S3x and the Somme- officially sanctioned brothels in France during WWI... Daily Brutality

 

Photo story (Clockwise from top left): (1) Allied soldiers during WWI tried to utilize their next few mortal days (2) History of prostitution extends to all modern and ancient cultures (3) There were officially sanctioned brothels in France during WWI; A group of prostitutes in Marseilles, France in 1919 (4) Anti brothel and anti V.D. poster by U.S. government during WWII

Human sexual practice is the behavior in which humans express and experience their sexuality. In many cultures, sexual activity is considered acceptable only within marriage. Prostitution is the practice or business of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for a payment. The history of prostitution extends to all modern and ancient cultures and it has been mentioned as the ‘world’s oldest profession’.

Nothing can unleash sex like war. After all, when a soldier knows that he might die tomorrow, the thing that might pop up in his head is having sex tonight. Since the known history of ancient Roman wars to modern warfare, sex has decided wars and thus changed the world. Seductive spies, porn and even officially sanctioned brothels were used as part of strategy for victory during wars.

Both the World Wars saw the development of middle class and working women who came into major cities to take on war jobs. Many male soldiers were also assigned to the same towns at the same time. For many of these war working women, prostitution became a normal practice in order to supplement their income. In Washington & London, a large number of part time hookers made themselves available to the soldiers and charged very little for their services. One famous sex worker later said ‘took care of the boys who were going overseas. I might have been the last happy moment they had on earth’. The same situation occurred in Rome and Berlin and possibly in Moscow as well.

Until 1946, brothels were legal in France. In 1960, France signed the convention to suppress human trafficking and exploitation of prostitution. U.S. army officials estimated that there were 5,000 professionally licensed prostitutes called streetwalkers, another 70,000 unlicensed prostitutes and 40 major brothels in Paris alone.

Local codes of ethics were adopted by the British army when fighting in another country. And they have allowed soldiers both the young and the married men, who were missing their wives to indulge with sex workers. But the British soldiers always preferred to indulge with armor (condoms). The British soldiers paid 6 pence per day and ended up with lowest paid prostitutes. The soldiers from Dominions (autonomous states under British sovereignty)- Canada, Australia and New Zealand received 6 shillings and could afford higher class prostitutes. There were 12 pence per shilling and 20 shillings per pound.

The British officers also gained strategic and tactical information from the German officers’ former prostitutes during the end of the war while the Allied troops were advancing. Though it is unknown what percentage of men visited the brothels in France during WWI, but the French army recorded a million cases of syphilis and gonorrhea during the war. The rates of venereal disease (VD) increased rapidly. Over 150,000 British troopers had been infected by the end of the WWI. The attitude of U.S. army was driven by a reformist attitude at home.

Instructions from U.S. army and posters, banners, leaflets read lines like ‘You wouldn’t use another person’s toothbrush, then why use his whore?’ There were strict rules for U.S. soldiers to submit chemical prophylaxis reports whoever admitted to having sex while on leave. Soldiers who did not do so and were later contracted VD were subject to court martial that sentenced them to hard labor.

A proposal of French president to resolve a brothel related dispute read that American medical authorities would control brothels designated solely for American troopers. U.S. Secretary Baker said upon receiving the proposal ‘For God’s sake, don’t show this to the president or he will stop the war’. Such conservative views regarding exposing soldiers to the prostitutes were possessed by the U.S. president during the WWI.

Web edition of eminent British daily tabloid news paper The Daily Mail reported on the officially sanctioned brothels in France during WWI.

Corporal Jack Wood probably never imagined that he was about to shed yet more of his innocence when he was given a few hours of leave from fighting on the Western front. He had arrived France only recently but had already witnessed enemy fire and been exposed to enemy shelling. He had waded through the muddy trenches, felt rats scuttle over him and lice crawl across his body as he slept on the Front when exhausted.

Yet another shock awaited him as he strolled through the streets of nearby town. It was a brothel. Wood wrote in his diary ‘We had heard about the renowned 

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