List of wartime crossdressers

Many people have engaged in crossdressing during wartime under various circumstances and for various motives. This has been especially true of women, whether while serving as a soldier in otherwise all-male armies, while protecting or disguising their identity in dangerous circumstances, or for other purposes. Conversely, men would dress as women to avoid being drafted, the mythological precedent for this being Achilles hiding at the court of Lycomedes dressed as a girl to avoid participation in the Trojan War.

Historical

Antiquity

* Epipole of Carystus was a Greek woman reported by Chennos to have joined the Greek army in the Trojan War.

Middle Ages

* Hua Mulan was, according to a famous Chinese poem, a woman who joined the Chinese army in her father's stead.

Fourteenth century

* Jeanne de Clisson (1300 – 1359), the “Lioness of Brittany”, was a pirate who plied the English Channel for French ships from 1343 to 1356.
* Joanna of Flanders (c. 1295 – 1374) led the Montfortist faction in Brittany in the 1340s after the capture of her husband left her as the titular head of the family. She wore male dress at engagements such as the siege of Hennebont.

Fifteenth century

*Jacqueline of Wittelsbach, Countess of Hainaut (1401 – 1436) led the Hoek faction in Holland. She and one of her servants disguised themselves as soldiers in order to escape confinement in Ghent.
* Joan of Arc (c. 1412 – 1431), the national heroine of France, led armies in male clothing during the Hundred Years' War and was accused of cross-dressing by the tribunal that sentenced her to death.

eventeenth century

* Catalina de Erauso (1592 – 1650), the "Nun Lieutenant", was a semilegendary Spanish adventurer.

Eighteenth century

* Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720 – 1788) dressed as Flora MacDonald's maid servant, Betty Burke, to escape the Battle of Culloden for the island of Skye in 1746.
* Deborah Sampson (1760 - 1827) of Massachusetts was the first known American woman who disguised herself as a soldier. She served in the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.
* Joanna Żubr (1770 - 1852) was a Polish soldier of the Napoleonic Wars and the first woman to receive the Virtuti Militari, the highest Polish military order.
* Hannah Snell (1723 – 1792) was an Englishwoman who entered military service under the name "James Gray", initially for the purpose of searching for her missing husband. She served in General Guise's regiment in the army of the Duke of Northumberland, and then in the marines.

Nineteenth century

* Nadezhda Durova (1783 - 1866) was a decorated Russian cavalry soldier of the Napoleonic Wars who spent nine years disguised as a man.
* Sarah Emma Edmundson (1841 - 1898) served with the Union Army in the American Civil War disguised as a man named Frank Thompson.
* Anna Lühring (1796 - 1866) (sometimes wrongly referred to as Anna Lührmann) was a soldier in the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars.
* Cathy Williams (1844 - 1892) was an ex-slave who became the first recorded African-American woman to fight in the U.S. Army.

Twentieth century

* Ecaterina Teodoroiu (1894 - 1917), regarded as a heroine of Romania, fought and died in World War I.
* Dorothy Lawrence (1896 - 1964) was a British reporter who served as a man in the army during World War I.
* Ehud Barak (b. 1942), the later prime minister of Israel, was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate alleged members of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut during the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/special_report/1999/05/99/israel_elections/330562.stm|title=BBC News | ISRAEL ELECTIONS | Profile: A trusted leader|publisher=news.bbc.co.uk|accessdate=2008-06-12|last=|first=]
* Abdul Aziz Ghazi is a Pakistani cleric who, having ordered his followers to fight to the death, sneaked out of the Lal Masjid dressed in a burqa.

As a major plot device in fiction

* In J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings", Éowyn, the White Lady of Rohan, pretends to be a man and slips off to combat the forces of Mordor.

* In "All the Queen's Men", a 2001 comedy set during WWII, cross-dressing is a central plot device.

* Terry Pratchett's novel "Monstrous Regiment" is a satirical look at the phenomenon.

* "I was a Male War Bride" is a comedy where the male French officer, played by Cary Grant, must dress like a woman to return as a war bride of his American military wife.

* One of the running gags of the TV series "M*A*S*H" is Klinger's attempts to get discharge from military service by crossdressing.

* In the Disney film "Mulan", which is based on the story of Hua Mulan, Mulan dresses as a male to save her father from being drafted.

* In Tamora Pierce's "The Song of the Lioness" quartet of books, Alanna of Trebond disguises herself as a boy named Alan and goes to be trained in place of her twin brother in order to become a royal knight, a position only given to noble-born boys. Over the course of the four books, and others in the Tortall Universe, Alanna proceeds to fight for the kingdom as an accomplished knight both before and after the discovery of her true gender.

* "Genesis Climber Mospeada" was perhaps the first anime series to feature a regular crossdresser amongst the main protagonists. Yellow Belmont, a former soldier, crossdressed to avoid anti-soldier reprisals by the Imbit and others, and eventually became an accomplished pop singer. During the course of the series, Yellow would cross-dress to hold concerts, enabling his soldier comrades to procure much needed supplies for their war against the Imbit. Yellow had many fans of his music; none outside of his circle of friends realized he was a man until he revealed it to the public during the final episode of Mospeada.

* H. E. Bates's novel "The Triple Echo" is about a World War II army deserter who cross-dresses to avoid arrest. This was made into a film in 1972.

References