The Call UP
Land, Air and Sea
Extract from the Rt Hon Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell 9 July 2005
'" No country has ever demanded so much of its women. ..... Over seven million women were mobilised. More than 450,000 were conscripted into the forces. ... Never before did so many women show themselves so capable in so many unexpected ways - from flying fighter aircraft between airfields to driving petrol tankers around London's dockyards in the Blitz.
The ATS girls, the WAAFs and WRENs did more than 'grin and bear it.' They helped us hit back. The United States War Department said of them in 1942: 'There is not a single record in this war of any British woman in the uniformed service quitting her post or failing her duty under fire.'"
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