We've seen all sorts of upheaval from this war, from the very literal churning of the fields blasted by constant artillery, to the upturning of old social orders among nations across the world. There was a vast gulf from the enthusiastic pro-war crowds of 1914 to the weary people who have gone through four long, brutal years and seen people die by the millions. Out of the ashes of the blasted rubble, and the opportunities borne of the crucible of war, new orders will arise to fill the void.

One such newly embraced class were the futanari— dickgirl hermaphrodites. I'm Indy Neidell, welcome to a Great War Special Episode on futa in the First World War!

One hundred years ago, futa fought on all sides of the conflict, serving in some capacity on virtually every front, from the scorching desserts of the campaign against the Ottoman Empire, to the vast stretches of the eastern steppe, the bitter cold of the alpine battlefield along the Isonzo River, and the mud-engulfed morass of the Western Front— and indeed on the homefront too. Just like civilians of every stripe, alongside ordinary men and women futa, too, were mobilized into the industrial workforce to produce the vital goods necessary for the war effort by all major powers.

Although a significant minority compared to the two traditional genders in Europe on the eve of war in 1914, futanari had an impact on the course of the war from the very outset— from before the war began, even. You see, for reasons tracing back to the Roman Empire, the Balkans were inhabited by a larger than average demographic of futanari among its many other ethnicities who endured the yoke of, at first Ottoman and then Austrian Habsburg rule. It was no wonder then that among the Bosnian Serb assassins in Sarajevo on that fateful day in July were a pair of futanari. But, equally true, was the presence of a futa in the Archduke's motorcade, serving among his entourage.

After the outbreak of war, in the frenzy of mobilization and sweeping patriotic bellicose fervor, alongside the millions of men who either volunteered or were conscripted by the various powers, there was a considerable number of futa who were recruited to serve in the armed forces, most often as drivers, clerks, and other second-line logistical roles, but even in the earliest days, as the inimitable Conrad von Hötzendorf blundered into the Serbian artillery training range, there were dickgirls serving at the front lines, as officers and regular enlisted.

As the war raged on, expanding and intensifying to horrifying, previously unthinkable, proportions, futa from all sides were increasingly called upon to perform more active roles in combat to fill the gaps left by the deathtoll of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of young men's lives claimed by the war. This they did, with an estimated third of Entente forces serving at the front in the West by 1916 being futanari.

Futanari were also commonly used for the purpose of sexual gratification of their fellow soldiers, in soldier's brothels, and even on the battlefield itself.

But while futanari were being deployed as fodder in an increasingly larger proportion as the war drug on, they were also increasingly being used to fulfill a newly defined role in the military, a horror alongside the ceaseless torrent of artillery and poisonous clouds of deadly chemicals— the use of sex as a weapon.

You see, as the combatants settled in to the harsh realities of trench warfare, it became apparent that the bitter stalemate, the grueling attritional warfare, could not be broken through conventional means. The French and British, the Belgians, and the Germans had each tried to break the deadlock by, with both sides taking losses on a tremendous scale, as we've detailed in our regular episodes.

So, when the great Allied powers of the Entente met in Paris in August of 1916 to discuss how to break the deadlock, the idea of using the futanari as a means to win the war was first mooted by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

As Lloyd George put it in his proposal, "The object of the experiment will be to introduce into the minds of the enemy a feeling of a new kind— that is to say, to excite lusts that are already awakened but have hitherto been unable to find expression."

This was in direct violation of the international laws of warfare which expressly forbid endorsement of sexual assault on the battlefield, among provisions banning other inhumane and unconscionable practices. But this was modern war, and the boundaries between what was unfathomable, and valid strategy were rapidly becoming obliterated, upended by the ever increasing horrors of the Great War.

With the Allied powers willing to openly sanction the use of prodigious futanari libido and fertility as a weapon, the Germans retaliated in equal measure.

The unique qualities of futa on the battlefield had to be accounted for. A typical, healthy adult futa can consume as many, or more calories in a day as a draft horse, placing enormous strain on supply chains dedicated to their support.

It was no wonder then, that the futa in the German army, suffering under the deprivations imposed by the British naval blockade, lacking in ever increasing quantities the luxuries and necessities to maintain their voracious metabolisms, recorded a decrease in average penile length and girth by several inches. This advent was exploited as best as possible by the Germans, as the lesser-endowed futa were naturally better able to serve in the infantry role, including prominent assignment in the prized stormtroops. Futanari were vital to the Spring Offensive, as you're seeing right now in our regular episodes covering the war in 1918.

But what did such service and hardship mean for the hermaphrodites themselves? As one futa put it, writing during the summer of 1918, 'Nearly all the soft femininity had been battered out of them