Arrows on the chevrons: Tensions and clashes in women’s health care during the Blue Division campaign

Abstract

This article aims to shed light on the tensions and conflicts of competence experienced between the Women’s Section of the FET and the JONS (SF) and the Military Health Service in relation to the nurses sent to the Russian front to support the volunteers of the Blue Division. In carrying out the study, we consulted the correspondence of Mercedes Milá Nolla, creator of the Ladies Auxiliary Corps of Military Health, the letters of some nurses sent from the hospitals at the front, as well as SF circulars and reports. From these we can see that the clashes and quarrels over the control and classification of female health personnel dated back to the Civil War, and how they were a reflection of the political conflict in the sphere of male power between the Army and a Falange ready to assert its totalitarian project by controlling any sphere of organisation. The conflict situation led to a bicephaly in women’s health that continued throughout the Russian campaign and even afterwards, with each group maintaining and administering its own spheres.