The night witches

[busdrivermike]

the 588th Russian night bomber all female group
They flew at night in wooden biplanes, apparently put some fear into the Germans
Nicknamed them nachthexen apparently due to broom style sweeping noise their
Planes made usually the only warning you had
Apparently flew in packs with the first planes as bait to get the Germans to show
Their positions giving the rest target locations then with engines in idle the others
Dove in giving the whooshing broom noise
Apparently the German soldiers came up with interesting theories about them, they
Were master criminals sent to the front as punishment by Stalin or were given medical
Treatment to make them see at night
It’s claimed they flew up toward 30,000 missions many in which they returned reloaded
Then went back into action
They flew the polikarpov po-2 already then considered obsolete
Though with anything Russian one at times must take this with a grain of salt they
were masters of communist propaganda but they are known as one of the first countries
To put women into air combat roles
an interesting little bit of historyi stumbled on googling stuff

 

[Nnatalie]

The Night Witches were amazing! Glad to see a post about them. As messed up as the USSR was, it certainly fought quite a war. They had female snipers too, amongst other roles (Lyudmila Pavlichenko had 309 confirmed kills!)

And if anyone else is wondering about their uniforms, a quick perusal of the internet suggests that they wore a lot of men’s leftovers, but others may know better than me.

 

[Pilot]

The Night Witches were amazing! Glad to see a post about them. As messed up as the USSR was, it certainly fought quite a war. They had female snipers too, amongst other roles (Lyudmila Pavlichenko had 309 confirmed kills!)

And if anyone else is wondering about their uniforms, a quick perusal of the internet suggests that they wore a lot of men’s leftovers, but others may know better than me.

Bravo! My respect!

 

[Flightengineer]

The 588 air bomber group (flew Po-2 light bombers) was not the only female regiment.
There was also a 587 women's bomber group flying on Petlyakov Pe-2 bombers and there was also a women's night fighter 586 group flying on the Yakovlev Yak-1 fighters.
Before WW2 an air sport was popular in the USSR and there were many female pilots here. When the bloody war begane everyone fought.
In my country, not only men and women fought, but even children.