The Army Girls
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
80 years after female conscription, the final few tell their extraordinary World War Two stories as part of the ATS. By war's end, 290,000 women of all backgrounds had served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. It may have had a less glamorous image than its naval and air force counterparts but the ATS was by far the biggest military service for women. Initially the ATS had a reputation for dull demeaning work. That changed in 1941. In December of that year, for the first time in British history, young single women had to join Britain's war effort. Their choice of jobs expanded dramatically. Dr Tessa Dunlop unpacks some of the controversies that accompanied putting girls, en masse, into military uniform. With a rich cast of veterans she examines the impact and legacy of Britain's female army. Class, comrades, conflict, loss, love, work - for a generation of young women military service was life-changing. Presenter: Dr. Tessa Dunlop Producer: John Murphy Archive in the programme from BFI National Archive and British Pathe
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Welcome to Seriously from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:43.0 | I'm Vanessa Kasule. |
| 0:44.6 | This podcast finds the world's best audio documentaries and puts them all in one place. |
| 0:50.1 | You're about to hear something gripping, extraordinary, and seriously unforgettable. |
| 0:56.0 | The call is sounded and women fall in for service in their country's cause. |
| 1:07.0 | Kaki uniform replaces the peacetime diversity of fashion. |
| 1:10.0 | For in the auxiliary territorial service, women undergo military training and undertake tasks which will relieve men for fighting. |
| 1:17.0 | This is the object of women's enrollment in the services to enable more men to be spared for the stoner duties of war. |
| 1:23.2 | I don't think we had thought about it being dangerous. |
| 1:29.2 | We were firing at them, we weren't expecting them to fire back. |
| 1:33.4 | I think it made me who I am. |
| 1:37.2 | I met people, I heard different things. |
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