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Women pilots of the “Night Witches” receiving orders for an upcoming raid.jpg

The Night Witches

Russian stamps honoring the Night Witches.jpg

The Night Witches: Russia’s 588th Night Bomber Regiment

Col. Marina Raskova, known as the Soviet Amelia Earhart, received letters from women all across the Soviet Union wanting to join the war effort. Famous not only as the first female navigator in the Soviet Air Force but also for her many long-distance flight records, Raskova petitioned dictator Joseph Stalin to let her form an all-female fighting squadron. On October 8, 1941, Stalin gave orders to deploy three all-female air force units, which Raskova was to establish. One of the three, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, included not only female pilots but female commanders and mechanics. From more than 2,000 applications, Raskova chose about 400 women for each of the three units.

In 1942, women ranging in age from 17 to 26 headed to fight training for the regiment, greeted by Raskova. The women had to wear bulky men’s uniforms and had their hair cut short. Moreover, their equipment consisted of Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft: two-seated, open-cockpit biplanes formerly used as crop dusters. With plywood frames and canvas stretched over them, the planes were light, slow, and had no armor. The pilots practically froze while flying at night in the exposed cockpits. When under enemy fire, pilots had to duck by going into dives. If hit by tracer bullets, which carry a pyrotechnic charge, the wooden planes burst into flames. They also had no modern instruments and had to rely on maps, compasses, stopwatches, pencils, and flashlights to find their objectives. But they did have a slower stall speed than standard German fighters, making them hard to target. They could also take off and land almost anywhere. 

The initial bombing run of the 588th Regiment took place on June 8, 1942. At the peak of the regiment, it had 40 two-person crews, which flew multiple raids, sometimes 18 in one night. The light planes could carry only six bombs at a time and had to be re-armed after each run. The tightly controlled weight limit meant the crew had no parachutes and had to fly at lower altitudes, increasing their visibility. 

Typically, three planes left simultaneously, two of them drawing searchlights and gunfire, while the third stayed in the darkness to drop the bombs. The pilots also killed their engines as they neared the target, gliding over it while dropping the bombs. The whooshing sound made by the planes prompted the Germans to dub them “Night Witches,” a name the 588th Regiment took on with pride. “This sound was the only warning the Germans had. The planes were too small to show up on radar… [or] on infrared locators,” said Steve Prowse, author of a screenplay about the female fliers. “They never used radios, so radio locators couldn’t pick them up either. They were basically ghosts.” Rumors spread among the Germans that the women took pills to give them night vision. According to Nadezhda Popova, who flew 852 missions, “This was nonsense, of course. What we did have were clever, educated, very talented girls.” Despite the women’s skill, many in the Soviet military scoffed at women flying combat missions. Nonetheless, the women were undeterred and painted their lips with navigational pencils and drew flowers on the side of their aircraft. 

By the end of the war, the Night Witches had flown approximately 30,000 bombing raids, dropping about 23,000 tons of munitions on the Nazis. They damaged or destroyed 17 river crossings, 9 railways, 2 railway stations, 26 warehouses, 12 fuel depots, 176 armored cars, 86 prepared firing positions, and 11 searchlights. Plus, they also made 155 supply drops of food and ammunition to Soviet forces. 

The regiment lost 30 pilots, and 23 received the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Despite their lackluster aircraft and lack of support, they became a remarkable fighting force. Despite being the most highly decorated unit in the Soviet Air Force during the war, regiment was disbanded six months after the war’s end. When Raskova’s plane was sent to the front line, it never made it. Raskova died on January 4, 1943, and received the first state funeral of the war. Her ashes were buried in the Kremlin.

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