I have been thoroughly enjoying this book of World War II history which intersects nicely with the history of women in the Navy.
To recap, as almost all eligible men were mobilized to the European or Pacific fronts during the war, almost all military jobs Stateside and some jobs overseas were given to women, some as civilians, but eventually some to the newly formed WAAC/WAC (Army) and WAVES (Navy) units. This book contains the history of how that happened and more!
Cryptology (code making and code breaking) was still a new science; the war turned it into a permanent part of the military. Navy women played a huge role in that process.
I love how this book describes how young women from farms, small towns, East Coast aristocratic families, and many other backgrounds all converged on Washington and learned to live and work together in repurposed or hastily constructed buildings. You can just feel the energy of the era seeping through every page as America, including its young women, united to win this war!
I am just finishing up this book. It is truly astonishing how much the breaking of German and Japanese codes contributed to the victories that enabled us to win the war. I will not ruin the surprise for any who read this book but I was truly shocked to see how many of our successful actions were enabled because the code breaking teams of both the Army and the Navy back in Washington D.C. were reading the comms of the Germans and the Japanese, along with those of their logistics lines.