The first female Marines ever to complete infantry training

[Slacker]

Don't get me wrong, a static and/or guerrilla defense is demanding but certainly not in the same way that we had to move. Not to mention, we did this is hot, humid weather including out in the Mojave desert where as, unless I'm mistaken, Stalingrad took place during cooler months.

My wife's now 80-something year old grandmother, who as a teenager dragged wounded soldiers off the battlefield while SMGing Damn Nazis in the bitter Ukrainian winter, first as a partisan and then with a scout unit attached to the Red Army, might have a counter-argument handy somewhere. I mean, let's be real here-just because their hell was different from your hell doesn't mean your hell is hardercore. You're not an inherently better soldier than a Roman Legionnaire because your training practices are different. Seriously.

[AniThyng]

Can we really use the examples of people forced into extraordinary circumstances in one of the world's most brutal modern wars to justify standards one way or another for average soldiers in a nation not undergoing existential military crisis?

[GuppyShark]

The question isn't whether females could fight in Stalingrad. The question is whether the average female could fight in Stalingrad. We know some were successful at combat. We don't know how many female soldiers there were that simply couldn't hack it. And above that, how many female soldiers did hack it for that period, but were destroyed by the experience (health problems severe enough that they weren't able to be productive members of society afterward). And of course, how those numbers compare to male soldiers.

Since when is this about the "average female"?
These candidates are a self selecting pool of volunteers. Nobody's getting conscripted here.