The Secrets of WW2's Women Soldiers

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. Formed in 1938 it saw many thousands of women take on a huge range of vital roles in the war effort which had never before been open to them. This included manning anti-aircraft stations, searchlights, plotting rooms and many more. This could be dangerous work and over 700 women were killed during the conflict. Some women also faced dangers closer to home including the behaviour of some of the men they served with. Sadly, the contribution of these women and the risks they endured has often been overlooked. To shine a light on their courage and service Dan is joined by historian, broadcaster and writer Tessa Dunlop and Grace Taylor, a 97 year-old former ATS ‘Gunner Girl’. Tessa Dunlop is the author of the book: Army Girls: The secrets and stories of military service from the final few women who fought in World War II. Tessa and Grace discuss with Dan the reality of women serving on the front line, how allowing women to more fully participate in the war effort marked a radical social departure and Grace's experience as a member of the ATS.

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History. Recently I've been lucky enough to talk to a wonderful
0:04.0	Pearl Harbor veteran. I've talked to one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, one of the African-American
0:08.8	Airmen who fought with such skill and tenacity in the skies above Europe in the Second of
0:13.6	War. And today I've got another wonderful veteran to talk to. This time I'm talking to Grace
0:18.0	Taylor. She's 97 years old. She's a former gunner girl in the auxiliary territorial service.
0:24.4	It was a service founded in 1938 and women entered it and performed a range of essential
0:30.7	wartime activities. I'm also going to be talking to Tessa Dunlop. She's a well-known historian,
0:36.0	she broadcaster and writer. She's author of the fantastic book Army Girls. And we're going to talk
0:41.0	about the women who fought, the women who served, and the women who also often get overlooked
0:46.5	in the story of the Second World War. It is a very, very great pleasure to have these two wonderful
0:52.5	women on the podcast. I'm going to say Grace, age 97, she can use the zoom better than many people
1:00.2	half her age. Fact, fact. If you want to listen to other podcasts about World War II or watch TV
1:07.0	shows about Second World War by any chance, we've got our own history channel. It's kind of cool.
1:11.5	It's the world's best digital history channel. It's probably the world's best history channel,
1:14.4	actually. I can say that as a fact. There's no aliens on there. There's no conspiracy theories
1:18.8	about Hitler wandering around Argentina. It's just great history with really good historians.
1:24.0	Our Pearl Harbor documentary, Don Wybun, in which he discusses the term all that followed Pearl
1:28.8	Harbor and his family, in his city and his state, in his country, is going great guns. So many
1:33.6	people watching that. So great to have a US team working on team history here for the first time.
1:38.4	It's a huge on that and it's very, very exciting. We're going to be expanding, doing more US stuff
1:42.2	over the next year. So please go and subscribe. History hit.doctv is the website. You can sign up
1:48.0	and you get for less than the cost of a pint of beer every month. You get access to the World's
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