During the Second World War, women played a pivotal role in many different theatres
of the conflict.
In Britain, whilst the men were away fighting the women took to jobs inside factories making
ammunition and war materials.
Also they took to the fields to ensure that the country had enough food, with hundreds
of thousands of women joining the land army.
But there was a role in the fighting for women found inside of the Red Army.
Soviet women played a very interesting and important role in the Second World War, and
many as well as working hard in industry and other sectors, took up arms and were allowed
to serve inside of the Soviet Armed Forces.
Many women also fought in the Partisans for the resistance group to defy the German occupation
of their lands, however what was incredibly dangerous was if a female red army soldier
fell into the hands of the German enemy.
The Germans viewed their role in the fighting element of the war as truly abhorrent and
disgusting, and for this many of them were executed instantly.
Join us today as we look at the Horrific executions of the female red army soviet soldiers, and
remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
It wasn’t just in the Army that women in the Soviet Union saw combat.
There were a group of Soviet women aviators, and when war broke out there were a number
of women who had training as pilots and many of them volunteered.
There were no formal limits to their applications to serve in combat roles, however women were
discouraged from taking to the skies or bearing arms for the Soviets, until there was a desperate
need for them.
Their applications were blocked and were put off until the true reality of the conflict
hit Stalin, and the fact his soldiers had taken huge losses as the Germans launched
operation Barbarossa, the invasions of Stalin’s lands.
The Soviet Union was the First Nation which used women pilots to fly combat missions,
and there were complete regiments of them that flew more than 30,000 combat sorties,
and many of these women were awarded the prestigious Hero of the Soviet Union Award.
Famously the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment was known as The Night Witches,
and these women flew around 24,000 combat missions bombing the Germans from an outdated
biplane.
During some of these missions, they were known for terrorising the German lines.
They would fly to high altitudes, and then turn off the engines and then glide to a bombing
altitude.
With no engine sounds, they were ghost-like and when they hit the right altitutde they
would drop their payload and cause havoc and confusion amongst Germans.
But the fighting on the Eastern Front was some of the most savage and deadly of the
whole of World War 2.
As the Soviets took heavy losses at the hands of the Germans to begin with, Stalin had to
consider how he would replace many of the men that he had lost.
Some of his best officers were lost in this manner, and he planned that women would take
part in the Second lines of defence, and would be trained in medical aid and nursing in aid
stations, but also in manning anti aircraft positions.
These roles were seen as safer than the front line, but eventually the time came where women
became involved in combat.
Women eventually gained a significant amount of credibility inside of the Red Army, and
it’s believed that around 500,000 towards the end of the war were involved.
Another significant role for women was as snipers, and some of the best known Soviet
female soldiers had incredible records with their rifles.
Roza Shanina for example was credited with 59 confirmed kills, and many women were used
at Stalingrad.
Some female snipers crept inside of the ruined city and took out the enemy with precision.
Between 1941 and 1945, almost 2500 Soviet female snipers were deployed, and around 500
survived the conflict and they killed at least 11,000 members of the enemy.
Also Lyudmila Pavlichenko was another sniper who is classed as the most successful female
sniper in History, as she managed to take out a staggering 309 German soldiers.
She was known for her immense skill, and was a constant thorn in the side of the Wehrmacht.
But the German Army saw the use of female soviet red army soldiers as wrong and backwards,
and they were seen as a symbol of communism.
The Germans saw the women as evil, and they thought a woman’s place should be at home,
and these strong views needed stamping out in the eyes of the military.
For the Nazis, the use of women on the battlefield was completely against their beliefs and because
of this they were seen as the lowest of the low, and were often subject to immediate execution
as soon as they were captured.
Hitler was concerned that this sort of behaviour in his eyes would spread, so he ordered his
soldiers to deal with them quickly.
It wasn’t just the Nazis who believed this, but the Wehrmacht also saw this as shocking.
The Commander of there 4th Army at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, Gunther von Kluge,
stated in an order than all women found in uniform were to be shot in line with the Nazi
beliefs.
He considered that female fighters were seen as a barbaric element of Bolshevism, but despite
this order later being taken back, there was a huge amount of cruelty inflicted on the
female soldiers.
Other significant officers inside of the German Army continued to give out instruction as
to how to brutally deal with the women on the battlefield that were captured.
They were considered as equal to the Soviet commissars who as the Commissar order stated
from the Nazi government, should be shot dead as soon as they were captured.
They were not to be given a trial, but instead were to immediately be shot by firing squad
or simply any officer who took them prisoner.
It was deemed that the women who took up arms against them should not be given a choice
to live out more days inside of the concentration camps or prisoner of war camps, but should
have their lives taken away.
Some women were not even given firing squads, and many were hanged from the nearest tree
or in gallows constructed inside of villages and towns.
The remains of these women were then left for days on end to send a clear message to
anyone seeing them.
Many of the women who were captured were executed en mass following their capture, and specific
German units committed many war crimes.
Some were transported to concentration camps, such as Ravensbruck but this was only a very
small percentage.
But many women also were encouraged to join the Soviet partisans, and this resistance
element was very successful in carrying out sabotage and demolition jobs towards the enemy.
But the Germans dealt very strongly with partisans, especially women.
For example Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was an 18 year old girl who was arrested by the Nazis
following being captured during a combat mission near to a village.
She was beaten daily and was tortured and humiliated but she gave over no information.
Because of this she was then dragged to a gallows in front of a large crowd, who witnessed
her final moments.
She cried out, ‘There are 2 million of us, you can’t hang us all,’ and then the noose
was fastened and the stool kicked out from underneath her.
Also Zinaida Portnova, was a young girl of 15 when she joined the Soviet partisans.
She hid weapons and was involved in the sabotage, but when she was captured she was interrogated
and tortured.
She managed to shoot one of her captors, but was brutally assaulted and tortured for houses
inside of a forest before she was shot in the head by SS officers whilst she knelt at
their feet.
So if a female soviet red army military soldier fell into the hands of the enemy, then there
was a very probable chance that they would be executed quickly.
The fact that women were allowed to fight in the red army alongside men showed that
Stalin’s need for fighters was a huge one, but there are many women who were killed in
the Second World War who’s story remains untold.
They are undoubtedly female red army soldiers still interred on the battlefields of the
Second World War, and who were killed in war crimes that the Nazis justified with their
ideology and social beliefs.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel please make sure to subscribe
Thanks again for watching