In World War II, Soviet women were air combat pioneers.

Not Just By Reina Pennington Night Witc hes 58 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 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 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 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 —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 ’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 , 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” 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 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 Reina via 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- 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. The wood-frame Po-2 was of the cockpit had been shot away. I felt fragile and practically defenseless against something hot streaming down my left attack, so it was fl own primarily under arm and leg—I was wounded.” Raspopova cover of darkness. Slow, with a top speed managed to get the airplane down. Both of some 90 mph, they were retrofi tted to women were injured—Raspopova was peppered with wooden shards from the shot-up aircraft—but got back to friendly in 1938. She lines. After a few weeks of recuperation, fought tirelessly—and ultimately successfully—to put women pilots they were fl ying again. in the cockpits of Russian bombers After initial recruitment by Raskova during World War II. in 1941, the VVS didn’t create a pipeline 60 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 later designated as the 125th Guards, is Raskova was replaced by a man, and Mar- the least known of the three units. The kov, recently recovered from war wounds, 125th Guards completed 1,134 combat wasn’t happy about his new assignment. missions. The unit fl ew at Stalingrad, on He warned the women, “There will be no the Don Front, and in the North Cauca- sort of allowances made because you are sus, Byelorussia, , and Poland. women, so don’t expect them.” But he Twenty-two fl ying personnel died during became a respected leader, and soon the the war. women started calling him batya, or “dad.” The 125th Guards become operational Markov later noted, “During the war in January 1943, seven months after the there was no difference between this regi- fi rst two units. The delay resulted from ment and any male regiments. We lived an upgrade from the Su-2 to the more in dugouts, as did the other regiments, sophisticated Pe-2 bomber, regarded as and fl ew on the same missions, no more one of the best dive bombers of the war. or less dangerous.” He concluded, “If I The twin-engine Pe-2 was tricky to fl y, compare my experience of commanding however, and required an additional crew male and female regiments, to some extent member over the Su-2. Training time was at the end of the war it was easier for me extended and Raskova had to scramble to to command this female regiment. They get gunners and additional support per- had the strong spirit of a collective unit.” sonnel. To speed things up, she agreed to The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment accept male personnel for most of these was the fi rst group to begin combat op- new slots. erations, but it was sent to air defense A lineup of “Night Witches” from the 46th Guards. Raskova herself took command of the (PVO) rather than to the VVS. Its fi ghter 125th Guards. The unit was ordered to pilots, fl ying Yak-series aircraft, were to bring more women into aviation. The Stalingrad in December of 1942, but winter assigned to patrol rear areas rather than innovative 46th, however, remained all- storms caused two of its squadrons to split frontline battles. When the unit grew from female by creating its own pilot-training up along the way. In early January 1943, two squadrons to three, the 586th was program. 46th Guards chief of staff Irina Raskova tried to take a three-ship formation assigned male pilots to make up the dif- Rakobolskaia explained, “We turned navi- to its new base, but the weather quickly ference. The regiment fl ew in Russia and gators into pilots, trained new navigators turned bad. While the other two aircraft and ended the war in Hungary. from among the mechanics, and made successfully crash-landed, Raskova’s air- The 586th completed 4,419 combat mis- armorers of the girl-volunteers who were plane crashed, killing her and three others sions and destroyed 38 enemy aircraft in just arriving at the front. ... The regiment on board. Her death devastated not just 125 air battles. fl ew combat missions at night, and the the 125th, but the women she had trained. While relations within the 46th were training groups worked during the day.” Stalin published a tribute to Raskova, generally harmonious, there were confl icts Several pilots and navigators in the 46th and her remains were interred at the and controversies in the 586th. The fi rst Guards completed more than 800 combat Kremlin. commander, Maj. Tamara Kazarinova, sorties during the war. The 125th Guards regrouped and began wasn’t well respected. The 586th had The 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, combat operations in late January. A new been given the cream of the crop—the commander was brought in: Maj. Valentin best aerobatic pilots and more of the Markov, who had already commanded experienced pilots than the other units. a bomber regiment. The transition was These experienced pilots complained rocky; many of the women resented that about being assigned a commander who

What Happened to Liliia Litviak? Smart, attractive, charismatic, and missing in action—it’s no wonder that Liliia V. Litviak has become the source of so much speculation. Born Lidiia Litviak, she preferred to call herself “Liliia” and is called the top female ace of all time. She became the focus of popular books and websites in several languages. Litviak was shot down in air combat on Aug. 1, 1943, three weeks before her 22nd birthday. Because her crash site and body were not found during the war, she was listed as missing in action. After extensive searches, in 1979 the body of an unidentifi ed female pilot who had crash-landed on the right date in the right area was located. Based on the physical attributes of the remains and by cross-referencing with personnel records the body was identifi ed as Litviak’s. In 1988 her offi cial records were changed to “killed in action,” and in 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev awarded her . Nevertheless, stories abound speculating that Litviak was not killed in the war but defected to the Germans and ended up living in Switzerland. There is little substance to these stories.

AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014 61 after Stalingrad and were transferred fi rst to the 9th Guards, then the 73rd Guards regiment. These units were in intense combat in 1942-43. Budanova was killed in July 1943. Litviak too became a casualty of war on Aug. 1, 1943, when she was shot down during an intense air battle. Her remains were identifi ed decades later, and she was fi nally awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Litviak racked up as many as 12 personal kills (including an artillery spotting balloon) and three shared kills, making her the top-scoring female ace of all time. Budanova attained at least six personal Night Witches Rufi na Gasheva (l) and Natalia Meklin, both awarded Heroes of the and four shared kills and was named a Hero Soviet Union, near a Po-2 bomber. Gasheva made 848 sorties as copilot, Meklin of the Russian Federation in 1993. Litviak's fl ew 980 combat sorties. achievements, and even her death, have become the subject of much speculation wouldn’t or couldn’t fl y the unit’s aircraft circumstances. Except for those who and controversy. and petitioned the division commander to remained in the VVS after the Stalingrad There were many other noteworthy replace her. deployment, all the pilots who had Soviet female pilots who didn’t fl y in In September 1942, Kazarinova petitioned for Kazarinova’s dismissal “Raskova’s regiments.” Ekaterina I. effectively silenced the complainers, were dead within a year. We may never Zelenko, a veteran of the Russo-Finnish transferring eight pilots to duty with units know the truth about whether these deaths War, was killed when she rammed a German at Stalingrad. were engineered by Kazarinova or simply fi ghter in 1941. Valentina S. Grizodubova, Soon after, pilot Lt. Valeriia the toll of war. PVO headquarters assigned who fl ew with Raskova on that 1938 long- Khomiakova—another of those who them unnecessary missions in dangerous distance fl ight, commanded the 31st Guards complained about Kazarinova’s weather conditions that caused the death Bomber Aviation Regiment, which fl ew leadership—became the fi rst woman in of at least one pilot, and another was killed thousands of partisan resupply missions. the world to shoot down an enemy aircraft while test-fl ying a defectively repaired Anna Timofeeva-Egorova fl ew the Il-2 at night. aircraft, according to Gridnev. Shturmovik ground . She On Sept. 24, 1942, she destroyed a Ju-88 The 586th was nominated to receive was shot down and badly wounded and bomber, the fi rst kill credited to the 586th. Guards designation, but after photos, survived being a POW. Less than two weeks later, Khomiakova fi lms, and documents were prepared, and Women aviators in the Soviet Union fl ew died in a night takeoff under questionable commissions made their recommendations, the same missions as men, in the same kinds conditions. Many blamed Kazarinova, the documents disappeared and the unit of aircraft. Although they encountered who was removed from command and never got the title. Kazarinova was one some discrimination, on the whole they reassigned to PVO headquarters, where of the PVO staffers who had access to were well-accepted and respected by their some believe she made it her mission to those fi les. Gridnev believes she simply peers. There was little difference in the exact revenge on the 586th. destroyed them. performance or morale of integrated units Kazarinova was then replaced by a male No pilots in the 586th achieved ace compared to all-female units. commander, Maj. Aleksandr Gridnev, who status—fi ve enemy aircraft shot down—but Despite their achievements, most women was also controversial. He’d been arrested several who left the unit for the VVS did. were discharged from the Red Army for political reasons. Returned to duty, his The fi rst women to shoot down enemy after the war, including the aviators. “punishment” was to take command of the aircraft were Liliia V. Litviak and Raisa A few female pilots kept fl ying but the 586th. However, like Markov, Gridnev V. Beliaeva, who scored kills on Sept. VVS did not continue to recruit and train quickly gained the respect and affection 13, 1942, at Stalingrad—11 days before women. Although some books and memoirs of his subordinates. Khomiakova achieved her night shootdown. appeared, the experiences of the “Night The 586th pilots weren’t in the thick Litviak and Beliaeva were among the eight Witches” and other female pilots were of things, but achieved some notable female pilots transferred from the 586th, largely forgotten in the Soviet Union and victories. Raisa Surnachevskaia and Tamara along with their ground crews, and assigned are little-known in modern Russia. Pamiatnykh were scrambled against a to two different VVS regiments. Few women fl y in the Russian air force group of 42 German bombers and shot Litviak and Katia Budanova are the most today. The Soviet Union was the pathfi nder down four. The 586th regularly escorted famous of the female fi ghter pilots. Both in the 20th century, but the United States important transport fl ights, including one preferred frontline fl ying to air defense. has set the standard for women in military taking political offi cer Nikita Khrushchev They petitioned to stay with the VVS aviation in the early 21st century. ✪ to inspect a POW camp at Stalingrad. Reina Pennington teaches military and Russian history at Norwich University in WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM Vermont. She is a former Air Force intelligence offi cer and Soviet analyst. This article Several more of the most skilled was adapted from her 2001 book, Wings, Women, and War. Her last article for Air pilots in the 586th died under mysterious Force Magazine, “Another Look at the Soviet Pilot,” appeared in the April 1985 issue. 62 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2014