Romance!

This is coolbert:

Soldiers of armies throughout the world, and again THROUGHOUT history, have always had the need to seek out female companionship for romantic interludes.

[my pertinent comments as always in bold!!]

We are talking here of course about sexual liaisons.

These romantic liaisons should not be confused with the rape that occurs in wartime. This is NOT rape we are talking about here.

We are talking about a quid pro quo relationship. The soldier gets sex and the woman gets something in return. Money if she is a prostitute, food and other essentials if she is NOT a prostitute.

Among military men of all cultures in all historical eras, a manly virileness is often expressed, when not on the battlefield, by the number of sexual liaisons the troop can engage in. This does happen. Manliness is expressed in extreme displays and episodes of sexuality.

[in feudal Japan, helmets of samurai warriors were often decorated with antlers, horns, etc. AND the ears of rabbits!!?? Rabbits, because of their fecundity [ability to reproduce often and with numbers, are a symbol of virility.].

Here are number of examples that demonstrate the soldiers desire for female companionship or a romantic nature: [all these examples thanks to Al Nofi and CIC.]

"By mid-1943, over 80,000 French women had filed claims for children's benefits with the German occupation authorities."

These of course were French women consorting with the German invader. At the end of the war, these women were chased, caught, and had their heads shaved. A lot of interesting photos from that era were taken of the scenes made when crowds gathered to shave the heads of the "collaborators"!!

"During the mid-seventeenth century the normal complement of an infantry company in the Spanish Army was 75-100 soldiers and 3-8 prostitutes."

"It is estimated that during the late 1940s, American occupation troops in Japan spent an annual average of $200,000,000 on prostitutes."

A lot of seed money for future Yakuza [Japanese Mafia] crime activity came from the use of Japanese prostitutes by American troops. Yakuza have always controlled the brothels of Japan.

"Seed money"!! Is that an intentional play on words!!??

"During World War II an estimated one million soldiers, sailors, and marines availed themselves of the services of prostitutes in the Hotel Street district of Honolulu, a devoted band of patriotic ladies who never numbered more than about 300 at a time."

A little quick math tells you that this works out to about three "tricks" a day for each of three hundred "ladies" during that period. This of course assumes a year round schedule for over three and one half years!!

"During World War Two, a slightly different situation was present in Honolulu. During the war, over 7 million men were stationed in or passed through the city on their way to fight in the South Pacific. This, of course, provided a high demand for sex work, as some of the men coming through town hadn’t seen a woman for months. At any given time, over 200 women who had come over from the mainland were working on Hotel Street, a block full of brothels that charged three dollars for three minutes."

Three dollars for three minutes, and be quick about it!! Whoa boy!!

The entire milieu of Hotel Street was very well recounted in the James Joyce book, "From Here to Eternity".

"When the Duke of Alba's army marched from Italy to Flanders in 1567, the 400 or so courtesans who accompanied it were variously described as "pretty and worthy as princesses" and "shrews, meaner than men."

"So efficient an organizer was the Duke of Alba that in Naples between May and July of 1567 he managed to raise, organize into regiments, train, and put on the march for the Netherlands an army of 10,000 men and 2,000 courtesans."

One account says 400 courtesans, the other says 2,000. At any rate, it was a lot.

"courtesan - - a prostitute with a courtly , wealthy, or upper-class clientele"

Of course there are two downsides to this form of behavior.

One is illegitimacy. With all the sorry consequences of same.

"In 1658 the Spanish Army established a new garrison at Badajoz, northwest of Madrid, one result of which was that over the next year the illegitimacy rate in the city tripled."

The other downside being venereal disease.

Statistics regarding venereal disease are staggering in some circumstances.

Such as:

"By 1916 nearly a third of all Russian troops were reported to be suffering from venereal diseases."

"The venereal disease hospitalization rate in the British Army during World War I was 29.69 cases per thousand men on duty per year."

"Venereal Disease Rates in the Armies of 1914

Armies have long suffered from venereal disease. But even before the advent of miracle drugs, some armies had a lower infection rate than others. A good example can be seen by looking at the VD infection rates for the principal mass armies of Europe on the eve of World War I, in 1914.

Venereal Disease Rate, 1914
Army Rate
Austro-Hungarian 6.0 %
French 4.2
German 2.3
Italian 8.5
Russian 17.0

There were a number of reasons for the differences in the VD rate among these armies. The French and particularly the Germans, supervised the health of their troops better than the other armies listed, providing basic education in sexual hygiene, distributing condoms, and even organizing officially supervised brothels, steps that could easily reduce a man's danger of infection by as much as 90 percent."

"Venereal Disease in the U.S. Army Since 1829.

Venereal disease has been a major cause of personnel non-effectiveness in armies for centuries. The U.S. Army seems to have been keeping statistics on venereal disease since at least the late 1820s. They are rather revealing, particularly those from supposedly uptight Victorian times.

Venereal Disease Rate, 1829-1991
Period Situation Rate
1829-1838 Peace 60
1840-1846 Peace 70
1846-1848 Mexican War 90
1849-1854 Peace 70
1861-1865 Civil War 82
1880-1890 Peace 83
1895 Peace 74
1897 Peace 84
1917-1918 World War I 87
1941-1945 World War II 49
1950-1953 Korea 146
1965-1972 Vietnam 325
1990-1991 Gulf War na

Rate is the number of cases per thousand men on strength per year. It does not represent the percentage of men with a venereal condition, since one man can be infected several times."

"1861-1865 Civil War 82
1880-1890 Peace 83"

Please note that the peacetime rate for VD during the period 1880-1990 was actually slightly higher than the war time rate during the American Civil War!!??

Please also note the Vietnam war rate. That is one man in three!! And this will all the protection available at the time. Troops, because of the use of miracle drugs, did not fear getting VD. It was accepted as an acceptable hazard. NOT a big deal!!

To what extent troop efficiency and a lessening of combat ability was the result of venereal disease I am just not sure. In the age of modern drugs and treatments, VD is just not looked upon as a killer. With treatment, you can be cured of the disease. NOT so in olden times, prior to modern drugs. What happened to the troop and his ability to perform military tasks is just not clear to me.

Many have also heard about the French Foreign Legion, and it's supposed traveling brothels, to keep the troops happy. It IS a fact that a Dien Bien Phu, prostitutes whose duty was to service the French troops were among those captured by the Viet Minh. Evidently there was one group of "north African women", and another group of prostitutes to service the "other" troops. This may have been done for religious reasons??!!

Even as late as the 1990's, it was reputed, and probably true, that Serb warlords in Bosnia had imported and enslaved foreign young women to serve their troops AND the peace keeping contingents from foreign nations. This one brothel keeper was interviewed and was quite open and frank about his house of ill repute, even in the background flying the flags of the troops of the various nations that frequented his "establishment".

It seems that as long as wars are fought, and as long as armies exist, human nature being what it is, this sort of behavior will continue.

coolbert.