Smith's speech against the female students at the beginning was a little tough to swallow -- given your description of The Gentle Sex, I doubt it represents Howard's own views, but I can't tell if Smith genuinely believes women ought to be avoided (at least until he meets Ludmilla), whether it's a pose, or whether he's deliberately trying to drive the female students off because he figures it's bad enough he's got to take a bunch of male students into Nazi Germany without telling them his real plan, and that he can't justify endangering a mixed group.