Unedited Photos Of Women In The Military That Were Left Out Of History Books

Smartly saluting, these three women are modeling uniform variants of the U.S. Army Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, often abbreviated to WAAC. This was established in 1942, not long after the U.S. entered World War II. The very next year, the unit’s name was shortened to Woman’s Army Corps, with the “auxiliary” deemed to be redundant.

Snapped here in Anniston, Alabama, in 1978, Mary E. Clarke’s a mere brigadier general. But not for long. Shortly afterward, she was promoted to the heady heights of major general, the first woman to achieve this position in the U.S. Army. She’s got her fingers in her ears because she’s at the Fort McClellan Military Police Center & School and there’s live firing training in the background.

These determined-looking women are part of the U.S. Naval Academy freshman class of 2005. They’re engaged in a grueling 14-hour training exercise known as “Sea Trials,” and it’s a day designed to push them to their limits. In this particular section, they’re required to hang from the rope for a full 60 seconds.

These four women are wrestling with a high-pressure fire hose at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii. For years, researchers believed that it had actually been taken on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. But though it certainly was taken during WWII, it was actually a training exercise. Still, the bravery of these women isn’t in doubt.

U.S. Marine Stephanie Palladino was in the midst of her boot camp training in this shot from 2003 at Parris Island, South Carolina. Believe it or not, Palladino’s about to enter the training pool in full combat gear. Hardly a leisurely swim, but par for the course in the Marines.

Here’s an encounter between women soldiers from two of the World War II Allies. Representing America are soldiers from the Women’s Army Corps. And from Britain are members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service. The Americans, Jo Puo from Indiana and Jean Barrett of New York, are the ones wearing the puttees.

This is Elizabeth L. Remba Gardner from Rockford, Illinois, serving with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots during WWII. She looks ready for anything as she leans her head out of the cockpit window of her aircraft. Gardner was about to take off from the Harlingen Army Airfield in Texas, probably on a mission to deliver the plane to another U.S. base.

These soldiers are obviously taking time out for some rest and relaxation in a Russian camp in February 1918. Interestingly, these women from the Women's Regiment from Petrograd were one of only two all-female units to be deployed by Russia during WWI. The other unit had the exciting name of the 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death.

Here are two senior sergeants serving with the Soviet Union’s Red Army during WWII. They’re V. Mityoshina and N. Zalko, and they hadn’t always been soldiers. In a previous life, they were both students at the Moscow State Theatrical Institute, no doubt a far cry from military life. Here, they proudly sport medals that had been awarded for outstanding bravery.

Here’s a platoon from the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, parading in New York City in 2002. And with their shining helmets, they look about as smart as a soldier can. While this group got started in the 1910s, it was only in 1970 that young women were permitted to sign up.

These British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force personnel are deep in conversation with renowned U.S. racing pilot Jacqueline Cochran, seen on the far right. Cochran later led the American outfit the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. The fighter plane they’re all perched on is a Hawker Hurricane belonging to the 242 (Canadian) Squadron. When this shot was taken in 1941, the squadron was based in England at RAF Duxford in Cambridgeshire.

These women are with Britain’s Mechanised Transport Corps, and they’re working on a Leyland Retriever truck in 1942. They were also the crew responsible for driving the vehicles as they transported vital military supplies across England. Though under military discipline and in uniform, the corps was actually a civilian outfit.

In 1943 members of Britain’s Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) engaged in a mass workout session. The women are based at the Royal Air Force base at Exeter in the west of England. The WAAF was created in the summer of 1939, not long before the war with Germany broke out. By the time this photo was taken, it had a complement of more than 180,000 women.

Now we’re with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, standing precariously at the open rear doors of a C130 Hercules transport plane in flight. On the left is Load-master Callie Lucas and her colleague is Amaaria Bhana. The two are actually engrossed in a program in 2019 whose aim was to encourage young women to join up with New Zealand’s air force.

The British Home Guard was the domestic defense force hastily formed in the early part of World War II. That was when a German invasion across the English Channel from France seemed like a genuine threat. Keen to defend their country, these women marching in formation have volunteered to serve with the Home Guard.

Some people here are in flying jackets and others wear civilian clothes. But they all have one thing in common: they’ve just graduated from the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron’s training program at Ellington Field, Texas, in 1943. That means they’ll soon be piloting military planes fresh from the factories to the bases where they need to be.

These four purposeful women are using raw muscle power to shift this menacing-looking torpedo. It’s 1943, and they’re serving with the British Women’s Royal Naval Service, often referred to as the Wrens. The women are at the major naval port of Portsmouth on England’s south coast, and the torpedo’s bound for a submarine.

These are two fliers with the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, photographed in 1943. In the cockpit is Barbara Jane Erickson, while Evelyn Sharp stands on the wing. The fighter plane’s a Mustang P-51. Erickson would have been flying it from one base to another, as female pilots weren’t allowed to fly in combat during WWII. Even so, they played a key role in Air Force operations.

What on earth are these two women up to? Turns out, it was a training exercise in disarming the enemy. The women are with the U.S. Marines and they’re at the corps’ training base, Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. As you can see, back in 1969, the female Marines wore skirts, even during unarmed combat.

These stern-looking women actually had every right to be pleased with themselves. In 1992 they all graduated from Britain’s elite officer college, Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. Women were only first permitted to attend Sandhurst in 1984. By that time, the institution had been in operation for more than 170 years. Notably, that’s about the same length of time it took for women to be allowed into West Point in the U.S.

This U.S. Army soldier has just arrived at Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran Air Base. She’s there to take part in Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had invaded his neighbor in 1990. The following year, the U.S. Army and allies expelled the hostile forces from Kuwait in just 100 hours

Women weren’t allowed to join Britain’s Royal Air Force during WWII, but there was a special unit for them, the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). Like their American counterparts in the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, the British women’s job was to fly planes between airfields or from factories to bases. The women in this picture have just made the inaugural ATA aircraft delivery in 1940.

Private First Class 24 – that’s the only name we know her by – poses in full combat uniform sometime around 1944. A member of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, she’s wearing the trusty M43 field jacket. Its earliest combat duty came in Italy on the backs of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. But PFC 24 wouldn’t have worn the jacket in action, a pursuit that was forbidden to American women during WWII.

Here are four women from the British Auxiliary Territorial Service in late 1939, just a few months after the outbreak of World War II. One of them is Norma Quaye, the sole woman of color in the corps when this image was captured. At first, the women were assigned fairly menial tasks, but come 1943 more than 50,000 of them were on vital duties with anti-aircraft outfits.

Four women fliers have landed after a flight aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress. You can just about see the plane’s nickname in the background – “Pistol Packin’ Mama” – which seems appropriate enough. The Women Airforce Service Pilots – WASPs – flew planes between bases, freeing up male pilots to go on bombing and combat missions. Women weren’t allowed to take fighting roles during WWII.

Commanded by Major Charity Adams, these women were the earliest African-American members of the American Women’s Army Corp to be posted overseas. As you might have guessed from the thick stockings and damp weather, the women had sailed across the Atlantic to England in 1944. They were part of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, and though their work may not have been exciting, it was certainly essential.

Photographed in 1944, these are eight members of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, often known as the WASPs. They’re at the Army Air Force’s Foster Field in Victoria, Texas, attending the Advanced Single Engine Pilot School. Early on, Army Air Force commander Henry “Hap” Arnold had his doubts about women’s flying capabilities. But NPR quoted his later words: “Now in 1944, it is on the record that women can fly as well as men.”

This woman served with the Soviet Union’s 8th Guards Panfilov Division during WWII. Her name was Asipa Ismailova, and she’d swapped a career as a professional dancer for a position with the Red Army as a mounted soldier. Reportedly, she’d rescued many injured comrades from the front lines using her horse as transport.

This woman gives us a cheery smile from the flight deck of the 97,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in 2000. The ship was deployed in the Persian Gulf at a time when things were hot in that notoriously volatile region. Its mission was to enforce a no-fly zone. The Harry S. Truman had a crew of more than 5,000 at the time. 650 of those were female.

Of course, the U.S. military isn’t only involved in fighting wars — it also embarks on philanthropic missions when the occasion arises. Here we see a woman driving a U.S. Navy truck laden with food in war-torn Somalia in 1992. Civil war had broken out between rival factions and the conflict created a humanitarian disaster, with food shortages an acute problem. The U.S. military stepped in to help.

This photo was set up as part of the celebration of the U.S. Armed Forces Day in May 1965. It’s a day that’s been marked on the third Saturday in May since 1950 and it honors all four branches of the military. From left to right, these women, all serving in Washington, D.C., are wearing the uniforms of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.

Here are some members of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES, keeping fit for their vital role with the U.S. Navy during WWII. Formed in 1942, WAVES recruited females aged between 18 and 36, and 20 to 50 for officers. The women were posted for duties at onshore bases around America, including Pearl Harbor.

Here are some newly minted army officers on the proud day of their graduation from the United States Military Academy, best known as West Point, in 1995. President Thomas Jefferson signed off on the founding of the Academy in 1802. But it was more than 170 years before women were finally allowed to study at the hallowed establishment in 1976.

Three mechanics from the U.S. Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, better known as WAVES, are hard at work. They’re maintaining an SNJ training aircraft at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida in 1944. More than 100,000 women were in WAVES during WWII, filling a wide range of essential roles.

Charlotte Greene, Mary E. Donahue, and Shirley Popper pose in front of a jet fighter at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. They’re three of the 18 women who’ve been chosen for pilot training at the base. Women had been flying military transports since 1942, but it wasn’t until 1976 that a program to train female pilots for a full role with the USAF was launched. These women were some of the first to participate.

Born in 1832, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was a physician at a time when very few women were qualified to that level in medicine. In fact, she was a surgeon and became the sole female to serve in that capacity with the Union Army during the Civil War. And she was also the first female to receive America’s highest military award for bravery, the Medal of Honor.

The Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service was established as an auxiliary force for the U.S. Navy in 1942. The name’s a bit of a mouthful, so it’s hardly surprising that the unit was simply known as WAVES, appropriately enough for a branch of the Navy. But there’s something a little different about this column of women. Two of them, Doris and Dorothy Harbin at the front center and right of the platoon, were twins, apparently the first recruited by WAVES.

Wearing stylish red and black forage caps, these two women are serving with Britain’s Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1943. But what are they doing? They’re at the Royal Artillery Experimental Unit in Shoeburyness, a town on England’s North Sea coast about 40 miles east of London. The equipment they’re using is designed to track shells as they explode in the sky or over the sea.

Kitted out for flight training, these are members of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). The outfit was inaugurated in 1942, and its mission was to fly planes from the manufacturing factories to air bases. It was a select unit, and there were never more than 28 women flying missions for it. And pilots had to have at least 500 hours of previous flying experience before they were even considered for the WAFS.

While most women contributing to the war effort during WWII never saw combat, that didn't mean they never got a chance to get behind a weapon or two. This group of British women seems pretty thrilled to be taking part in a mortar exercise along the coast.

Women that did see time on the battlefield were often employed as field nurses, risking their lives to rescue and care for wounded soldiers. Without their bravery, thousands of men would never have made it back home.