italy star named to a woman south africa issue

[Guest pikemedals]

i pick up a single italy star named to w91879 v.d.hassett. it a south african issue. the w prefix is for a woman.so are south african medals to womens scarce ? paul

[gavinmedals]

Hi Paul, while I am sure there are others with perhaps more accurate information on your question, the only reference I have is an article by the late Gordon Bickley, entitled "The numbers of Blacks, Coloureds, Malays and Indians who served in the UDF in the two world wars", and published in the Military Medal Society of South Africa Newsletter, Newsletter #294. According to this information a total of 25 000 females served in South African forces during WW II. This represents about 7% of the total of 342 700. Of interest according to another article there were more than one prefix used to denote female service personnel in WW II, namely F = Women Auxiliary Air Force, W = Women Auxiliary Army Service, WN = Women Auxiliary Navy Service. Hope this helps.

[Brett Hendey]

Paul

I do not have numbers to back my suspicion that the majority of women in uniform during WWII did not leave South Africa and so were not entitled to campaign stars. I also suspect that those women who did serve with South African forces in North Africa and Italy were nurses at the military hospitals in those theatres and perhaps numbered only in the hundreds.

Hassett's service record can be obtained from the military archives in Pretoria.

Regards

Brett

[Guest pikemedals]

hi i do have a ww2 africa service medal perfix WN 159 P. with no surname. i do like the low number that why i got it.it a shame it got no surname.going back to V.D.HASSETT.if she was a nurse with her 2 initials.would go down well the the boys.

[peter monahan]

I say! I say! GENTLEMEN'S Military Interest Club! ;)

Edited October 6, 2012 by peter monahan