WOMEN ON BATTLEFIELDS

Evening Star, Issue 21622, 18 January 1934, Page 1

WOMEN ON BATTLEFIELDS

SOME HISTORIC FIGHTERS Not so many years ago a popular rhymster, possibly in a thoughtless moment, sent to a publisher a poem based upon the premise that “ the female of the species is more deadly than the male.” This aroused women of civilised lands to a fighting fury, their contention en bulk being that they all were gentle, kind, and just, and never given to the grosser tendencies of the male for brawling and fighting. In the hubbub that was raised .the poet and, all other men remained silent, smilingly silent. Then the whole thing was forgotten, and women again became the meritoriously meek creatures of song and story. It is odd, though true, : that the fairer sex did riot glory in the charge, and refrained from pointing out with pride that some of the niost desperate fighters of all times were women, just frail little women. It is difficult for the average person" to place a woman in a warrior’s role, yet history affords plenty of famous examples of women, who have ' led armies to victory, who have saved countries from tyrants, and who have defended their homelands from invaders (writes J. A. Menaugh). History, however, never can begin to tell of all the glorious deeds performed by women on the field of battle, for many a brave heroine has died' uupraised fighting valiantly beside her husband, brother, or lover. With her hair shingled and marching in borrowed breeches, many a peasant girl has faced thundering artillery with nothing more 1 effective than a pitchfork for a weapon. Which all simmers down to the fact that man has no monopoly of valour,. and that if the time ever comes again when women are needed to fill the thinning ranks of badly harassed armies there will be an abundance of volunteers from what the poet called the “ more deadly of the species.” > School girls have been trained to drill with rifles, and many of them are expert marksmen. This has not been, done with the idea that these girls may be called up for war service, but the fact remains that many of them ; if needed, could be turned into efficient soldiers. In Russia, however, where war propaganda and Communism are inseparable, women actually are being trained for war. Many of the big industriaT organisations of that land have their own companies and battalions of girl soldiers, and even - in the farming communities the women, are taught to handle the rifle and bayonet. _ The Russians of to-day got their inspiration for female soldiery from that country’s celebrated Battalion of Death, which made an undying name for itself when the Germans were ham-' mering its western front and the Bolsheviks were demoralising the_ nation from within. It was'Mme-Mariai’Leota-t. as:.a .colonel, led, the,. BSttalibii r ’rif Death against the G.ermalis in%%'.effort to Shame the menof Russia into fighting further for their fatherland. Many of the women and girls of that famous battalion were slain, and the leader herself was wounded. Mine Botchkareva was the most recent of a long list of famous women fighters, a list including the ancient Assyrian Princess Semiramis'; the warrior Queen of the Britons, Boadicea; Joan of Arc, the fighting peasant girl who saved France; and the American heroine, MoJIy Pitcher; , The story of Semiramis was one which until very recent years had to do mostly with legends. It was only through archseological discoveries made in the twentieth century that the famous fighting princess of the Assyrians was established as an actual person. Semiramis, according ,to legends, was either the daughter of the fish goddess Atargatis,' or the goddess Derketo, and the wife or Ninus, founder of Nineveh. She had further fame _ in the ancient stories as the builder of Babylon , and its . hanging gardens. Newly-found records in ruins of ancient Assyrian cities show Semiramis to have been a “ woman of the palace of SamsiAdad, King of the World, King of Assyria, King of the Four Quarters of the World.” She waged many lengthy and successful wars against the IndoGennanic Medes and the Chaldeans. liyed about 800 years before the‘.Christian era. BRITONS’ WARRIOR QUEEN. Boadicea, the warrior queen of the Britons, made a name for herself nearly 900 years after the day of Semiramis. Boadicea was the wife of Prasutagus, who ruled the Iceni (now Norfolk) as an autonomous jirince under Roman suzerainty. He died in A.iy 61, leaving a will dividing his wealth into three parts—one for the Roman Emperor Nero, and one each for his two daughters. He left no male heirs. Prasutagns evidently was seeking favour for his family by bequeathing part of his fortune to Nero, but the, plan did not work, and-the Romans publicly flogged the widow, Boadicea, who protested at being forgotten in the will. This abuse aroused the, fighting spirit in the woman. She proclaimed rebellion against the Romans, ahd.was joined by a large proportion of the population of her territory. Nearly all of south-eastern Britain took sides with the fighting Queen, and the Britons ■ burned Verulaminra and’ the Colchester mart of London, and massacred some 70,000 Romans and Roman sympathisers. Rome’s celebrated Ninth Legion,' marchirig from Lincoln to the scene, of the rebellion, was almost annihilated by the Britons. At last Paulinas, at the head of a huge Roman army, met the Britons in battle, on a site unknown to-day, but believed to have been in or near London. The Britons were defeated after thousands, had been slain. Boadicea took poison. After her death Rome adopted a kinder policy toward the subdued people. Most famous, perhaps, of all fighting women was Joan of Arc, who was beatified in Rome in 1909 and canonised by Pope Benedict XV. in, 1919. For her exploit in raising the siege of Orleans she was given the name of the Maid of Orleans. She was born a poor peasant girl in the village of Domremy, on the Meuse, on January 6, 1412, at a time when the English and the Burgundians were over-running France, and the Dauphin of France had no capital which he could call his own. Being given the commission to lead an army of liberty, after a lengthy examination by theologians, Joan led a French army of 4,000 to Orleans, and

after desperate fighting, drove off the besiegers. Slib followed up her successes, .later taking Troyes and Heims,, and knelt before the Dauphin when ha was.crowned king in Reims. Joan’s attempt to capture .Paris was unsuccessful, and she was taken captive by, a company of Burgundians. On January 3,/1431, she was turned over to Pierre, Cauchon, who was to be the chief judge in her trial on the charge of “high treason against God.” She was tried before a group of'churchmen, who condemned her. She kissed a cross given to her by an English soldier, as she was being chained to the stake, around which the faggots were piledHer ashes were thrown into the Seine from a bridge in Rouen. Five years later the French retook Paris. Molly Pitcher, America’s favourite fighting heroine, was neither a queen nor one inspired by the supernaturalSho was merely the wife of : a gunner in the Continental army, who was slain at the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, as he was loading his field piece. Molly took his place at the muzzle of the cannon a'nd fought onto receive high praise from General Washington and the rank of sergeant in the Continental army.