Her grandfather, a Civil War veteran, was aware of her plans. "I knew she would do it!" he proudly proclaimed. "That girl sure has grit. I wish she could stay and fight the Germans. You ought to have seen her in uniform. She makes a better looking soldier than John [her husband]."
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| Wichita Beacon, July 25th, 1917 |
While Carter failed in her quest to join the military, Ruth Farnam, her American counterpart succeeded in fighting on the front lines. However, she saw action with the Serbs. Farnam originally served as a nurse in a unit attached to the Serbian army and was later allowed to enlist as a soldier. She reached the rank of sergeant and was decorated several times. In 1918, Ruthpublished her memoirs, A Nation at Bay: What an American Woman Saw and Did in Suffering Serbia, which you can read [HERE].
There were German women who fought as soldiers as well.
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| Atlanta Constitution, November 3rd, 1918 |
A soldier from Oklahoma reported finding women soldiers among the German prisoners. He further stated that he came upon a dead German female soldier. Her "little white hands" and lady's ring led to his suspicion.
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| Atlanta Constitution, September 14th, 1918 |
German women soldiers were also captured by Russian women soldiers.
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| Salisbury Evening Post, July 28th, 1917 |
The Russian women soldiers were part of the "Battalion of Death," so called because they pledged to fight to the death and refused to be captured alive.
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| Palladium Item, August 16th, 1917 |
Poland had its own Battalion of Death comprised of women. (Post WWI)
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| Fort Wayne Sentinel, August 6th, 1919 |
Ruth Farnam mentioned earlier wasn't the only woman who fought in the Serbian army. As with the American woman, British-born Flora Sandes initially served as a nurse with an ambulance unit. However, this role was not enough for her ambition. She desired to fight. In 1915, Sandes seized an opportunity to enlist in the Serbian army and entered the ranks openly as a woman, as did Farnam. Initially serving as a private, Ssandes rose to sergeant major and finally captain after the war. In 1916, Flora was seriously wounded by a grenade but recovered. For her bravery, she received Serbia's highest military decoration. Unable to continue to serve as a soldier in the field due to her injury, Sandes ran a hospital for the remainder of the war. The same year she was wounded, Flora published her memoirs, An English Woman-Sergeant in the Serbian Army, which you can read [HERE].
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| Flora Sandes |
Sandes was not the only British woman to serve as a soldier in World War I. Joining Flora was Dorothy Lawrence.
Lawrence was a journalist who aspired to write about the experiences of combat soldiers from a first-hand perspective. Traveling to France in 1915, she hoped to access the front but was arrested and ordered to leave. But Dorothy would not be denied. This failed attempt led her to develop a bold plan in which she would disguise herself as a man. And she did not keep her scheme to herself. While sitting in a cafe in Paris, the adventuress revealed her plan to British soldiers she met there. Fascinated, the Tommies aided her ploy by smuggling her bits of uniform one piece at a time. They also taught her how to drill and march as well as aided her in developing male mannerisms. Members of the Scottish military police aided her disguise by cutting her long brown hair short. Lawrence then used a homemade, stuffed corset to enlarge her feminine figure, darkened her complexion using a disinfectant, and shaved her smooth cheeks in hopes that the irritation would give her razor burn. Finally, Dorothy acquired forged papers identifying her as Pvt. Denis Smith.
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| Dorothy Lawrence as a soldier |
With her disguise intact, she bicycled to the British sector of the Somme.
En route, she met a sapper named Tom Dunn who found her a place with the 179 Tunneling Company, 51st Division, of the Royal Engineers. With the sappers, Lawrence would work in the trenches within four hundred yards of the front line. The physical work as well as the mental sharpness required to maintain her disguise took their toll, however, and Dorothy began to suffer from chills and fainting spells resulting from contaminated water and exhaustion. After ten days in the trenches, Lawrence decided to give up her ruse and identify herself as a woman, thereby avoiding the possibility of medical personnel discovering her secret. Moreover, doing so allowed her to protect her male comrades who had assisted her in the deception.
Predictably, military officials arrested Lawrence as a prisoner of war and interrogated her as a spy and prostitute. While satisfied that she had not been engaging in espionage, they were nevertheless embarrassed that a woman had managed to fool them and breach their security measures by slipping quietly into the trenches. Alarmed that Dorothy would release sensitive information, and fearful that her exploits would inspire more women to attempt her feat, officials locked her away in a convent until the conclusion of the Battle of Loos and ordered her to refrain from writing about her experiences. However, Lawrence did eventually manage to publish a book in 1919 entitled Sapper Dorothy Lawrence: The Only English Woman Soldier. You can read it online [HERE], although sources claim it was censored. (The title is not true. There were several women soldiers who appear in earlier British history.)
Lawrence's mental health began to deteriorate and with no income or family to support her, officials committed her to an asylum in 1925. She remained institutionalized until her death in 1964, and was buried in New Southgate Cemetery in London. The exact location of her pauper's grave is unknown today.
Until next formation...rest.
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