women in flight gear ww2

[Pilot]

Beautiful! Respectfully...Very great looking persons by all means, wow!
Thx. for sharing.

 

[DJS48]

I had only seen "stock pictures" of WASPS and ATA members. Thanks for posting the "new" ones for me at least.

Regards,
Don

 

[Flightengineer]

Not much glamour in the Soviet Union in the war. My father was there a couple of times serving on a cruiser escorting convoys to Archangel. He told me that no one was allowed to speak to them when they went ashore and everyone turned away and ignored them. They were the enemy as far as the authorities were concerned and fraternisation was not allowed. That's not how it tends to be portrayed in films now but that was how it really was.

The fact that they were delivering war materiel which was a lifeline to Russia - mostly paid for by Britain BTW - and that many ships and lives were lost made no difference. He told me once that no one bothered to keep life jackets handy on those Arctic convoys because if you went into those waters you would be dead of the cold in less than a minute.

What does glamor have to do with it?
This thread about women pilots and their flight jackets.
Beleive me, no one considered your father an enemy, and in order to understand why Russians in the port city were forbidden to talk to foreigners, it was necessary to live here in Stalin's time. You can hardly understand it. And in a nutshell it does not explain.
As for payment and lives - Russian paid the highest price in this war. And enough about that.
I heard very different stories from my grandfathers who fought and dealt with allies - with the Americans and the British. Both spoke very warmly about the British sailors and American pilots.

 

[taikonaut]

View attachment 18272
WASP trainees and their instructor pilot. WASP assignments after graduation were diverse — as flight training instructors, glider tow pilots, towing targets for air-to-air and anti-aircraft gunnery practice, engineering test flying, ferrying aircraft and other duties.

I'm not sure the girls were paying attention to what he was saying

 

[Pilot]

What does glamor have to do with it?
This thread about women pilots and their flight jackets.
Beleive me, no one considered your father an enemy, and in order to understand why Russians in the port city were forbidden to talk to foreigners, it was necessary to live here in Stalin's time. You can hardly understand it. And in a nutshell it does not explain.
As for payment and lives - Russian paid the highest price in this war. And enough about that.
I heard very different stories from my grandfathers who fought and dealt with allies - with the Americans and the British. Both spoke very warmly about the British sailors and American pilots.

1000% agree with the tribute part Russia paid...22 Mio Soldiers/Civilians...Germany : 7Mio. all in all.
How much are am ( Russian = Allied to the war effort ) losses compared to the Western Allied losses...? Every life is very valuable and should be spared...and honored sacrificed...RESPECT RESPECT...Russia paid the 3x +++ tribute what Germany paid....AAC/AAF paid the highest tribute ( RESPECT) of all other Arms ( western allies ). Respect and honor.
Respect to all...please honor and respect this Russian and other efforts.
Sure we here all do.

 

[dinomartino1]

The Russian Aviator the West Has Never Heard Of,
Marina Lavrentievna Popovich
Marina Lavrentievna Popovich (née Vasiliyeva; July 20, 1931 – November 30, 2017) was a Soviet Air Force colonel, engineer, and decorated Soviet test pilot. In 1964, she became the third woman and the first Soviet woman to break the sound barrier. Known as "Madame MiG", for her work in the Soviet fighter

Popovich was a military test pilot. During her career, she tested more than 50 aeroplanes and broke more than a 100 aviation world-endurance records; including the longest ever flight by a female pilot. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier in a MiG-21, earning her the nickname “Madam Mig”. Ten of her record-breaking flights were undertaken alone in the Soviet Antonov An-22, the world’s heaviest turboprop plane.

Initially, she worked as an engineer, then later as a flying instructor. In 1962, she entered into the first group of women that would train to become cosmonauts in the Soviet space program. After two months of training, she was turned away from the program.Her husband, Pavel Popovich, was admitted to the program, becoming the eighth person in space aboard Vostok 4 in 1962.

She entered the military reserves in 1978 and then joined the Antonov Design Bureau as a test pilot. At Antonov, she set ten flight records on the Antonov An-22 turboprop. She retired in 1984.

 

[dinomartino1]

 

[Pilot]

Thx 4 sharing...simply magnificent...

 

[dinomartino1]

 

[dinomartino1]

 

[dinomartino1]

 

[Southoftheborder]

What does glamor have to do with it?
This thread about women pilots and their flight jackets.
Beleive me, no one considered your father an enemy, and in order to understand why Russians in the port city were forbidden to talk to foreigners, it was necessary to live here in Stalin's time. You can hardly understand it. And in a nutshell it does not explain.
As for payment and lives - Russian paid the highest price in this war. And enough about that.
I heard very different stories from my grandfathers who fought and dealt with allies - with the Americans and the British. Both spoke very warmly about the British sailors and American pilots.

Well the glamour comment was in reply to a post further up. It helps to read the thread a bit before jumping in.

You may have heard something else from your grandfathers about events later in the war when the allied armies met and euphoria ruled. But my father was there in the early part when Soviet distrust of foreigners was very high.

Obviously this distrust of the USSR's supposed allies was driven from the top by Stalin. He saw the western countries as enemies every bit as much as Nazi Germany was. The fact that fate had put them temporarily on the same side didn't make them friends.

As a part of his general paranoia he had purged the Red Army along with all the other Soviet institutions a couple of years before and almost its entire command structure was arrested and shot. That helped the Germans to make easy gains and push much further into the USSR in the first months than would have otherwise been the case. All of which contributed to the very high casualties in the USSR BTW - a large number of which took place in that first disastrous year.

To make matters worse Stalin had ignored several warnings both from the British, and even Soviet agents in Germany and Japan, that the Germans were going to break the Molotov - Ribbentrop pact and attack. So the army was not fully mobilised and ready.

But what really saved Russia was General Winter. Helped by Hitler delaying the invasion until June because he went to the assistance of Mussolini in Greece when the Italian's grandiose plans there came unstuck. That delay was fatal to Germany, and without it they might well have knocked Russia out before the winter and the lack of winter clothing and supplies stopped them dead in their tracks.

 

[Flightengineer]

But what really saved Russia was General Winter. Helped by Hitler delaying the invasion until June because he went to the assistance of Mussolini in Greece when the Italian's grandiose plans there came unstuck. That delay was fatal to Germany, and without it they might well have knocked Russia out before the winter and the lack of winter clothing and supplies stopped them dead in their tracks.

Really saved Russia not General Winter, but the dedication and bravery of the Russian people. Here, everyone fought against the Nazis, including women,old men and children - not just regular army only.
Everyone fought here, the rest made weapons or supplied troops with clothes and food.
Terrible and monstrous crimes of Hitler's troops against civilians in the occupied Soviet territories served as an additional catalyst.
No wonder here the crimes of the Nazis do not have a statute of limitations.

 

[dinomartino1]

Jessie Maude "Chubbie" Miller
n 1927 while visiting London from her native Australia, Miller met, helped finance, and flew with R.A.F. officer Bill Lancaster in his Avro Avian Red Rose, on an attempt to set a long distance flying record from England to Australia. At the time it was one of the longest flights made in such a small aircraft, although they were overtaken en route by Bert Hinkler in another Avian. Bad weather forced them down in Sumatra, but they continued on, and after 159 days she finally arrived as the first woman to complete an England-to-Australia flight.Although 24 hours late, a huge crowd greeted them on arrival in Darwin, and on their subsequent tour around Australia.

In 1928 Lancaster and Miller moved to the United States on the promise of a Hollywood movie which was never made. Miller became an aviator in her own right, competing in the famous "Powder Puff Derby" of 1929.

Three years after Miller's pioneering flight, the first solo England - Australia flight by a woman was made in 1930 by Amy Johnson.

 

[dinomartino1]

By the pith helmets I would guess Darwin.

 

[Southoftheborder]

Really saved Russia not General Winter, but the dedication and bravery of the Russian people. Here, everyone fought against the Nazis, including women,old men and children - not just regular army only.
Everyone fought here, the rest made weapons or supplied troops with clothes and food.

Quite Terrible and monstrous crimes of Hitler's troops against civilians in the occupied Soviet territories served as an additional catalyst.
No wonder here the crimes of the Nazis do not have a statute of limitations.

Quite right, everyone fought for their lives as the Germans did in defeat later. But if Hitler had not been sidetracked in Greece and Germany had invaded in early May when Hitler wanted the blitzkrieg plan would very probably have succeeded. But no one will ever know, and if of course means nothing. If my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

 

[dinomartino1]

Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak (Лидия Владимировна Литвяк, August 18, 1921, in Moscow – August 1, 1943, in Krasnyi Luch), also known as Lilya, was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. She was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first of two female fighter pilots who have earned the title of fighter ace and the holder of the record for the greatest number of kills by a female fighter pilot. She was shot down near Orel during the Battle of Kursk as she attacked a formation of German aircraft.
One of only two female fighter aces in history the other, Katya Budanova, was Lydia's wingman and was killed just a month before Litvyak.
On May 6, 1990, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev posthumously awarded Litvyak Hero of the Soviet Union.
Litvyak displayed a rebellious and romantic character. Returning from a successful mission, she would "buzz" the aerodrome and then indulge in unauthorised aerobatics, knowing that it enraged her commander.
Despite the predominantly male environment in which she found herself, she never renounced her femininity, and would carry on dyeing her hair blonde. She would fashion scarves from parachute material, dyeing the small pieces in different colors and stitching them together and would not hide her love of flowers, which she picked at every available occasion, favoring red roses. She would make bouquets and keep them in the cockpit, which were promptly discarded by the male pilots who shared her aircraft.

On August 1, 1943, Litvyak did not come back to her base at Krasnyy Luch. It was her fourth sortie of the day, escorting a flight of Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. As the Soviets were returning to base near Orel, a pair of Bf 109 fighters[dived on Litvyak while she was attacking a large group of German bombers. Soviet pilot Ivan Borisenko recalled: “Lily just didn’t see the Messerschmitt 109s flying cover for the German bombers. A pair of them dived on her and when she did see them she turned to meet them. Then they all disappeared behind a cloud.” Borisenko, involved in the dogfight, saw her the last time, through a gap in the clouds, her Yak-1 pouring smoke and pursued by Bf 109s
Two German pilots are believed to have shot down Litvyak: Iron Cross holder and 30-kill experte Fw. Hans-Jörg Merkle of 1./JG.52, Knight's Cross holder and future 99-kill experte Lt, or Hans Schleef, of 7./JG 3. Merkle is the only pilot that claimed a Yak-1 near Dmitryevka on 1 August 1943, his 30th victory.

There are conflicting claims about Litvyak's victory score in different publications; none are official records. Most often, 11 individual kills and 3 team kills are quoted, but also eight individual and four team, 12 individual and two team or other combinations. Pasportnikova stated in 1990 that the tally was 12 solo kills including the balloon, and three shared. Polunina has written that the kills of top-scoring Soviet pilots, including those of Litvyak and Budanova, were often inflated; and that Litvyak should be credited with five solo aircraft kills and two group kills, including the observation balloon

 

[dinomartino1]

USSR

 

[dinomartino1]

Jean Batten of New Zealand flew solo from England to Australia in 1934, beating Amy Johnson's record by four days. Soon after she flew from Australia to London, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia and back. She later became the first woman to fly from England to Argentina.

 

[dinomartino1]

Bessie Coleman was inspired to fly after hearing the stories of pilots returning from World War I. Unable to procure flying lessons in the United States due racial discrimination, Bessie saved her money and went to France to learn to fly. She received her license on June 15, 1921; when she returned to the States she had a successful barnstorming career. A early champion of civil rights, she had dreams of starting her own aviation school for the instruction of African American pilots, and she refused to perform at airshows unless audiences were desegregated. On April 30, 1926, Bessie and her mechanic took to the skies. The mechanic was flying that day, but lost control of the plane. Bessie fell from the open cockpit plane and did not survive.