Women's Royal Naval Service
The Women's Royal Naval Service was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919 revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNs included cooks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors and air mechanics; the Wrens were formed in 1917 during the First World War. On 10 October 1918, nineteen-year-old Josephine Carr from Cork, became the first Wren to die on active service, when her ship, the RMS Leinster was torpedoed. By the end of the war the WRNS had 500 of them officers. In addition, about 2,000 members of the WRAF had served with the WRNS supporting the Royal Naval Air Service and were transferred on the creation of the Royal Air Force, it was disbanded in 1919. The WRNS was revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, with an expanded list of allowable activities, including flying transport planes.
At its peak in 1944 it had 75,000 active servicewomen. During the war there were 100 deaths. One of the slogans used in recruiting posters was "Join the Wrens—free a man for the fleet." In the 1970s it became obvious that equal pay for women and the need to remove sexual discrimination meant that the WRNS and the Royal Navy would become one organisation. The key change was that women would become subject to the Naval Discipline Act 1957. Vonla McBride who had experience in Human resource management became the Director of the WRNS in 1976 and members of the WRNS were subject to the same discipline as men as of 1977; the WRNS remained in existence after the war and was integrated into the regular Royal Navy in 1993 when women were allowed to serve on board navy vessels as full members of the crew. In October 1990, during the Gulf War, HMS Brilliant carried the first women to serve on an operational warship; that same year, Chief Officer Pippa Duncan became the first WRNS officer to command a Royal Navy shore establishment.
Before 1993, all women in the Royal Navy were members of the WRNS except nurses, who joined Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service, medical and dental officers, who were commissioned directly into the Royal Navy, held RN ranks, wore WRNS uniform with gold RN insignia. Female sailors are still known by Jennies in naval slang; the WRNS had its own ranking system, which it retained until amalgamation into the Royal Navy in 1993. Ratings' titles were suffixed with their trade. Wrens in blue instead of gold; the "curls" atop officers' rank stripes were diamond-shaped instead of circular. From 1939, Wren uniform consisted of a double-breasted jacket and skirt, with shirt and tie, for all ranks. Junior Ratings wore hats similar to those of their male counterparts. Senior Ratings and officers wore tricorne hats with a white cover. All insignia, including cap badges and non-substantive badges, were blue. Fletcher, Marjorie H.. The WRNS: A History of the Women's Royal Naval Service. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 9780870219979. Heath, Hacking the Nazis: The secret story of the women who broke Hitler's codes, TechRepublic, March 27, 2015Memoirs Thomas, Lesley. WRNS in Camera. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. Unwin, Vicky. Love and War in the WRNS. Gloucestershire: The History Press. Search and download the WW1 records of those who served in the Women's Royal Naval Service from The National Archives. Wrens Recruitment Poster Wrens Recruitment Poster 2 Women in the Royal Navy today Archived Page Association of Wrens
Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
The United Kingdom's Women's Army Auxiliary Corps named the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, was the women's unit of the British Army during and after the First World War. It was formally instituted on 7 July, 1917 by Sir Neville Macready, the adjutant-general, who had appointed Dr Mona Chalmers Watson the first Chief Controller and senior officer. Over 57,000 women served between January 1917 and November 1918. On 31 March 1917, women in the WAAC were first sent to the battlefields in France, just 14 cooks and waitresses. Helen Gwynne-Vaughan was the Senior Officer overseas, Florence Leach was the controller of the cooks. In 1918 women medical personnel were sent to the front in France; the corps was disbanded in September 1921. After a German air raid in September 1940 most of the service records did not survive; those which did have suffered fire and mould damage. The National Archives in Kew, digitised these to prevent further damage and they can be searched and viewed online; the last WAAC veteran was Ivy Lillian Campany, who died in 2008.
Chief ControllersDr Mona Chalmers Watson Hilda Horniblow (Chief Controller in France in 1917, in England from July 1918 succeeding Mrs Long. Dame Florence Leach ControllersHelen Gwynne-Vaughan.
Prime minister
A Prime Minister is the head of a cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not a head of state or chief executive officer of their respective nation, rather they are a head of government, serving under a monarch in a hybrid of aristocratic and democratic government forms. In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of government and head of the executive branch. In such systems, the head of state or the head of state's official representative holds a ceremonial position, although with reserve powers. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime minister is chairman of the cabinet. In a minority of systems, notably in semi-presidential systems of government, a prime minister is the official, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of the head of state.
The prime minister is but not always, a member of the Legislature or the Lower House thereof and is expected with other ministers to ensure the passage of bills through the legislature. In some monarchies the monarch may exercise executive powers that are constitutionally vested in the crown and may be exercised without the approval of parliament; as well as being head of government, a prime minister may have other roles or posts—the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for example, is First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. Prime ministers may take other ministerial posts. For example, during the Second World War, Winston Churchill was Minister of Defence and in the current cabinet of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu serves as Minister of Communications, Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and Interior; the term prime minister in its French form, premier ministre, is attested in 17th Century sources referring to Cardinal Richelieu after he was named to head the royal council in 1624.
The title was however informal and used alongside the informal principal ministre d'État more as a job description. After 1661, Louis XIV and his descendants refused to allow one of their ministers to be more important than the others, so the term was not in use; the term prime minister in the sense that we know it originated in the 18th century in the United Kingdom when members of parliament disparagingly used the title in reference to Sir Robert Walpole. During the whole of the 18th Century, Britain was involved in a prolonged conflict with France, periodically bursting into all-out war, Britons took outspoken pride in their "Liberty" as contrasted to the "Tyranny" of French Absolute Monarchy. Over time, the title became honorific and remains so in the 21st century; the monarchs of England and the United Kingdom had ministers in whom they placed special trust and who were regarded as the head of the government. Examples were Thomas Cromwell under Henry VIII; these ministers held a variety of formal posts, but were known as "the minister", the "chief minister", the "first minister" and the "prime minister".
The power of these ministers depended on the personal favour of the monarch. Although managing the parliament was among the necessary skills of holding high office, they did not depend on a parliamentary majority for their power. Although there was a cabinet, it was appointed by the monarch, the monarch presided over its meetings; when the monarch grew tired of a first minister, he or she could be dismissed, or worse: Cromwell was executed and Clarendon driven into exile when they lost favour. Kings sometimes divided power between two or more ministers to prevent one minister from becoming too powerful. Late in Anne's reign, for example, the Tory ministers Harley and Viscount Bolingbroke shared power. In the mid 17th century, after the English Civil War, Parliament strengthened its position relative to the monarch gained more power through the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and passage of the Bill of Rights in 1689; the monarch could no longer establish any law or impose any tax without its permission and thus the House of Commons became a part of the government.
It is at this point. A tipping point in the evolution of the prime ministership came with the death of Anne in 1714 and the accession of George I to the throne. George spoke no English, spent much of his time at his home in Hanover, had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, the details of English government. In these circumstances it was inevitable that the king's first minister would become the de facto head of the government. From 1721 this was the Whig politician Robert Walpole. Walpole chaired cabinet meetings, appointed all the other ministers, dispensed the royal patronage and packed the House of Commons with his supporters. Under Walpole, the doctrine of cabinet solidarity developed. Walpole required that no minister other than himself have private dealings with the king, that when the cabinet had agreed on a policy, all ministers must defend it in public, or resign; as a prime minister, Lord Melbourne, said, "It matters not what we say, gentlemen, so long as we all say the same thing."
Walpole alw
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a military operation that took place in Dunkirk, during the Second World War. The battle was fought between the Allies and Nazi Germany; as part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation to Britain of British and other Allied forces in Europe from 26 May to 4 June 1940. After the Phoney War, the Battle of France began in earnest on 10 May 1940. To the east, the German Army Group B advanced westward. In response, the Supreme Allied Commander—French General Maurice Gamelin—initiated "Plan D" and entered Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands; the plan relied on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German–French border, but German forces had crossed through most of the Netherlands before the French forces arrived. Gamelin instead committed the forces under his command, three mechanised armies, the French First and Seventh Armies and the British Expeditionary Force, to the River Dyle. On 14 May, German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes and advanced to the west toward Sedan turned northward to the English Channel, using Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein's plan Sichelschnitt under the German strategy Fall Gelb flanking the Allied forces.
A series of Allied counter-attacks—including the Battle of Arras—failed to sever the German spearhead, which reached the coast on 20 May, separating the BEF near Armentières, the French First Army, the Belgian Army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. After reaching the Channel, the German forces swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French before they could evacuate to Britain. In one of the most debated decisions of the war, the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk. Contrary to popular belief, what became known as the "Halt Order" did not originate with Adolf Hitler. Generalobersten Gerd von Rundstedt and Günther von Kluge suggested that the German forces around the Dunkirk pocket should cease their advance on the port and consolidate to avoid an Allied breakout. Hitler sanctioned the order on 24 May with the support of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht; the army was to halt for three days, which gave the Allies sufficient time to organise the Dunkirk evacuation and build a defensive line.
While more than 330,000 Allied troops were rescued and French military forces nonetheless sustained heavy casualties and were forced to abandon nearly all their equipment. On 10 May 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. By 26 May, the BEF and the French 1st Army were bottled up in a corridor to the sea, about 60 mi deep and 15–25 mi wide. Most of the British forces were still around Lille, over 40 mi from Dunkirk, with the French farther south. Two massive German armies flanked them. General Fedor von Bock's Army Group B was to the east, General Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A to the west. Both officers were promoted to field marshal. On 24 May, Hitler visited General von Rundstedt's headquarters at Charleville; the terrain around Dunkirk was thought unsuitable for armour. Von Rundstedt advised him the infantry should attack the British forces at Arras, where the British had proved capable of significant action, while Kleist's armour held the line west and south of Dunkirk to pounce on the Allied forces retreating before Army Group B.
Hitler, familiar with Flanders' marshes from the First World War, agreed. This order allowed the Germans to consolidate their gains and prepare for a southward advance against the remaining French forces. Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring asked for the chance to destroy the forces in Dunkirk; the Allied forces' destruction was thus assigned to the air force while the German infantry organised in Army Group B. Von Rundstedt called this "one of the great turning points of the war."The true reason for the decision to halt the German armour on 24 May is still debated. One theory is that Von Rundstedt and Hitler agreed to conserve the armour for Fall Rot, an operation to the south, it is possible that the Luftwaffe's closer ties than the army's to the Nazi Party contributed to Hitler's approval of Göring's request. Another theory—which few historians have given credence—is that Hitler was still trying to establish diplomatic peace with Britain before Operation Barbarossa. Although von Rundstedt after the war stated his suspicions that Hitler wanted "to help the British", based on alleged praise of the British Empire during a visit to his headquarters, little evidence that Hitler wanted to let the Allies escape exists apart from a self-exculpatory statement by Hitler himself in 1945.
The historian Brian Bond wrote: Few historians now accept the view that Hitler's behaviour was influenced by the desire to let the British off in hope that they would accept a compromise peace. True, in his political testament dated 26 February 1945 Hitler lamented that Churchill was "quite unable to appreciate the sporting spirit" in which he had refrained from annihilating British Expeditionary Force, at Dunkirk, but this hardly squares with the contemporary record. Directive No. 13, issued by the Supreme Headquarters on 24 May called for the annihilation of the French and Belgian forces in the pocket, while the Luftwaffe was ordered to prevent the escape of the English forces across the channel. Whatever the reasons for Hitler's decision, the Germans confidently believed the Allied troops were doomed. American journalist William Shirer reported on 25 May, "German military circles here tonight put it flatly, they said th
Royal Voluntary Service
The Royal Voluntary Service is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as a British women's organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions services to help in the event of War. On 16 May 1938, the British government set out the objectives of the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence: It was seen “as the enrolment of women for Air Raid Precaution Services of Local Authorities, to help to bring home to every household what air attack may mean, to make known to every household what it can do to protect itself and the community.” In the words of the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, "as regards their civil defence functions, the Minister regards the Women's Voluntary Service as occupying... much the same relationship as that of the women's auxiliary services for the armed forces of the Crown." The WVS/WRVS was a voluntary organisation, it was Lady Reading's vision that there would be no ranks.
It was the only organisation where you could find a Duchess and a char lady working side by side. While many members of the WVS mucked in on pretty much all tasks, the idea of an organisation without a hierarchy would not have worked and so while there were no ranks, there were titles. Women were recruited for specific tasks, whether, to drive ambulances, to be a member of a knitting work party or collect National Savings; those women who signed up for one thing ended up being co-opted for other work if they showed aptitude. The WVS was split into 12 Regions which started with 1 in the NE of England and moved clockwise down the country and back up. London was Region 12 and Scotland Region 11; each Region had a Regional Administrator, paid for by the Home Office. Under this each County had a County Organiser and ` staff' and below that. During and after the Second World War, there were 2,000 WVS centres around Great Britain each at the sharp end of providing help to their communities; each was prominently positioned within a town or village and was run by a Centre Organiser appointed by Headquarters in London.
Each Centre Organiser had a team of members who were responsible for different aspect of WVS work e.g. evacuation, Food or Clothing. Under their direction were the'ordinary' members. While Centre Organisers had ultimate control over the work they did in their areas, they were scrutinised by the County and Regional offices and Headquarters; each Centre had to file a monthly Narrative Report in quadruplicate which allowed both the sharing of good practice and ideas, but allowed those in charge to keep tabs on their members. These Narrative reports which were produced from 1938-1992 are inscribed on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World register and are considered one of the most important documents for social and women's history produced in the 20th century. In addition headquarters issued substantial numbers of circular notices each year informing Organisers of new projects and re-enforcing the rules and regulations; this structure stayed in place unchanged until the Local Government reorganisations in the 1970s which changed boundaries and led to changes in regional organisation and the amalgamation and closure of some centres as District Councils were introduced.
Through the 1990s cost cutting and the professionalisation of the organisation meant that Centre Organisers and County and Regional Offices were phased out and the centres were closed. Headquarters, in London since 1938 was moved out to Milton Hill House in Oxfordshire in 1997 and by 2004 there were no local or regional centres remaining; the organisation of large areas and the services within them were taken on by members of staff and local services were managed independently. In 2013 Royal Voluntary Service resurrected the centre model, which are now called'Hubs' and there are 67 spread across Great Britain; the WVS played a key part in the evacuation of civilians from urban areas. The WVS had been asked to pinpoint areas of billeting for evacuated children. Moving children out of the cities proved reasonably easy. Getting them to a known area of safety proved a lot more difficult as trains did not always arrive at an expected destination or would turn up at a reception point unexpectedly; the WVS is credited with helping to move 1.5 million people out of cities in the early days of September 1939.
The WVS played a major role in the collection of clothing required for the needy. In October 1939, Lady Reading broadcast to the United States about the need for clothing in the UK; the broadcast led to large quantities of clothing being sent over to the United Kingdom by the American Red Cross. These were distributed from WVS Emergency Clothing Stores; when troops returned to ports after the evacuation at Dunkirk, members of the WVS were there to greet them and hand out food and warm clothing. The WVS base at the railway station in Headcorn, Kent was an busy place for feeding returning soldiers before they dispersed—a spit was installed so that meat could be roasted there and then; the WVS played a vital part during the Blitz of London and other cities. By the time of the Blitz, women in the WVS were adept at providing drink around the clock. While ARP wardens and firemen
Women's Land Army
The Women's Land Army was a British civilian organisation created during the First and Second World Wars so women could work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the WLA were known as Land Girls; the name Women's Land Army was used in the United States for an organisation formally called the Woman's Land Army of America. In effect the Land Army operated to place women with farms that needed workers, the farmers being their employers, they did all the jobs that a man could do. The Board of Agriculture organised the Land Army during the Great War, starting activities in 1915. Towards the end of 1917 there were around 250,000–260,000 women working as farm labourers, with 23,000 in the Land Army itself, doing chores such as milking cows and picking fruit. 3 million men were away to fight in the First World War, meaning that Britain was struggling for labour. The government wanted women to get more involved in the production of food and do their part to support the war effort.
This was the beginning of the Women’s Land Army. Many traditional farmers were against this so the board of trade sent agricultural organisers to speak with farmers to encourage them to accept women’s work on the farms. One goal was to attract middle-class women who would act as models for patriotic engagement in nontraditional duties; however the uniform of the Women's Land Army included trousers, which many at the time considered cross-dressing. The government responded with rhetoric. January 1918 saw the publication of the first issue of The Landswoman, the official monthly magazine of the Women’s Land Army and the Women’s Institutes; as the prospect of war became likely, the government wanted to increase the amount of food grown within Britain. In order to grow more food, more help was needed on the farms and so the government started the Women's Land Army in June 1939; the majority of the Land Girls lived in the countryside but more than a third came from London and the industrial cities of the north of England.
In the Second World War, though under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, it was given an honorary head – Lady Denman. At first it asked for volunteers; this was supplemented by conscription. The WLA lasted until its official disbandment on 21 October 1949. Land girls were formed to supply New Zealand's agriculture during the war. City girls from the age of 17 and up were sent to assist on sheep, dairy and poultry properties; the Women's Timber Corps worked in the forestry industry. Its members were colloquially known as "Lumber Jills", it was a branch of the Women's Land Army that operated 1942–46. The Women's Land Army was the subject of: Angela Huth's book Land Girls A film loosely based on Huth's book, The Land Girls The ITV sitcom Backs to the Land The BBC dramatic series Land Girls; the Powell and Pressburger 1944 film A Canterbury Tale features as the female lead a Land Girl, portrayed by Sheila Sim. It figured in: Series 3, Episode 3 of the ITV detective series Foyle's War, entitled "They Fought in the Fields".
In the detective novel A Presumption of Death, taking place in the early days of World War II, the plot centres on Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey trying to solve the murder of a land girl who had come to work at a village in Hertfordshire. The Play For Today episode Rainy Day Women. During the First World War period a Good Service Ribbon was awarded to eligible women. In December 2007, the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs announced that the efforts of the Women's Land Army and the Women's Timber Corps would be formally recognised with the presentation of a specially designed commemorative badge to the surviving members; the badge of honour was awarded in July 2008 to over 45,000 former Land Girls. In October 2012, the Prince of Wales unveiled the first memorial to the WLA, on the Fochabers estate in Moray, Scotland; the sculpture was designed by Peter Naylor. In October 2014, a memorial statue to both the Women's Land Army and the Women's Timber Corps was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, England.
World War ILily Chitty, archaeologist Gertrude Denman, Baroness Denman, Director of the Women's Land Army Ethel Thomas, botanistWorld War IIHilda Gibson, campaigner for official governmental recognition of the Land Girls Joan Quennell, Member of Parliament Air Transport Auxiliary Australian Women's Land Army Canary girls Home front during World War II Mechanised Transport Corps Rosie the Riveter Victory garden Women's Auxiliary Air Force Women's Emergency Corps Bates, Martha. Snagging Turnips and Scaling Muck: The Women's Land Army in Westmorland Kendal Helm Press 2001 ISBN 0-9531836-9-6 Kramer, Ann. Land Girls and their Impact, Remember When, ISBN 978-1-84468-029-0. Rattray, Veronica. My Land Girl Years, Athena Press, ISBN 978-1-84748-526-7. Twinch, Carol. Women on the Land: Their story during two world wars, Lutterworth Press, ISBN 978-0-7188-2814-1. Tyrer, Nicola They Fought in the Fields: The Women's Land Army: The Story of a Forgotten Victory, Mandarin, ISBN 0-7493-2056-7. Archives relating to the Women's Land Army Women's Land Army Spartacus Schoolnet WW2 Land Army First World War Land Army BBC Information Page The story of the Women's Land Army in Leavenheath,Suffolk BBC Audio Slideshow about one woman's Land Army experiences Yorkshire Museum of Farming