Evening star., 1920-04-02
GERMAN WOMEN
IN ARMY OF REDS
"BattaIion of Death" Op-
crates Against Government.
Stand Equal With Men.
BY GEORGE wITTE.

Cablegram to The Star and the Chi
cago Daily News. Copyright. 1920.
DINSLADEN. Rhineland. April l.
We cannot go any farther until the
bugle sounds" said our guide, smiling
discreetly. 1 was surprised and asked
why. Because just ahead of US is
stationed a battalion of woman sol
dfers Of the red army" explained the
guide little uneasily. They may
not have finished their morning
toilet"
"What?" I exclaimed. "a womans
battalion? I did not have the faintest
idea that women were fighting for
you.''
The guide became enthusiastic: at
has probably been explained to you
he said. that we consider all people
as equal and sex is completely elm
mated. If a woman proves to us
she has the same spirit as that which
dominates the men We give her a
rifle and belt of cartridges and send
her to the front. And the women
who are fighting at the front have
proved that they are made of the
same metal as the working men who
have Joined our army"
Just then from the distant horizon
the faint call Of bugles was waited
to the driver of our automobile
Then we speeded toward a cluster
of country houses which were silhou-
cited on the horizon and inside OF
five minutes we drew up at the en-
trance to the village.
Lose Sense of Vanity.
IT must go and see If everybody is
ready" apologized the guide. He went
on and three minutes later was back
The women are at breakfast. he
said. giving the driver instructions
wound our way through groups OF
women with rifles under their arms
or at their feet and cartridge belts
slung over their shoulders or fas-
tened around their hips. Militant
looking creatures they were. appar-
vanity supposed to be part of the COM
position Of every daughter of Eve.
AS they gazed at us they displayed
eyes dull with the lack of sleep. and
eyes with pouches under them and
heavy black circles around them
from the base of the nose to the cor
ners of the mouth. Their hair hung
in strands around their faces or was
untidily fastened in knots. Their
clothes were dirty and it was evident
that they had slept in them. Their
shoes were torn or covered win mud
Respect Aroused.
Yet there was something about them
that aroused in one a profound feel
of respect. Perhaps it was the vi
tality with which they carried on .
conversation among themselves whiie
eating black bread with grease and
drinking coffee without milk or sugar
Perhaps IL was their upright carriage
and firm stride as they walked along
carrying the heavy rifles. Though
dirty and unfsminine in appearance
one felt like taking on ones hat to
these women.
The front was only three or four
kilometers away from this female
it was just a few minutes past
o'clock the rumble OF heavy guns
from Vessel rolled over the plain ly-
ing between the women's quarters
and the front.
We located the council of women.
They all turned around as we entered.
These were the women who were TAX
ing part in the revolutionary move
ment against the government troops
and had even taken to the rife to
fight them.
Going to the Front.
Are you actually going to the
front?" I asked.
Frau Heimberg, an elderly woman
whose thin face showed many deep
burrows and who evidently was one
of the leading spirits in the women's
corps, replied in resounding voice:
"Of course" she said. THE world
is surprised to see women fighting
in bloody battles. but shall we women
stop when we have been granted the
right to vote and to have a voice in
the destinies of our nation in times
of peace? No. thousand times no!
We German women are not slower
than those Russian women who
formed the Battalion Of Death. We
have several hundred women who
have pledged their lives to the cause
of the workingmen who are their
husbands and brothers. They have
left home and children to win equal
rights as human beings. We shall
fight SO long as the men do, if not
longer"
The women's regiment was formed
in the morning and went into battle
the same afternoon.