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Jean asked this question about Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue (Women of Action):
Why was British code breaker Joan Clarke not mentioned in the paragraph about the breaking of the Nazi's Enigma code? Why were no women heroes mentioned from the War in the pacific?
Kathryn Jean, there were thousands of heroic WWII women not mentioned in my book. I wasn’t attempting an exhaustive, encyclopedic study but something that mig…moreJean, there were thousands of heroic WWII women not mentioned in my book. I wasn’t attempting an exhaustive, encyclopedic study but something that might spark teen interest in the role of women who put their lives on the line during the war. The contextualizing introductions in question--few of which mention individual women at any length--were written with a mind towards clarity and concision: clarity for the sake of my intended readership and concision for my publisher’s word count limit.

And not to take anything away from the notable Joan Clarke, but I was more impressed with the sheer number of women who worked at Bletchley Park than with any one individual. If you were Clarke’s fan prior the release of The Imitation Game, you must be glad her story has finally hit the big screen.

Regarding your second question: I realized early on in the project that in order to convey to young readers the sheer number of women with key roles--as well as do their stories justice--I had to limit the scope of the book. Adding a few Pacific war heroines wouldn’t have sufficiently covered that topic and would have forced me to further reduce the details of the book’s European heroines. There were only so many pages the publisher was willing to print.

A more informed question would be why I omitted Soviet women. I’ll answer that when asked. :)

If I may, I’d like to address some additional quibbles mentioned in your review. Why no Spaniards? Spain was Fascist but officially neutral during WWII. Why no Italians? I couldn’t locate enough source material on individual female Italian resisters to meet the standards I’d set for my narrative chapters.

Cheers!
Kathryn Atwood(less)
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Women Heroes of World War II
by Kathryn J. Atwood (Goodreads Author)
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