medical Women of the First World War The Great War was a conflict of horrific casualties but the death toll would have been much higher if it hadn't been for the countless dedicated medical workers who fought to save the lives of the wounded. The following six female medics gained particular fame while doing so.<br />
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Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm</div>
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Imperial War Museum</div>
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Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm were two motorcycle enthusiasts who, when the war began, worked as dispatch riders in London for a month before being chosen to travel to Belgium with a unit called the Flying Ambulance Corps. When they noticed that even moderately wounded Belgian men were dying of shock during the long ambulance rides to the hospital, the women decided to create a relief station close to the fighting where these men could recuperate before making the trip. Knocker and Chisholm were both personally decorated by King Albert of the Belgians for their efforts.</div>
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Read more about Knocker and Chisholm <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/elsie-knocker-and-mairi-chisholm.html">here.</a> </div>
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Elsie Inglis</div>
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Elsie Inglis was a Scottish surgeon who offered her services to the British War Office when the war began. She was turned down with the following words: "My good lady, go home and sit still." Inglis did neither. With funds raised by the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies, she created the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, mobile units staffed and run by women that were utilized in France, Serbia, Salonika, Romania, Malta, Corsica and Russia. Inglis spent much of her time in Serbia where, because of her efforts, she became a national hero.<br />
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Read more about Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals <a href="http://www.electricscotland.com/history/women/wh53.htm">here</a> and <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/dr.html">here</a>. <br />
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Radiographers Helena Gleichen and Nina Hollings at work</div>
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Helena Gleichen and Nina Hollings were two British women who worked as radiographers on the Italian Front, locating pieces of shrapnel and bullets with their equipment so that surgeons could operate on wounded men more precisely. Often coming under fire, both women were decorated by the governments of Italy and Britain.</div>
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Read more about Gleichen and Hollings <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/helena-gleichen-on-italian-front.html">here.</a> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyzAAGh0bq1yRCo1UVzFq9psydpVkiuv-QTXvPt7sHquatdgQkjCy05sylOLGNiPNutqM2hCRtsux7PMUZKgHiTYBX5cOhsr2Rwmf3np6ojLthYadR8AdJyDiscFSD_0UZm4e-tzhVdcM/s1600/11-021+Olive+King+and+and+ambulance+90+dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyzAAGh0bq1yRCo1UVzFq9psydpVkiuv-QTXvPt7sHquatdgQkjCy05sylOLGNiPNutqM2hCRtsux7PMUZKgHiTYBX5cOhsr2Rwmf3np6ojLthYadR8AdJyDiscFSD_0UZm4e-tzhVdcM/s1600/11-021+Olive+King+and+and+ambulance+90+dpi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Olive King with her ambulance.</div>
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Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial </div>
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Olive King was the daughter of a wealthy Australian philanthropist who provided his daughter with funds for a truck which she converted to an ambulance. She worked with the Scottish Women's Hospitals in France and Serbia before attaching herself to the Serbian army. When a fire broke out in Salonika, Olive worked to rescue people from their burning homes, for which the Serbian government awarded her the Silver Medal for Bravery and a Gold Medal for Zealous Conduct. Towards the end of the war she opened canteens for the Serbs as they pushed their enemies out of their devastated country. </div>
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Read more about King <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/fiftyaustralians/27.asp">here </a>and <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/olive-king-and-her-ambulance_21.html">here.</a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/four-female-soldiers-of-wwi.html">Four female soldiers of World War I.</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/wwi-spies-and-resisters.html">Four female resisters of World War I.</a> </div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-31560664083466440382014-08-24T12:52:00.002-07:002014-08-25T08:40:14.075-07:00Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-xBzgWIoguCRnCKg0tqRNMMglaJj_XfI6ViJptdxUZuOP15bSQUwq50XYf1Is_kjx2WA2FVhhO7hKVme5dm1JXC4_5LyqyaKqyrAl74G6VuD5qcp1aCMKrfY8pTILcABJPyIXfVayJs/s1600/Elsie+and+Mairi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-xBzgWIoguCRnCKg0tqRNMMglaJj_XfI6ViJptdxUZuOP15bSQUwq50XYf1Is_kjx2WA2FVhhO7hKVme5dm1JXC4_5LyqyaKqyrAl74G6VuD5qcp1aCMKrfY8pTILcABJPyIXfVayJs/s1600/Elsie+and+Mairi.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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Elsie and Mairi wearing the decorations awarded them by King Albert of the Belgians, </div>
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The Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II.</div>
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All photos in this post but the last were taken from <em>The Cellar-House of Pervyse: A Tale of Uncommon Things from the Journals and Letters of The Baroness T'Serclaes and Mairi Chisholm</em>, published in London, 1917. Clicking on the individual half-tone photos will provide a clearer image.<br />
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Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm were two motorcycle enthusiasts who, when the war began, became dispatch riders in London with the Women's Emergency Corps. After a month they were asked to join a medical unit called 'The Flying Ambulance Corps" that was headed for Belgium.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbiICU70wYi-IKGX-aYI1SA-NJi3llCKaTGRK9xuRCTkEQgfOIVNg0spx4N2YiBv-v3vHv6sShZ6Q4CQ7nFkaykvXtUEdoaAilfSqcXuHihTdGcid5sXxYkF50jul4RBSqdxqlKtdLJU/s1600/Mairi+inside+a+shell+hole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbiICU70wYi-IKGX-aYI1SA-NJi3llCKaTGRK9xuRCTkEQgfOIVNg0spx4N2YiBv-v3vHv6sShZ6Q4CQ7nFkaykvXtUEdoaAilfSqcXuHihTdGcid5sXxYkF50jul4RBSqdxqlKtdLJU/s1600/Mairi+inside+a+shell+hole.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mairi in a shell hole. </div>
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The women often came under direct fire.</div>
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While in Belgium transporting men from the battlefield to the nearest hospital -- usually miles away -- the women discovered that too many moderately wounded men were dying of shock during the trip. What these men needed immediately, the women realized, was a quiet place where they could recuperate and gather some strength before taking the arduous ambulance ride to the hospital on the muddy, slippery, shell-pocked cobblestone streets. <br />
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At the end of November, 1914, after a quick fundraising
trip to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Britain</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
Elsie and Mairi moved into a 10 by 12 foot cellar of a bombed out house in the Belgian town of Pervyse, using a
second cellar as a dressing station. There they cared for the wounded, a few men at a time, before taking them to the hospital in Furnes. And with
their new funds -- and what they could find in other deserted houses -- they made
hot chocolate and soup (with the help of a young Belgian man) and distributed it daily to the Belgian soldiers
living in the nearby trenches.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMiuBu46vn02RKiTmO8oz3xvEclOXqkPLLquE2_VSkq9xCqDSX-gpa3IRyVmGzJOD6SEeHeK9fyhDB-0nK9vNrO5yZ5XoXQ1q5vax4inntv37u9NgiMx2Yqe4Odh69wUT2T72hGnNBxAM/s1600/Elsie+&+Mairi+-+a+before+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMiuBu46vn02RKiTmO8oz3xvEclOXqkPLLquE2_VSkq9xCqDSX-gpa3IRyVmGzJOD6SEeHeK9fyhDB-0nK9vNrO5yZ5XoXQ1q5vax4inntv37u9NgiMx2Yqe4Odh69wUT2T72hGnNBxAM/s1600/Elsie+&+Mairi+-+a+before+shot.jpg" height="232" width="320" /></a></div>
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One of the cellar houses before the women converted it</div>
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The same cellar house afterwards</div>
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They also wrote home often, requesting their relatives to send them
warm men's clothing. The Belgian soldiers nearby often suffered from relatively minor
ailments -- bronchitis, frozen, inflamed feet -- caused by exposure to the cold. Elsie and Mairi let these sick men recuperate in the cellar
house if no one else needed it more. The Belgian soldiers were extremely grateful for all the
sacrifices these two British women were making on their behalf. </div>
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But if the Belgian soldiers admired the two brave women, the
feeling was very mutual. Elsie
commended them in the following way in a letter home, requesting supplies: "I have lived amongst the soldiers so long, and know how
plucky and cheerful they are. I see them patched up, returning to their
regiments unmurmuring. I wonder if even our British Tommy would fight so
cheerfully as he does if he were established on twenty miles of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Kent</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
knowing that all the rest of his country was in the hands of the Germans, not
knowing where his mother, wife, or sisters were, or if he would ever see them
again."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0SeSJ0aGuXpe0HyoyPpdpiSJsAiB82246rE8n5A5xFIVKKUJkUR5gNqZoafx8dGMcUWd5g91_sopzIBOTGGoVGNp0Y7SFlGsOCGo2p3iiYKrCKujZUios_mY3kTH0OQztsAJlZ4nc5s/s1600/Belgian+Soldiers+from+Elsie+&+M..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0SeSJ0aGuXpe0HyoyPpdpiSJsAiB82246rE8n5A5xFIVKKUJkUR5gNqZoafx8dGMcUWd5g91_sopzIBOTGGoVGNp0Y7SFlGsOCGo2p3iiYKrCKujZUios_mY3kTH0OQztsAJlZ4nc5s/s1600/Belgian+Soldiers+from+Elsie+&+M..jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>News traveled and soon the cellar house began attracting
curious visitors, everyone from the mayor of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> to British reporters; friends and relatives of the two women read about their activities in British
newspapers.</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>One day they were visited by some British navy men who were
astonished that the women were living in a bombed out village so obviously
close to danger. </div>
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<o:p> </o:p>In the middle of their conversation, several loud shells
fell nearby, one right after the other. The naval men were outraged: "Do you mean to say you get this often?" they asked. "It's
shameful! Someone ought to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">make</i> you
come away." </div>
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<o:p> </o:p>"Write to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Times</i> about it" said Elsie before calmly suggesting that they all eat the
lunch the men had brought. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpo3E9meYPb9xp8feKXgBFZ4nPVjZALsGSYVCrl3wqsha-8LuDAKMv25AApJKMDVse-0qCLdLBRAmYlEpXyMfccG0VsOqG64taAlWbfrAERVGGMX1TWqnblgqv1UG3CSyzlUvuQTOAPJM/s1600/Mairi+&+Elsie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpo3E9meYPb9xp8feKXgBFZ4nPVjZALsGSYVCrl3wqsha-8LuDAKMv25AApJKMDVse-0qCLdLBRAmYlEpXyMfccG0VsOqG64taAlWbfrAERVGGMX1TWqnblgqv1UG3CSyzlUvuQTOAPJM/s1600/Mairi+&+Elsie.jpg" height="235" width="320" /></a></div>
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Elsie & Mairi</div>
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Photo via the Imperial War Museum </div>
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Portions of the above text are taken from an unfinished, unpublished chapter originally intended for inclusion in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00K4JX2P2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0PMXD1RWCBV174CFSPXF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455344027&pf_rd_i=468294">Women Heroes of World War I</a> </em>The following is collection of quotes I considered as chapter openers:<br />
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<em>The whole British Army objects to our being
here</em>.<br />
--Mairi Chisholm</div>
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<em>There isn't a man in the Corps who does his work
better or with more courage and endurance than this 18-year-old-child</em>.</div>
--May Sinclair, British journalist, speaking of Mairi
Chisholm<br />
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><em>Perhaps it is by [Elsie Knocker's] services and
those of Miss Mairi Chisholm that the Monro Ambulance has best proved the
fitness of women in the actual field.</em></span>
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<o:p> </o:p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">--May Sinclair, British journalist</span>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><em>So far as I know, you are actually the only
women right up in the firing-line at all -- and you jolly well shouldn't
be.</em></span>
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<o:p> </o:p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">--British Naval Officers speaking to Elsie Knocker and
Mairi Chisholm</span>
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Read about recent efforts to build a memorial to Elsie & Mairi <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10708735/First-World-War-larky-in-khaki-angels-deserve-a-statue-for-their-bravery.html">here.</a> <br />
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The Amazon UK link to a recent biography on the women, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elsie-Mairi-Go-War-Extraordinary-ebook/dp/B0038LB4YE/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kinc_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0WA3PBANFGTHE0ZZ3G88">Elsie and Mairi Go to War.</a></em></div>
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Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-5658971512207301012014-08-22T17:58:00.001-07:002020-10-28T20:56:34.119-07:00Four Female Spies/Resistance workers of World War IPart of France and most of Belgium was occupied by Germany during World War I. This situation gave rise to resistance efforts by affected Belgian and French citizens, some of whom worked for British Intelligence. Their courage foreshadowed -- and in many cases, directly inspired -- the more well known resistance activities that occurred in the same nations during the Second World War. <br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Marthe Cnockaert was a young Belgian woman who worked for British Intelligence during the war.She volunteered at a local army hospital by day, earning a German Iron Cross for her efforts, and waited on German servicemen in her father's café by night, all the while keeping her eyes and ears open for information which she passed along to her Belgian contacts. Eventually caught and tried, her death sentence was commuted to life in prison because of her Iron Cross.</span></div>
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Read more about Cnockaert <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/martha-cnockaert-belgian-spy.html">here</a>. </div>
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Gabrielle Petit was a deeply troubled young Belgian who found a new, passionately patriotic lease on life when the Germans overran her country and she began to work for British Intelligence. After she was betrayed to the Germans, her feisty personality and combative behavior during her trial, imprisonment, and execution became immensely galvanizing for Belgian resisters of both world wars.</div>
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Read more about Petit <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/gabrielle-petit-belgian-patriot.html">here</a>. </div>
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Edith Cavell</div>
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<a href="https://revdc.wordpress.com/" style="text-align: left;">Edith Cavell </a><span style="text-align: left;">was a British nurse and nursing instructor who hid British soldiers in her Brussels clinic and helped them escape from occupied Belgium into the neutral Netherlands. She was caught and her subsequent execution by the Germans caused international outrage and a large but temporary surge in British enlistment numbers.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Her work directly inspired that of World War II resister, </span><a href="http://womenheroesofwwii.blogspot.com/2016/05/andree-de-jongh-and-comet-line.html" style="text-align: left;">Andree de Jongh,</a><span style="text-align: left;"> founder of the Comet Line. </span></div>
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Read more about Cavell <a href="https://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2016/08/edith-cavell-germans-close-in.html">here</a> and <a href="https://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2015/10/early-in-morning-of-october-12-1915.html">here. </a></div>
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Louise de Bettignies in 1905</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Frenchwoman Louise de Bettignies created and operated a large espionage network in the occupied portion of France. Through her brilliant, courageous, and tireless efforts, British Intelligence was provided with invaluable information during the war. One member of British Intelligence had this to say about her work after the war: "Through [Louise de Bettignies] we learned with a precision, a regularity, and rapidity that was never surpassed by any other organization, all the movements of the enemy, the exact position of their batteries, and a thousand details that were of great help to our headquarters. Possibly, during the course of the war, experience having perfected the method of working one or two services equaled hers. Not one has ever surpassed it."</span></div>
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Her work directly inspired that of famed WWII SOE agent <a href="http://womenheroesofwwii.blogspot.com/2011/06/pearl-witherington-in-france-after-d.html">Pearl Witherington</a>. </div>
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Read more about De Bettignies <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/louise-de-bettignies-message-for.html">here.</a> And fans of historical fiction can read about her in Kate Quinn's fabulous novel <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Network-Novel-Kate-Quinn/dp/0062654195">The Alice Network. </a></i></div>
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Keep reading: </div>
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<a href="http://www.womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/four-female-soldiers-of-wwi.html">Four female soldiers of World War I.</a></div>
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<a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/medics-of-world-war-i.html">Six female medics of World War I.</a></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-47648896397826704322014-08-22T14:31:00.003-07:002016-08-02T06:11:00.118-07:00Four Female Soldiers of WWIThe nations involved in World War I mobilized their men by equating military service with patriotism. Many women took this idea to heart in a way their governments had never intended: instead of engaging in socially acceptable women's work, they found their way into the ranks of fighting men. <br />
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The following female warriors gained significant renown during the Great War. <br />
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Milunka Savic</div>
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A veteran of both Balkan Wars (1912 & 1913) as well as World War I, this Serbian warrior is widely considered to be the most highly decorated female in military history. When wounded and her gender initially discovered, it was suggested that she instead work in a nursing station. She refused and requested to be allowed to remain in the ranks of men where she had already proven herself to be a courageous warrior with excellent instincts. Her commanding officer said he'd give her his decision on the following day. She reportedly responded with the following words: "I will wait." She was allowed to remain a soldier.</div>
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Read more about Savic <a href="http://www.hiddenherstories.com/#!Milunka-Savić-The-Most-Decorated-Woman-in-the-History-of-War/cmbz/5DBB5E8F-7F63-4000-AFA9-BE108E1A35D8">here.</a></div>
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Ecaterina Teodoroiu</div>
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Ecaterina Teodoroiu was a young woman who joined the Romanian army in an unofficial capacity to be near her brother. After he was killed, she was allowed to become an official member of the army, eventually gaining the rank of lieutenant. When she was killed during the battle of Mărăşeşti she was widely mourned by the entire Romanian army; they had come to admire the passionate patriotism that had driven Teodoroiu to achieve what no other Romanian woman had. After the war she was reburied in a state funeral and multiple monuments were built in her honor. </div>
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Read more about Teodoroiu <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/ecaterina-teodoroiu-and-romanian-army.html">here.</a> </div>
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Flora Sandes</div>
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s0yg1">Flora Sandes</a> was a British woman who in 1914 accompanied an Anglo-American team of doctors, nurses, and medical volunteers to Serbia. One thing led to another and Sandes became a valued member of the Serbian army, eventually earning the rank of captain. After being wounded by a Bulgarian grenade, Sandes made a recuperation/fundraising trip to England where she gave speeches in her uniform, becoming an enormous inspiration to British women who, at the time, didn't even have the right to vote.</div>
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Read more about Sandes <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/flora-sandes-british-soldier-for-serbs.html">here.</a> </div>
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Maria Bochkareva</div>
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<a href="http://hubpages.com/education/WWI-Maria-Bochkareva-Commander-of-1st-Russian-Womens-Battalion-of-Death">Maria Bochkareva </a>was a Russian peasant who was on the point of suicide during the summer of 1914. The war gave her a new lease on life and she obtained official permission from the Tsar to join the Russian Imperial Army. Highly decorated for bravery and wounded in action several times, Bochkareva became disgusted with the democratic principles that were integrated into the army following the February Revolution. The Provisional Government, attempting to motivate the Russian army into one more successful offensive, asked Bochkareva to organize a shock battalion of women who would fight to the death. While the resulting Women's Battalion of Death proved itself in battle, it didn't achieve its original goal of motivating the Russian army. It did, however, galvanize suffragists all over the world.</div>
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Read more about Bochkareva and the Women's Battalion of Death <a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/02/maria-bochkareva-and-womens-battalion.html">here</a> and <a href="http://voicesfromwwi.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-9-1917-russian-womens-battalion-of.html">here. </a></div>
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<a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/wwi-spies-and-resisters.html">Four female resisters of World War I.</a> </div>
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<a href="http://womenheroesofwwi.blogspot.com/2014/08/medics-of-world-war-i.html">Six female medics of World War I.</a></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-84200803220921110922014-06-20T10:38:00.001-07:002016-08-18T05:09:11.995-07:00Olive King, her ambulance, and a fire in Salonika <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Olive King and her ambulance</div>
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Australian War Memorial</div>
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P0 1352.002 </div>
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"On the afternoon of August 18, 1917, a fire broke out in Salonika, which was now swarming with soldiers from Serbia, France, Britain, and Italy, as well as colonial troops from India, Indochina, and North Africa. Olive, seeing the fire from a distance and longing to have a closer look, was thrilled when she was ordered to assist. Driving into the city she found it a place of utter confusion as panic-stricken people fled with whatever goods they could rescue from the terrifying roar of the flames.</div>
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Olive, at times only yards away from the fire, worked all night rescuing people and their possessions. Moments after one Serbian family climbed into her ambulance, their house caved in with a deafening crash. Olive kept saying to herself that it was all 'too dreadful...too frightening to be really happening.'"</div>
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Excerpt from "Olive King: Adventurous Ambulance Driver" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/WOMEN-HEROES-WORLD-Women-Action/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403285872&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i+16" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-25616385173948325822014-06-12T11:13:00.001-07:002014-06-12T11:21:38.499-07:00Harriet Boyd Hawes and the Smith College Relief Unit <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWT8fOAEEujAqe-PtVulZFkyRWiohEF7W74H6OGYg0nOYP-44lKZ5qRBk3lKb__YqGwZkI3pgYRyBtcTJ1fZlGKRGotbHrO_V9ROq-C9TGJPLlrLaC0dktZ1oo-I6ecxN23HmRjak-2O0/s1600/Smith+College+Relief+Unit+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWT8fOAEEujAqe-PtVulZFkyRWiohEF7W74H6OGYg0nOYP-44lKZ5qRBk3lKb__YqGwZkI3pgYRyBtcTJ1fZlGKRGotbHrO_V9ROq-C9TGJPLlrLaC0dktZ1oo-I6ecxN23HmRjak-2O0/s1600/Smith+College+Relief+Unit+low+res.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Smith College Relief Unit, Harriet Boyd Hawes in front, 2nd from left.</div>
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Sophie Smith Collection, Smith College</div>
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<br />
Word counts being what they are, I had to exclude a few great stories from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1402596867&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I</a></em>. Harriet Boyd Hawes was an exceptional American who, before the U.S. entry into World War I, worked tirelessly to save the lives of survivors of the Great Serbian retreat. She then returned to the United States to organize what became known as the Smith College Relief Unit, pictured above. The following is an excerpt from the unpublished chapter:<br />
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<br />
...Harriet was very pleased
when President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against the
Central Powers in the spring of 1917. In April 1917, she spoke by invitation at
a luncheon of the Smith College Club of Boston. She used her opportunity to
suggest a new idea: sending a privately-funded relief unit to <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> composed of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Smith</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype></st1:place>
alumnae. She praised <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Smith</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype></st1:place> for having many
notable traditions but added that “no tradition can be better than that of
united public service.” <br />
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What would be the purpose of the
Smith College Relief Unit? Harriet was still in touch with French relief organizations who alerted her to recent occurrences in the north of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>,
in the areas of the Oise, Ainse, and the <st1:place w:st="on">Somme</st1:place>.
A few months earlier in February, 1917, the Germans, who had been occupying
those areas for two and one-half years, suddenly decided to retreat. But before
doing so, they forced most able-bodied French people to evacuate with them,
destroying as much as possible beforehand and leaving only the elderly and the
women with small children. Why? One German explained it this
way to one of the people they were forcing to march with them: “You are to
work. The aged, the women, and the children are to be an embarrassment to the
French who are coming and will encounter nothing but ruins and people incapable
of doing anything for their own nourishment. For nothing will remain of your
houses; they will be blown up.” </div>
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The Smith College Relief Unit
would take money and supplies to the devastated areas and provide food, supplies, and materials with which to help the locals to
rebuild their lives. Although the Germans were gone, the Smith College Unit
would still be taking quite a risk. <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>
were still at war and the Grécourt area was considered a war zone: the Germans
might return at any moment. </div>
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But thoughts of danger were far
from the minds of those who had just heard Harriet speak. By the end of the
luncheon Harriet had raised $4,000 dollars. She continued to raise money –
eventually totaling more than 30,000 -- for the unit that was soon officially
affiliated with the American Fund for the French Wounded. She was hesitant to
become the unit’s first director, as she felt that perhaps a younger woman
should do that, but agreed in the end. </div>
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They were to be assigned as a
relief center for approximately 11 villages adjoining the area of Grécourt –
the name of an ancient French estate that was now a village where they would
set up their base. The French army and the government had requested this site
for the Smith Unit because it was one of the most devastated areas and also
because it had been the best wheat-growing district in France; the government
hoped to get the wheat fields back in working conditions in order to relief the
current French bread shortage. Their mission would
be to assist the civilians who had been devastated by the occupation and
destructive retreat of the Germans. </div>
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In August, 1917, 17 volunteers --
representing 14 different graduating classes of <st1:placename w:st="on">Smith</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> -- sailed for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. While
waiting in <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city>, finalizing arrangements for
their trip to Grécourt, they noticed that the men in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> were either missing limbs or wearing military
uniforms. Most of the women wore mourning clothes. A completely depressed
attitude hung over the city and the general attitude of the Parisians was that
it was just a matter of time before <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>
won the war; that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
had joined too late. </div>
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Six of the initial 17 unit
members reached Grécourt in September, settled themselves into what remained of
the old chateau, and got to work. They visited families in the various destroyed
villages, listened to their sad stories of dead and lost sons and daughters, helping
the villagers build temporary housing while distributing food, clothing, and
furniture, some of it provided by outside sources and some of it what they had
personally gathered...<br />
<br />
Quoted excerpts from <em><a href="https://archive.org/details/ladiesofgrcour00gain" target="_blank">The Ladies of Grécourt</a></em>.<br />
<br />
More on the Smith College Relief Unit: <a href="http://sophia.smith.edu/blog/smithipedia/womens-war-work/smith-college-relief-unit-scru-1917-1920/">http://sophia.smith.edu/blog/smithipedia/womens-war-work/smith-college-relief-unit-scru-1917-1920/</a><o:p> </o:p></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-61832807217647664222014-06-11T18:26:00.000-07:002014-06-12T13:04:24.261-07:00Madeline Zabriskie Doty and the German Spies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzw0ZJAlRdmYBkZA6OVN5w1Vnho4iGktljAPuE2UBfbmlGUuRYGG9kvFtEyx3brqYJhKptgEUvnpd-dUSOgv9TtSwH-jdC8ObvaxzGQiuWVX-PqumAgsIn5lkrqV5Y_UJyAyc-A7dGE8/s1600/20-038+Madeleine+Doty+200+dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzw0ZJAlRdmYBkZA6OVN5w1Vnho4iGktljAPuE2UBfbmlGUuRYGG9kvFtEyx3brqYJhKptgEUvnpd-dUSOgv9TtSwH-jdC8ObvaxzGQiuWVX-PqumAgsIn5lkrqV5Y_UJyAyc-A7dGE8/s1600/20-038+Madeleine+Doty+200+dpi.jpg" height="320" width="202" /></a></div>
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Madeline Zabrisky Doty during the war</div>
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Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College</div>
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When Madeleine visited a friend at the American embassy in Berlin, he warned her to leave, that her presence would make trouble for them at the embassy. "I shall...break no rules, cause no trouble," she replied, "but I'm in search of the truth, and as a free American citizen I mean to talk to every one I can from the Kaiser to Liebknecht [a vocal peace activist and cofounder, after the war, with Rosa Luxemburg, of the German Communist party]. Her friend, joking that he thought the Kaiser would be safer than Karl Liebknecht, warned her again that she would be watched constantly.<br />
<br />
He was right. "The funny thing about German spies," Madeleine wrote, "is that they dress for the part. They are as unmistakable as Sherlock Holmes. They nearly always wear gray clothes, a soft gray hat, are pale-faced, shifty-eyed, smooth-shaven, or have only a slight moustache, and carry canes."<br />
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One night, Madeleine and a new companion, a German woman who was a Social Democrat, gave the spies a chase all through Berlin. "We jumped from one car to another. It proved an exciting game. Once we went up to a gray-clad man, and asked him if he wasn't tired. But spies grow angry when spoken to. German officials have no sense of humor. If they had, I wonder if there would have been a war."</div>
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But constantly being followed eventually took its toll. Madeline wrote "I feel exactly as though I am in prison. I acquire the habit of looking out of the corner of my eye and over my shoulder. These spies are as annoying to their countrymen as to me. The people detest them. They grow restless under such suppression. Free conversation is impossible, except behind closed doors..."</div>
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Excerpt from "Madeline Zabrisky Doty: 'Germany is no place for a woman'" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1402535944&sr=1-3" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em><br />
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Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-67235821380616008222014-06-11T18:08:00.003-07:002016-08-12T10:07:10.050-07:00Mary Roberts Rinehart: Mystery Writer in No-Man's-Land<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjdOuak-Euy-v9O3-SQCc2sV66Sxy2M1N0LRhCO7F08ksKIEyN6P2uX-PXoMCaoxBHk6Fd0hMkH_QC8L5y-fKFEzU0bkvdVn5gBEH0z0AIYg6ERAt9vAERVBBhXkK1v_10yVWcRdPQhA/s1600/19-036+Mary+Roberts+Rinehart+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjdOuak-Euy-v9O3-SQCc2sV66Sxy2M1N0LRhCO7F08ksKIEyN6P2uX-PXoMCaoxBHk6Fd0hMkH_QC8L5y-fKFEzU0bkvdVn5gBEH0z0AIYg6ERAt9vAERVBBhXkK1v_10yVWcRdPQhA/s1600/19-036+Mary+Roberts+Rinehart+low+res.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>
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Mary Roberts Rinehart in 1915</div>
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Mary Roberts Rinehart Papers, 1831-1970,</div>
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SC 1958.03</div>
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Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh</div>
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"After passing an area where there had been extremely heavy fighting and where a major was now posted, flat on his stomach, with a machine gun pointed toward the German lines, the journalists and their hosts came to the most dangerous part of the trip. They were to walk straight out into no-man's-land upon a slippery four-foot-wide path made of sandbags, covered with twigs, that rose out of the midst of the water.<br />
<br />
Their destination was the 'shaking, rocking' tower of a ruined church, now being used as a Belgian observation post, 400 yards from the Belgian front lines and only 600 feet away from the Germans. The journalists had been given only one warning: 'If a <em>fusee </em>goes up, stand perfectly still. If you move they will fire.' But the Germans wouldn't need a <em>fusee</em> to see them that night; the moon was very bright. Mary suddenly regretted her decision to wear a khaki-colored coat. 'I shone like a star,' she recorded in her diary. She felt that 'a thousand rifles' were 'picking her out.'<br />
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After a moment's fearful hesitation Mary stepped out onto the pathway and walked out to the tower..."</div>
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</div>
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Excerpt from "Mary Roberts Rinehart: Mystery Writer on the Western Front" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_har?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402599999&sr=1-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em></div>
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Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-44347258941214590862014-06-10T09:46:00.000-07:002014-06-11T18:45:59.011-07:00Henriette Moriamé, the British soldiers, and the German Hussars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4dxQJcGhedss5gZoSExq_-XgYIXju7Q3xWSycXa0-SwUwAx9AKLACAPF2nGdO-rdraKx3zjKiGRl6keBeNFunyWofSsgwn63oaRCULviMU5zL_DDObo5V8fsaTMUj6Zzfg6Gt5oOq3k/s1600/Marie+Henriette+Moriam%C3%A9+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4dxQJcGhedss5gZoSExq_-XgYIXju7Q3xWSycXa0-SwUwAx9AKLACAPF2nGdO-rdraKx3zjKiGRl6keBeNFunyWofSsgwn63oaRCULviMU5zL_DDObo5V8fsaTMUj6Zzfg6Gt5oOq3k/s1600/Marie+Henriette+Moriam%C3%A9+low+res.jpg" height="320" width="187" /></a></div>
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Henriette Moriamé<br />
Courtesy of Vincent Boez</div>
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"Louise's friend and neighbor Henriette Moriamé brought the six wounded British soldiers to her large home while Louise busied herself finding food for them in the deserted village while watching for signs of the impending German invasion. German airplanes flew back and forth over the village while a troop of German cavalry could be seen from a distance on the top of the hill, approaching into the valley village. Finally, at noon, a regiment of Death's Head Hussars -- a particular branch of the German cavalry -- entered the village in triumph..."</div>
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"When the Germans saw the British uniforms that the women had washed and spread on the lawn to dry in front of Henriette's home, they demanded entrance..."<br />
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Excerpt from "Louise Thuliez: Because I am a Frenchwoman" from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1402418889&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><em>Women Heroes of World War I.</em></a></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-26100126380448535872014-03-18T09:08:00.001-07:002014-03-18T09:08:27.222-07:00Emilienne Moreau: grieving but undefeated
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ci8-GTQXG3cepg8vvkHKVp0y9Wf5504ShltI9T5PdbGbq2zgdQXJAfbKNgs6Ttp4juIr42u6MMoCnPfI5Y32Jxbb6FEFBTcBpuqwHN1KwleQ6sSUn0qvFOirJWM-cWiXBFkrj7d0SCA/s1600/%C3%89milienne_Moreau_1915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ci8-GTQXG3cepg8vvkHKVp0y9Wf5504ShltI9T5PdbGbq2zgdQXJAfbKNgs6Ttp4juIr42u6MMoCnPfI5Y32Jxbb6FEFBTcBpuqwHN1KwleQ6sSUn0qvFOirJWM-cWiXBFkrj7d0SCA/s1600/%C3%89milienne_Moreau_1915.jpg" height="320" width="134" /></a></div>
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Emilienne began to receive a series
of awards and medals from key people in the British military and government,
including King George: she had suddenly became a living symbol of the
French-British alliance. But she had also become a symbol of hope for the
French, who were overwhelmed by the enormous number of French soldiers who had
been killed by this point. When the French newspapers published photographs of
Emilienne winning the Military Cross while dressed in black (in mourning for
her brother), it was as if she were suddenly representing all the women of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place>:
grieving yet undefeated...</div>
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Excerpt from "Emilienne Moreau: The Teen Who Became a National Symbol" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395158545&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-87493187196996678682014-03-18T08:57:00.000-07:002015-02-07T13:45:01.090-08:00Emilienne Moreau takes note of German defenses<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9F80QNVOHXHwP7wKhBftWI_VGJh6L2EbAnXjQf1AsNN5Ovniwfl4sb-hkwelpSt4r0xNjUhZNwflbGBClAxtFlQEqTdwAzFvLmOVkLaJTFlX2nBARSoPASrE0glEiNMzZs1jIpG0RYlo/s1600/Lady_of_Loos_20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9F80QNVOHXHwP7wKhBftWI_VGJh6L2EbAnXjQf1AsNN5Ovniwfl4sb-hkwelpSt4r0xNjUhZNwflbGBClAxtFlQEqTdwAzFvLmOVkLaJTFlX2nBARSoPASrE0glEiNMzZs1jIpG0RYlo/s1600/Lady_of_Loos_20.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
Emilienne noticed Loos children
playing in the rubble every day, obviously not attending school—without
teachers and with few children remaining in the town, the schools were closed. She
began to teach some of them in one of the village’s abandoned homes. Because
there was so little fuel to keep them warm, Emilienne and her students would
regularly visit the slag heaps of coal pit number 15. During each trip, while
collecting remnants of coal, Emilienne would make a mental note of German
defenses—such as nests of machine guns—on the coal pit. She realized that if
the Allies returned Loos might become an area of intense fighting. <br />
<br />
She was right...<br />
<br />
Excerpt from "Emilienne Moreau: The Teen Who Became a National Symbol" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395158545&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-71660419391138511972014-02-23T13:38:00.003-08:002014-06-10T14:12:28.052-07:00Lieutenant Ecaterina Teodoroiu and the Romanian army<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6eValqShv_NS1zsXwDBRLyRRk2_6oqqsPrtkHEh7FzqoSpU05mgW_Q6z7DBsNJZnAIcFyujgBPrP4q-4JxIgMJj7NhVzMhfAczOMekwyuKOzCL6t84nARhUpwHITfbsek4qu571zasQ/s1600/18-034+Ecaterina+Teodoriou+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6eValqShv_NS1zsXwDBRLyRRk2_6oqqsPrtkHEh7FzqoSpU05mgW_Q6z7DBsNJZnAIcFyujgBPrP4q-4JxIgMJj7NhVzMhfAczOMekwyuKOzCL6t84nARhUpwHITfbsek4qu571zasQ/s1600/18-034+Ecaterina+Teodoriou+low+res.jpg" height="320" width="220" /></a></div>
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Ecaterina Teodoroiu</div>
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Courtesy of the National Military Museum, Bucharest, Romania</div>
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During the spring of 1917, the
Romanian military leadership took serious steps to reorganize and retrain its
remaining forces. Ecaterina took advantage of all the training available to
her, eager to prove herself worthy of her new rank. Now the commander of a troop,
she was given the authority to instruct other soldiers, often substituting for
her own commander when he wasn’t available to teach.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Romanian army emerged from its period of reorganization ready to fight more
effectively. Their subsequent victory during the Battle of Mărăşti greatly
surprised the Germans and Austrians and gave the Romanian army a new sense of
confidence as they prepared for another battle, one that would be fought at
Mărăşeşti. As the units in Ecaterina's division -- kept in reserve until the final days of the battle -- marched towards Mărăşeşti, they were impatient to face the enemy...<br />
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Excerpt from "Ecaterina Teodoroiu: Lieutenant Girl" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393187504&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em> </div>
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Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-10878317119160819662014-02-23T13:29:00.001-08:002014-03-02T13:02:09.615-08:00Civilian Ecaterina Teodoroiu helps Romanian defenses <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZByMm-axu_7HF6X3aBzmB3T8WteKtQupmJEL3eOjb2C8lg4SPmVlbET4zIyuHCUcBFFhNW9iaQ6_34jEk0yW1KocG7dZKvyZ22pHOg_EA0GiqbvcTCraQy2mqfADA-B24OjJG-29qIE/s1600/1_Podul-de-la-Jiu-unde-lupta-EcT-in-1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZByMm-axu_7HF6X3aBzmB3T8WteKtQupmJEL3eOjb2C8lg4SPmVlbET4zIyuHCUcBFFhNW9iaQ6_34jEk0yW1KocG7dZKvyZ22pHOg_EA0GiqbvcTCraQy2mqfADA-B24OjJG-29qIE/s1600/1_Podul-de-la-Jiu-unde-lupta-EcT-in-1916.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bridge over the Jiu River, 1916</div>
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Courtesy of the National Military Museum, Bucharest, Romania</div>
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At nine o’clock that morning, the
Germans had reached the bridge over the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jiu</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">River</st1:placetype></st1:place>
that led into Târgu Jiu. There were only 150 Romanian soldiers in the local
garrison, not nearly enough to repel the Germans. Reinforcements were promised,
but time was running out. The Germans were getting closer.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suddenly,
civilians from Târgu Jiu appeared: old men, women, and children eager to defend
their city, carrying whatever weapons they could find. “To Jiu! To the bridge!”
they cried. “We must defend the bridge! We will not let the enemy enter our
town!”</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many
who witnessed the fierce civilian defense of the bridge that day were
especially impressed with the city’s women and girls, who, despite the obvious
danger, fired weapons, transported ammunition, and tended the wounded. One
eyewitness noticed in particular a young woman who was guiding some Romanian
troops to the bridge. Then she joined the other scouts—her orders and
encouragements heard amidst the roar of the guns—who were taking an
enthusiastic and active role in the defense of the bridge, firing weapons on
the enemy. The young woman's name was Ecaterina Teodoriou.</div>
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Excerpt from "Ecaterina Teodoriou: Lieutenant Girl" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393187504&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-55709222331892221782014-02-23T13:08:00.001-08:002014-06-10T10:01:04.163-07:00Flora Sandes: British woman, Serbian soldier<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUoJVQzNWCPIFXY61YcPMqVaux9QDUqcvhBuSnGJ0L3gAaBVCczHMLw6mbYkLRJZoyot4gu4QdrbQ7iJdrkjLKGxK2V3pZnf1uwOzle8ZaExKXl2ZtVwgHNFmL9sMuX9EPuqqJtA6IO4U/s1600/Flora+Sandes+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUoJVQzNWCPIFXY61YcPMqVaux9QDUqcvhBuSnGJ0L3gAaBVCczHMLw6mbYkLRJZoyot4gu4QdrbQ7iJdrkjLKGxK2V3pZnf1uwOzle8ZaExKXl2ZtVwgHNFmL9sMuX9EPuqqJtA6IO4U/s1600/Flora+Sandes+low+res.jpg" height="320" width="269" /></a></div>
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Flora Sandes</div>
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On the snowy night of November 15,
1916, a British woman in a Serbian army uniform found a spot on the slope of a
steep, mountainous incline where she could sleep for the night. The Serbians
were in the process of pushing the Bulgarians back from this corner of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Serbia</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
which the Bulgarians had seized a year before. But the Bulgarians still had
control of two strongholds, one of them at the top of this peak. The woman was
waiting below with the rest of her regiment, approximately 500 men. It had
totaled 2,000 only three months before...</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She
and the rest of the regiment were suddenly
awakened at dawn by the sound of rifle fire and the very audible voices of
Bulgarians shouting “Hourra! Hourra!” A group of them were driving a different
regiment of Serbs down the mountain. Flora and the men with her charged up to
attack whoever had been left to guard the top. </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suddenly,
out of the mist, Bulgarians appeared directly in front of Flora and the rest of
the regiment. The Bulgarians ducked behind some rocks and threw grenades into
the midst of the Serbs. Flora suddenly felt as if a house had fallen on her.
She couldn’t see. She couldn’t get up. She was conscious that the rest of the
regiment was retreating...</div>
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Excerpts from "Flora Sandes: 'Remember You're a Soldier' " from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393189697&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em></div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-70481333492877949092014-02-23T12:55:00.003-08:002014-03-03T20:05:23.129-08:00American Journalst Bessie Beatty interviews members of the Women's Battalion of Death<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJVgrAZXNQexR4BTjaHeL6EVLdWz2Z9-4SsQ0kH7kHK6GblfuKvLVoFwKPElAKiFXnB0exF00VbEHko1xfUHdzoM4QSW5Mu8183nGEbt3fNyasE1a7bJjrPbozzyVlDJQJqhCpRnTosI/s1600/Bessie+Beatty+on+horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdJVgrAZXNQexR4BTjaHeL6EVLdWz2Z9-4SsQ0kH7kHK6GblfuKvLVoFwKPElAKiFXnB0exF00VbEHko1xfUHdzoM4QSW5Mu8183nGEbt3fNyasE1a7bJjrPbozzyVlDJQJqhCpRnTosI/s1600/Bessie+Beatty+on+horse.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bessie Beatty in Russia (from <em>The Red Heart of Russia</em>).</div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Regiment_from_Petrograd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Regiment_from_Petrograd.jpg" height="249" width="320" /></a></div>
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Members of the Women's Battalion of Death</div>
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One American war correspondent,
Bessie Beatty, stayed with the women in their barracks for a week while they
awaited their orders to the front. She asked some why they had joined the
Battalion of Death. Beatty discovered that many of them had joined because they
felt that their country’s very existence was at stake and that “nothing but a
great human sacrifice could save” it. Some were trying to escape personal
issues: “My reasons are so many that I would rather not tell them,” one of them
told Beatty. Others had lost their entire families in the war: “What else is
left for me?” asked one Cossack girl. Two of the women
had been Red Cross nurses and had seen too many Russians die at the hands of
the Germans; they felt it would be tragic for Russia to be defeated after so much loss. </div>
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Excerpt from "Maria Bochkareva and the Women's Battalion of Death" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393187504&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em> </div>
Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4304084559846586472.post-76754385772525216482014-02-23T12:34:00.000-08:002014-02-23T12:34:11.193-08:00Maria Bochkareva: Recruiting speech for the Women's Battalion of Death
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Bochkareva_Maria_LOC_ggbain_26866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Bochkareva_Maria_LOC_ggbain_26866.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
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Maria Bochkareva</div>
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“Men and women
citizens! Our mother is perishing. Our mother is <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. I want to help save her. I
want women whose hearts are loyal, whose souls are pure, whose aims are high.
With such women setting an example of self-sacrifice you men will realize your
duty in this grave hour! Women, do you know what I have called you here for? Do
you realize clearly the task lying ahead of you? Do you know what war is? War!
Look into your hearts, examine your souls and see if you can stand the great
test.”</div>
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One of Maria Bochkareva's recruiting speeches, included in "Maria Bochkareva and the Women's Battalion of Death" from <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Heroes-World-War-Remarkable/dp/1613746865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393187504&sr=8-1&keywords=women+heroes+of+world+war+i" target="_blank">Women Heroes of World War I.</a></em>Kathryn Atwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773079663574419062noreply@blogger.com0