C Hinecap
Let's talk about the tab / yomp across the FI shall we? Undertaken by the elite of the British infantry forces at the time. Not every infantryman could undertake that sort of effort and be successful, so that isn't really the benchmark some would claim it to be.
I stated that most of with a negative view are not referencing the most recent operations, where females have served on the front line along with their male colleagues in medical, comms, driver, interpreter and a plethora of other roles. Due to the asymmetric nature of current ops, these women have faced the enemy in firefights and have held their own. Those bold knights posting in defense of the fairer women seem to blank this factual aspect from their own minds. Women are already there.
1. Ok, let's. Not every male unit
could do it. Maj. General Jeremy Moore was given 5 Brigade because, as much as anything, of red tab interference which wanted the woodentops to be involved. He decided not to commit the Welsh Guards to the tab because, some suggest, they were not physically able to endure the march across the islands after an extended period of London garrison/Public Duties. The consequences are well catalogued.
2. Serving on the frontline and returning fire when one's FOB is being attacked or when a supply convoy is being ambushed, isn't the same as joining a unit with the express task of ramping up to destroy an enemy day after day, month after month. It's easy to suggest that anyone who doesn't "get it" is a patronising Col Blimp. But the military should be able to rise above the more immediate characteristics of a debate which would otherwise distract a less informed perspective or shape a more superficial agenda.
Teeth arm ops are not just about passing physical tick tests. Just as engineers need to have an academic bias to get through the door, the finest engineer I know can't even read as well as most. He wouldn't get in the RAF as a gunner, yet he still managed to rebuild a 27 litre RR Meteor engine from scratch. Should the RAF allow him to service Typhoon? Maybe some just underestimate the role and demands on, and of the infantry.