MANY BELIEVE THAT World War II could have been prevented if the Allied leaders, including British prime minster Neville Chamberlain, had stopped Hitler in 1938. That was the year the governments of France and Great Britain both agreed to allow Hitler to seize the Sudetenland, a section of Czechoslovakia in which many Germans lived. Hitler promised in writing, in what became known as the Munich Agreement, to take no more land after being given the Sudetenland. Chamberlain came back from Munich with the signed paper and claimed that it assured “peace for our time.” He feared—correctly so—that stopping Hitler would have meant war for Britain, something his country wasn’t ready for.
That “peace” was made pointless six months later when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, annexed the Czech half of the state to Germany, and made Slovakia a German puppet state (meaning Germany allowed the Slovakian government to exist but had easy and ultimate control over it). And the peace was completely shattered when German tanks rolled over the Polish border the following year, on September 1, 1939. France and Great Britain, who were allies of Poland, declared war on Germany, and in turn, Germany declared war on both of them. But neither France nor Great Britain did anything to help the Poles against Germany. This was the beginning of the eight-month Drôle de Guerre, the Phony War, so called because during this time these countries, though officially at war, didn’t make a significant move against the other. The Phony War became real, however, when Hitler began conquering western Europe in the spring of 1940. By the summer, his troops had conquered Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
Hitler now turned his attention to Great Britain. He knew that the British Royal Navy was superior to that of Germany, so crossing the English Channel for a land attack was initially out of the question. He also viewed the British as fellow Aryans and didn’t want to humiliate them. He decided that securing a voluntary surrender was the best route to take. To obtain this, he waged an air battle with his German Luftwaffe against the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the summer and autumn of 1940 in what was called the Battle of Britain.
Hitler knew the RAF was powerful, but initially he didn’t understand the character of Britain’s new prime minster. Winston Churchill refused to surrender, and the RAF successfully prevented a German air victory. By autumn of 1940, Hitler switched strategies and ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb civilian and military targets during what was called the Blitz. By the spring of 1941, thousands of British civilians had been killed in the bombing, but still Britain refused to surrender. Hitler finally decided to focus his attention elsewhere, although German bombs would continue to explode in Britain for most of the remainder of the war—especially after Germany developed so-called Vergeltungswaffen (“vengeance weapons”). The buzz bomb (V-1) and the A4 rocket (V-2) could be launched from occupied France into Britain.
Churchill’s radio broadcasts and strong stance stimulated patriotism among the British, and many of them—including women—responded by volunteering for the armed services. In 1941, Great Britain required that all women aged 18 through 60 be registered for a military draft. By 1943, nearly 90 percent of all single women and 80 percent of all married women were employed in some type of war effort.
The Women’s Land Army (WLA) was made of young women who generally came from British cities to work on farms so that the male farm workers could be free to join the armed services. The work of the women in the WLA prevented a national famine during the war. Idle Women, most inappropriately named, worked long grueling hours transporting cargo along Britain’s inland waterways.
Female air raid wardens provided first aid and organized emergency measures when a German bomb struck. The women in the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS)—which had over one million members—supported the work of the air raid wardens, organized evacuations, and ran mobile canteens that provided refreshments and entertainment for soldiers. Female air raid wardens and the women in the WVS were often in considerable danger.
Each branch of the British military had a section for women, and nearly 500,000 British women were involved in the branches. The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was attached to the army. Women could also join the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) or the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). Some of these jobs were clerical and far from the fighting, but others were closer to danger. For instance, some women involved with the ATS assisted men who operated antiaircraft guns, working searchlights and radar equipment that would help the men hit their targets. The women in these jobs were exposed to the same dangers as the men.
The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) was the first women’s voluntary corps in Great Britain. It was created in 1907, utilized during World War I, and continued during World War II (attached to the ATS). Women involved with FANY drove ambulances and jeeps and worked in canteens, hospitals, and military headquarters. Many women who signed up for the FANY, however, did so only to provide a cover—a false reason—to be away from home. They had really been recruited for the Resistance organization the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
ATS worker operating a searchlight.
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Almost immediately after France fell to the Germans in June 1940, Winston Churchill began to form the SOE, an organization that he claimed would “set Europe ablaze.” The agents of the SOE waged a clandestine (secret) war in Nazi-occupied countries that involved espionage, sabotage of German military equipment and transportation methods, and the assassination of German officers and soldiers. The SOE accomplished these activities by training agents who were native speakers of a particular Nazi-occupied country and then sending them into those countries to locate, organize, fund, and assist the Resistance fighters already working there.
When the SOE first discussed the possible inclusion of women in the ranks of agents, who would be on equal footing with the men, the idea was met with strong opposition. But that was soon forgotten in light of the obvious fact that female agents would have more freedom to move about than would their male counterparts since most able-bodied men in occupied countries were supposed to be working in German munitions factories.
Thousands of men and women (more women than men) worked at an English country estate called Bletchley Park (code named Station X), trying to break the German Enigma code that enabled the German military to communicate top-secret messages to each other. Polish mathematicians, who had already broken the initial Enigma code, provided Enigma machines to the Bletchley Park workers and helped them crack the updated Enigma codes. Because the work at Bletchley Park eventually succeeded, the Allies were able to intercept crucial messages regarding German military plans, which, it is believed, significantly shortened the war. Despite the fact that the staff eventually numbered 9,000, none of these workers ever told anyone outside the organization what he or she was working on, even for decades after the war. Winston Churchill praised the Bletchley Park staff members, calling them “the geese that laid the golden egg but never cackled.”
By March 1945, the Germans had stopped bombing Great Britain, and in May, the Germans surrendered to the Allies.