Yesterday's Witness S11 E06 The Girls Behind the Men Behind the Guns

Before the First World War women in uniform were good for a laugh and not much else. But girls did serve in the Forces and by the time they were demobbed in 1919, 100,000 of them had proved the scoffers wrong. First came the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, formed in 1916, then the WRNS and later the WRAF. For some girls, life in those brand-new Services offered a refreshing change from what had been considered suitable war work for women until then; for others it was a golden opportunity to escape the eagle eye of Victorian parents.