Table of contents:
- Mata Hari and Martha Richard
- Milunka Savich and Antonina Palshina
- Evgeniya Shakhovskaya and Raymonda de Laroche
- Marie Curie and Gabriel Petit
Video: 8 Legendary Women of the First World War: Feats of War and Post-War Fate
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The First World War fell on a pivotal time in itself: women began to drive cars, conquer the sky on still imperfect planes, got involved in political struggle, and conquered science long ago. It is not surprising that many women showed themselves very actively during the war, and some even became legends.
Mata Hari and Martha Richard
One of these scouts managed to disrupt the enemy's intelligence work, and the other became world famous. It is not hard to guess that the first is Martha Richard (by the way, she is an ethnic German herself), and the second is Mata Hari (by the way, also from the German-speaking people).
Margareta Zelle, known as Mata Hari, was a performer of exotic dances of her own composition - she passed them off as temple dances. Even before the war, the dancer - who was very comfortable with touring and constantly communicating with dignitaries - was recruited by the Germans. However, an attempt to play intelligence for the dancer turned into death. She tried to voluntarily enlist in the French intelligence service, but she got it wrong, betraying her connections with a German recruiter, and walked under suspicion for a long time. In the end, France had ample evidence that Margareta was working for the Germans and was probably the cause of the death of an entire division, and the French shot her.
Martha Richard tried to go to the front as a pilot, but she was refused. Then she took nursing courses. However, she was persuaded to work for intelligence, and she went to Spain on a mission. Becoming the lover of the German attaché, she thwarted a number of tasks of German intelligence, revealed the route along which German spies passed to France and, when she was on the verge of disclosure, set up her recruiter in front of his boss so that she froze the normal work of German intelligence for a long time. But she was awarded only in the thirties - for a very long time they did not want to give the order to a former prostitute. Yes, in his youth Marta was sold to a brothel by her adult lover, and she got out of there by a miracle.
Milunka Savich and Antonina Palshina
Serbian Milunka even before World War II participated in the wars in the Balkans, at first trying to impersonate a man. When the deception was revealed, she had already established herself so well that she was allowed to stay. In the First World War, Savich entered the infantry regiment named after Prince Mikhailo. Another volunteer, Scotswoman Flora Sands, fought side by side with her.
Already an experienced warrior, Savich showed herself excellently on the battlefields and soon received the Star of Karageorgia with swords - an order. Sands earned the same order later. Savich was seriously wounded, but returned to the front as soon as possible. As a result, she became the only woman who was awarded the French Military Cross with a golden palm in the First World War.
After the war, Milunka got married, gave birth to a daughter and adopted three more orphan girls. For military merits she was given land, which came in handy: her husband abandoned her, and the whole family was fed for several years from this land.
Antonina Palshina twice pretended to be a man in order to fight. The first time I bought a soldier's uniform at the bazaar, the second time - already working as a sister of mercy, I appropriated the clothes and documents of a deceased soldier. For the first time, the deception revealed a wound in the shoulder - in the hospital, the wounded, of course, was undressed. The second time, she let it slip in response to a question about the sins of the priest, and he immediately informed the command. However, General Brusilov personally allowed the patriot to remain in her service. By the way, Palshina participated in the famous Brusilov breakthrough later.
In the rank of corporal during the breakthrough, she replaced the officer and led the soldiers into the attack. The attack was successful, but Antonina was seriously wounded. Alas, she could no longer return to the front with her wounds and quit with the rank of non-commissioned officer with two St. George's Crosses (third and fourth degrees).
After the first exposure, native Sarapul accepted Palshina as a heroine, all local publications wrote about her. After returning from the front, Sarapul was no longer up to Antonina - it was 1917. She married a Red Army soldier in order to go with him to the Civil Front. She survived, gave birth and raised two children.
Evgeniya Shakhovskaya and Raymonda de Laroche
By 1914, there were already quite a few female pilots in Europe and Russia, but all of them were refused when they asked to go to the front. Everyone except Princess Shakhovskoy. Eugenia personally submitted a petition to the emperor, and he found it useful for the general fighting spirit to allow Shakhovskaya to military service. Evgenia started the war in the Kovno aviation detachment with the rank of ensign. However, after two months she was removed, and soon accused of spying for Germany.
The aviatrix was sentenced to death, but Nicholas II personally signed a decree replacing the execution by life imprisonment in a monastery. Shakhovskaya was liberated by the revolution, and soon she joined the ranks of the Cheka. According to legend, she conducted interrogations with great cruelty, especially - former police officers and military officials. In the twentieth year, she died in a drunken firefight.
Almost all the pilots, having received a refusal of admission to the front line, either donated their planes to the army and stayed at home, like Lyubov Golanchikova, or went to the sisters of mercy, like Martha Richard. The master of dashing bends, Raymond de Laroche, chose the third path - she served as a driver throughout the war. After all, a good pilot and cars fly.
Marie Curie and Gabriel Petit
If Maria had not received the Nobel Prize, she would still have gone down in history for her activities during the First World War. The scientist went to the front line with a special mobile X-ray room and gave instructions to the nurses and surgeons: before that, fragments and bullets were obtained almost at random. X-rays significantly improved the quality of operations at the front - but these trips probably became one of the reasons for the radiation sickness of the genius woman. She showed the action of the X-ray over and over again on herself.
Belgian nurse Gabriel Petit became a national heroine not for her medical work, but for the fact that she arranged the escape of wounded prisoners of war. In addition, she agreed to work for British intelligence and managed to obtain and transmit important information several times. After about a year of successful work, she was arrested, tried and shot. During the investigation, she was offered a pardon in exchange for the extradition of other agents (one of whom was her close wife). Gabrielle refused.
One of the most legendary women of the First World War, of course, Bochkareva. Just Maria: Russian Jeanne d'Arc and her women's battalion of death.
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