More 20th C women in combat PODs

OK, what PODs could be required for the following sitns for women to see combat in the 20th C ?
-women combat pilots in WWII for both western allies & Nazi Germany
-Soviet women as combat pilots, tank crews etc (heck, maybe even SPETSNAZ) in Afghanistan 1979-89
-women fighters in paramilitary groups on all sides during Balkan wars
 

Sachyriel

Banned
An earlier allowance for women to own property (or maybe just never removing it from them in the first place) could allow them to have a thriving birth control industry, allowing for more of a say over their own bodies earlier and a stronger feminist movement earlier. Soon we might see an increase in the combat abilities of women because of it.
 
Maybe the US military relax rules for women in combat roles during Vietnam.

It might attract some feminists and be used as a propaganda ploy to shame draft dodgers.
 
For the first one, a POD might be more attacks on aeroplanes being flown from the factory to the airfield. This would mean they would be armed on their ferry flights, allowing the ferry pilots (often women) to defend themselves if necessary. Once it has been shown that women can fly in combat, there might be plans for it to become official.

Also, could you have an aircraft design with a small enough cockpit that you need a female pilot? This is more likely in Germany with Hanna Reitsch's testing of high-speed aircraft including the Me-163 and the Fi-103 Reichenberg, but I can see advantages to female pilots in high-altitude aircraft (Westland Welkin, etc).
 

Hendryk

Banned
I feel like mentioning "The Thousand Iron Phoenixes". Hardly an inevitable development in my TL, but I decided to take advantage of having an outspoken feminist so close to the corridors of power to indulge myself with an amazon brigade of my own.
 
There was a serious proposal to militarize the WASPS (Women's Air Force Service Pilots) in early 1944-this would've made them a regular part of the AAF, with military ranks, etc. A number of the WASPS have wondered, after reading about the Soviet women who flew combat, how they would've done if the U.S. had done the same.

In Germany, Hanna Reitsch (Hitler's favorite test pilot) actually wanted to form an all-female fighter wing to defend the Reich against the Allied bombers. Hitler told her to see Goering, and he replied "We're not that desperate yet!" This was early 1943.

There were British women on AAA guns during the V-1 Blitz, and the U.S. Army did form two batteries in early 1943 to evaluate women in AAA.
 
If Japan were to be invaded in WWII, they would have thrown women into battle on a large scale. Many of them would most likely be equipped with scuicide weapons, or very primitive ones.
 
-women fighters in paramilitary groups on all sides during Balkan wars

happened to a degree. Bosniacs used them as (counter)snipers, praising them for their calm and steadiness (I heard a story of a woman several months pregnant hunting Serbian snipers in Sarajevo-can't vouch for reliability of it though)
 
happened to a degree. Bosniacs used them as (counter)snipers, praising them for their calm and steadiness (I heard a story of a woman several months pregnant hunting Serbian snipers in Sarajevo-can't vouch for reliability of it though)
Doesn't Surprise me too Much ...

The Pregnancy Aspect Makes it Odd, But Women have a Slower Average Breathing Rate than Men do ...

This has Made them Valued for their Sniping Abilities, at Least as far Back as WWII!

:eek:
 
OK, what PODs could be required for the following sitns for women to see combat in the 20th C ?
-women combat pilots in WWII for both western allies & Nazi Germany
-Soviet women as combat pilots, tank crews etc (heck, maybe even SPETSNAZ) in Afghanistan 1979-89
-women fighters in paramilitary groups on all sides during Balkan wars

Difficult to find one good POD, since the military establishment is/was very conservative. The officers corps of old didn't want to share their officer clubs with non-aristocrats, non-whites, non-"lower classes" males - guess what they would say about female officers? Dito for NCOs.

The entire military system was one-gendered. Just to introduce WC and showers for women in all military bases would be expensive - not to mention onboard ships.

Also, the women most fit for military service tend to be the women most fit for "Rose the Riveter"-typ of jobs. They already did a "military" job. If they were conscripted/recruited the production of weapons, food etc. would suffer.

I can see two types of POD resulting in more women in combat. Either a "long war" where women are conscripted after huge losses among the men (described in "The Year of Rice and Salt" - 80 years of war between China and the muslim states where female units were common even among the muslims). Or if oral contraceptives were invented far earlier, leading to "womens lib" and female parcipiation in "male activities" far earlier. That would in itself be a POD ...
 
The Russians did use a lot of women in combat in WW2- for instance, hundreds of snipers, including Ludmila Pavlichenko (309 kills). There were also several all-female air units: the 568th Fighter Regiment (flying the Yak-1), the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment (the "Night Witches", flying the Po-2 biplane) and the 125th Guards Bomber Regiment, flying the Pe-2.
 
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