In World War II, Soviet Women Were Air Combat Pioneers

In World War II, Soviet women were air combat pioneers. Not Just By Reina Pennington Night Witc hes 58 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 ho was the fi rst aircraft, because her location in the nose woman to fl y in was hazardous in a forced landing, then combat? Until endured 10 days in a Siberian forest before 1993, American being rescued. Raskova’s subsequent women were memoir made her a Soviet celebrity on barred from fl ying a par with Amelia Earhart in the West. Wcombat missions. Army pilot Maj. Marie At least two women fl ew bombers in the T. Rossi, however, fl ew support missions Russo-Finnish War in 1939-40, including in Desert Storm and was killed in 1991 one who fl ew well into her pregnancy. when her CH-47 helicopter crashed. Her Women made their real mark in Soviet headstone in Arlington National Cemetery aviation during World War II, though. In reads, “First Female Combat Commander what Russians call the Great Patriotic War, To Fly Into Battle.” more than 1,000 women served as pilots, Then-Lt. Col. Martha E. McSally, an Air navigators, and ground crew, a small but Force A-10 pilot and later the fi rst woman important part of the 800,000 women in to command a USAF fi ghter squadron, the Red Army. Training began in October fl ew combat patrols over Iraq and Kuwait 1941 for three all-female combat units: in early 1995 and is often described as the 586th Fighter Regiment, the 587th the fi rst woman to fl y combat missions. Dive Bomber Regiment, and the 588th Col. Jeannie M. Leavitt became USAF’s Night Bomber Regiment. fi rst female fi ghter pilot in 1993, as a fi rst lieutenant, and was later the fi rst woman WHY THEY FOUGHT to graduate from the Air Force Weapons Major Raskova began fi ghting for the School and the fi rst female fi ghter wing creation of women’s units from the day commander. She fl ew combat missions the Germans invaded Russia in June 1941. during Operation Southern Watch in 1996. Like Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Love But America is a latecomer when it in the US, Raskova was a tireless proponent comes to employing women in combat for tapping the skills of female pilots to aviation. help the military in its time of need. Un- Many sources list Turkish pilot Sabiha like the Americans, Raskova advocated Gökçen, the adopted daughter of Mustafa women for combat roles. While British Kemal Atatürk, with becoming the world’s and American women pilots freed men to fi rst female fi ghter pilot in 1936 and with fi ght by taking over ferry duties on the fl ying combat missions in 1937. However, home front, Soviet women fought on the Gökçen was not the fi rst female fi ghter pilot front lines. or even the fi rst woman to fl y in combat. Raskova made the rounds at VVS Russian women pilots were the fi rst in headquarters with a petition and a suitcase fi ghters, the fi rst in combat, and the fi rst full of letters from women who wanted to be honored with their nation’s highest to fl y and fi ght. In September 1941, she military honors. got permission to form three all-female Russian women fi rst fl ew reconnais- regiments, including aircrews, ground sance missions in World War I—two as crews, and support staff. civilian pilots and another whose male Many think the Soviets allowed women disguise was discovered when she was to fi ght out of desperation, but this doesn’t wounded—making them the fi rst women explain the decision. Germany had de- pilots in combat. stroyed thousands of Soviet aircraft during In 1925, Zinaida Kokorina was heralded Operation Barbarossa, but most of those as the Soviet Union’s fi rst female military aircraft were destroyed on the ground, pilot—the fi rst woman in the world to hold and most of the pilots survived. In the L-r: Russian pilots Lt. Galina Burdina, both military rank and fl y military aircraft. autumn of 1941, when the women’s avia- Lt. Tamara Pamiatnykh, Lt. Valeriya Thousands of young women learned tion units were being formed, there was Homyakova, and Lt. Valentina Lisitsina to fly in the 1930s in paramilitary no shortage of pilots. Some men in the discuss a recent sortie in front of one of the Osoaviakhim clubs that also taught VVS resented the idea that untried women 586th Fighter Wing’s Yak-1 aircraft. parachute jumping and marksmanship would be given late-model aircraft, while skills. Some of these women entered the experienced male pilots had to wait for Soviet air force (Voenno-Vozdushnye production to catch up. Not Just By Reina Pennington Sily, or VVS). In 1938, three female By mid-October 1941, Raskova’s team aviators received the Hero of the Soviet had interviewed and selected a thou- Union medal from Stalin himself for their sand volunteers. As the Germans shelled achievements in a long-distance fl ight Moscow, the group boarded a train for a they made from Moscow to Komsomolsk- training base 500 miles to the southeast. on-Amur. The recruits were mainly university One, VVS navigator Lt. Marina M. students in their late teens and early 20s. Night Witc hes Raskova, had bailed out of their iced-up Some had thousands of hours of fl ight AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 59 The “Night Witches” “Night witches” has become a popular moniker for all Soviet female pilots of World War II, but is properly applied only to the women who fl ew night bombers. Germans reportedly came up with the name, but how would German troops have known that women were fl ying the Po-2s that bombed them? Only one of the dozens of Soviet night bomber regiments was staffed solely by women; the rest were primarily male. Moreover, only one group of women fl ew night bombers, while the rest were in other kinds of aviation. But the term has caught on, possibly because of the 1981 book Night Witches by Bruce Myles. Public interest was renewed in 2013 when Nadezhda V. Popova, a prominent political fi gure in the former Soviet Union and the former deputy regimental commander of the 46th Guards, died, prompting a number of newspaper and magazine articles. “Night Witches” is used in the title of many Web pages, graphic novels, role-playing games, and various TV and fi lm projects. time: instructor pilots, air show pilots, and air defense forces (PVO) in mostly civil aviation pilots, and some already in male units; these included female pilots, the VVS. Others had only Osoaviakhim navigators, and gunners who flew in A lineup of “Night Witches” from the 46th Guards. training. There was such a large number transports, fi ghters, and the Il-2 Shturmovik. that many had to settle for navigator slots. Some people mistakenly refer to all these carry 500 pounds of bombs and a machine Of the three regiments formed by women as “Night Witches,” but fewer gun. Crews didn’t start wearing parachutes Raskova, only one remained all-female than a third of the women served in night until late 1944, because parachutes were throughout the war: the 588th Night bomber units. in short supply in the early years, they Bomber Aviation Regiment, later redes- The 46th Guards fl ew more than 24,000 added weight, and every pound counted. ignated the 46th Guards—the so-called combat missions. The regiment was con- “Night Witches.” tinuously in combat from May 1942 until GETTING HIT An undetermined number of women May 1945 and fl ew at Stalingrad, near the A typical mission lasted 30 to 50 served scattered throughout the VVS Black Sea, in Byelorussia, and at Warsaw minutes, and crews fl ew as many as 14 and Berlin. or more missions a night. They fl ew The 46th Guards fl ew the Polikarpov single-ship; nighttime formations were U-2, an outdated, open-cockpit two-seat dangerous. However, they often fl ew biplane. The resourceful Soviets turned in sequence, with aircraft three to fi ve plowshares into swords by converting minutes apart, ingressing at some 3,000 Photo via Reina Pennington Photo biplane crop dusters into bombers. The feet, and bombing at 1,300 feet or higher, Po-2 (as the U-2 was renamed in 1944) throwing out a few fl ares to light up the was a ubiquitous trainer and short-distance target, then egressing at very low altitudes. transport—at least 30,000 were built—but When possible, crews would cut their poorly suited for combat. engines and bomb from a glide, to improve The 46th Guards was just one of many surprise and survivability. When enemy night bomber regiments. These were cre- searchlights came on, the next aircraft in ated during the defense of Moscow in 1941, line would try to take them out. with Osoaviakhim graduates fl ying various In late 1942, pilot Nina Raspopova and kinds of converted trainers to harass enemy her navigator Larisa Radchikova, while troops and attack targets near the front fl ying a night bombing sortie against a lines. If they didn’t hit much, at least they German bridgehead on the Terek River, caused the enemy to lose sleep. were hit by anti-aircraft fi re. Raspopova Due to their short range, these aircraft had recalled, “My left foot slipped down into to be based close to the front, often at the an empty space below me; the bottom roughest fi elds.

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