Reasons why the Germans Shoot Female Russian Soldiers on Sight
Stories about military history often focus on battlefield tactics and strategy. When they do focus on people, it is usually on a male soldier. However, during WWII, the Germans often executed female soldiers on sight.
This is doubly amazing because it suggests women were a significant part of the fighting forces and that they provoked a visceral reaction from the Germans who captured them.
Ancient battlefields were often just outside their city walls, and rulers formed armies composed of people who were normally peace-time farmers.
With limited manpower, the bulk of the conscripts were needed for fighting. The remaining camp followers transported supplies, prepared the food, and performed other non-combat functions in order to
maximize the availability of men for combat.
Soviet soldiers of the Eastern Front during a short rest after fighting, 1 April 1944.
The lack of weapons and armor for camp followers allowed them to carry more supplies than the soldiers, thus extending the operating range. It also sped up the march to their destination. Based on rough estimates from other ancient armies, it has been concluded that non-combatants constituted roughly 33% to 50% of the army. It is assumed that these additional women and children allowed the maximum number of soldiers to perform
military tasks, such as scouting or building and manning city walls. But when the army was defeated or attacked in their camps or cities, the women often became easy victims or active participants in battle.
Soviet women in wWI: 588th Night Bomber regiment. In crusader cities under siege, women were recorded as manning the wall with a pot as a helmet. Some scholars suggest the strange headgear highlighted the otherness of women fighting in a traditionally male domain.
The women nornmally filled the role of water carrier and additionally boosted morale. Ancient Greek women and slaves would hurl stones and boiling water to kill invading soldiers. Again, note the nontraditional
weapons.
The women present in crusading camps often faced the enemy when the army was defeated and fled. One account includes a camp follower killing a soldier with a knife. A Muslim victim being killed by a woman was
used by writers to make the enemy seem less manly, with the knife implying a cooking instrument rather than a weapon.
The rise of total warfare often blurred the lines even further. Sherman's march to the sea attacked the population that supported secession as well as the army fighting for it. Airpower theorists like Billy Mitchell and Giulio Douhet promised that these strikes at the population would undermine morale and become such a horror that they could easily win the wars. Their theories didn't pan out
as nations developed defenses against air attacks.
This environment of partisan warfare behind the lines, massive armored warfare, and desperate loss on the front lines resulted in the women of the Soviet Union volunteering in huge numbers. The Soviet government
itself treated women differently by promoting the image of the "martyr heroine" in Russian propaganda.
The Germans also had propagandist views of women that were almost the inverse of the Soviet "martyr
heroine." The Russians viewed women as heroically defending the motherland. In contrast, the Germans
had rather simplistic views of women with a virgin/whore dichotomy.
Language itself was further used to delegitimize them. They were called Flintenweiber, or "rifle broad" instead
of Soldatinnen, "female soldier"
The women deemed Flintenweiber ended up on the wrong side of the virgin/whore dichotomy by taking ug
the activity of soldiering, wearing a uniform, and fighting in the field. Their very existence was a violation of a traditionally male purview
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