Top Photo: Deputy Commander Serafima Tarasovna Amosova assigns a combat mission to the pilots of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. September 15, 1943. Wikimedia Commons

From early 1942 to 1945, Nazi soldiers on the Eastern Front listened for an ominous sound in the dead of night—one they described as the “whooshing” of a witch’s broom. That noise signaled the approach of the all-female Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment, better known to the Nazis by another name: the Nachthexen, or “Night Witches.” These women aviators flew over 24,000 missions, destroying railways, fuel depots, and warehouses while keeping Nazi soldiers awake and nervous through the long nights on the Eastern Front.

During the 1930s, Soviet women joined aviation clubs and learned military flying through paramilitary organizations like Osoaviakhim—the Society for Cooperation in Defense and Aviation-Chemical Development. Although women were not encouraged to join the military, the Soviet Union’s emphasis on legal equality for women meant Osoaviakhim could not turn women away who were determined enough to push through bureaucratic red tape and ignore social pressure.1  

The growing aviation field was an exciting topic among the Soviet public, and air crews who completed difficult flights or set distance records held great propaganda value for the government. Among these were flights by Soviet women, the most famous of which was the flight of the Rodina in September 1938. The all-female crew of Polina Osipenko, Valentina Grizodubova, and Marina Raskova set a new international women’s record, flying 3,695 miles in a straight line during a nonstop distance flight.2  But the Rodina’s 4,010-total-mile journey ended in a forced landing as poor weather conditions led to limited visibility. Raskova, the navigator, was forced to bail out and spent 10 days in the wilderness with limited food and no water before the rescue crew arrived. The Rodina’s crew were the first women to receive the country’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, and Raskova earned the nickname “the Soviet Amelia Earhart.”3

The crew of the DB-2B "Rodina" aircraft, 2nd pilot Polina Denisovna Osipenko, commander Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova and navigator Marina Mikhailovna Raskova (from left to right) at the Shchelkovo airfield before the long-distance non-stop flight "Moscow-Far East".  September 24, 1938. Wikimedia Commons

After Nazi Germany’s June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa, many Soviet women pilots wanted to use their flying skills in the military. However, their gender disqualified them from joining the Soviet air force as pilots. Numerous women wrote to Raskova for help, and she petitioned Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to create women’s combat aviation regiments. Stalin and the government agreed, forming Soviet Union Aviation Group 122 under Raskova’s leadership that October. 

Aviation Group 122 consisted of three regiments: the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. Pilots with the most experience went to the 586th; those with the least were assigned to the 588th.4  Originally, all members of the regiments were women, including the ground and support crews. By the end of the war, however, the 588th was the only regiment to remain all-female—a major point of pride for its members—and it received the most honors and media attention of any of the women’s combat groups. 5

The 588th Night Bomber Regiment

The aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes with two-woman crews consisting of a pilot and a navigator. Made of wood and canvas, the Po-2 had no modern instruments, could only carry two bombs at a time, and had a top speed of 60 miles per hour when fully loaded. Due to the weight of the bombs, the plane often flew at a lower altitude, at a maximum of 3,937 feet to a minimum of 1,968 feet, which required the pilots to fly at night for better protection.6  The Po-2’s construction also made it vulnerable to antiaircraft fire. One former pilot described the plane’s flammability: “One direct hit and it caught fire and burned up completely in the air, before reaching the ground. Like a match. The only solid metal part was the M-11 motor.”7 The women also did not carry parachutes due to the added weight and the low flying altitude. For many of the pilots, death was better than to be taken prisoner.8  In the Soviet Union, being captured or spending time in Nazi-occupied territory carried a stigma and, in some cases, trial by the Military Tribunal that could result in banishment to a penal colony or execution for treason.9  

Group photo of female pilots of the 46th Guards NBAP in front of the U-2 Gelendzhik aircraft. Wikimedia Commons
 

Despite the Po-2’s drawbacks, however, the lightweight nature of the plane made it easier to maneuver and offered more stability in the air. The small plane could land almost anywhere, from a small forest clearing to a roadway.10  It was also too small to be detected by radar or infrared, and the lack of radios prevented tracking by radio locators. 

Since the Po-2 had a limited range, the women operated close to the front lines. The Night Witches flew in support of many of the Eastern Front campaigns, including the battle for Stavropol, the defense of the Transcaucasus, the liberation of Novorossiysk, and the liberation of Gdańsk, as well as operations in the Crimean and Belarus offensives. Their bombing campaigns also aided the Soviet military in their eventual victory at Stalingrad. The bombers destroyed or damaged German supply lines, vehicles, and ground troops, and dropped food and supplies for Soviet troops. 

Hero of the Soviet Union, navigator of the 46th Guards NBAP Yekaterina Vasilevna Ryabova near the Po-2 aircraft. September 15, 1943. Wikimedia Commons

Another main goal of the 588th was to attack German morale and keep enemy soldiers sleep-deprived from nights of almost endless bombing raids. The Night Witches followed a very specific strategy in their nighttime raids: As each pilot approached her target, she would turn off her engine. The only sound the Germans would hear was the ominous whooshing of “die Nachthexen” as the pilot approached her target and dropped her bombs. At the same time, the women needed to dodge German searchlights and antiaircraft fire. To achieve this, one plane would circle the searchlights as the other approached and then would bomb their searchlights as the other plane hit the main target.11  After releasing both bombs, the crews would return to the regiment’s temporary base to refuel and load more bombs before flying out for another run. The women would fly anywhere from eight to 18 sorties a night, each lasting 30 to 50 minutes. 

Thirty-two pilots of the Night Witches were killed in service, including Marina Raskova. Eighteen pilots and six navigators received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, more than any other Soviet women’s unit.12  The unit’s achievements also earned them redesignation as the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment in February 1943, marking them as an elite unit. The “Taman” designation was in honor of their missions flown over the Taman Peninsula. 

Photo "Pilots of the 46th Guards Aviation Regiment", 1945 - History of Russia in photos. Wikimedia Commons

The unit was disbanded shortly after the end of World War II, and, for the most part, the women aviators were not allowed to continue serving in the Soviet military. Some found civilian aviation work; others found jobs working in factories or in other professional fields. While the women’s contributions to the war effort had been praised in Soviet media during the war, in the postwar period, those achievements were forgotten about or obscured from the historical narrative.13  

Night Witches Meet the WASPs

The Soviet women pilots did not meet the members of the American civilian Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during the war. In 1990 however, a group of former WASPs traveled to the Soviet Union to meet their wartime counterparts as part of the “People to People” travel program. The WASPs brought patches and pins with their “Fifinella” gremlin logo, along with a “People to People” friendship plaque, and the Night Witches offered them pins, books, and flowers.14  Bob Hope’s USO tour arrived in Moscow, and the WASPs were able to watch the show and meet Hope and the other performers. Throughout the trip, the WASPs kept a group journal to record their experiences. One of the former WASPs recalled a moment in which she exchanged pins with one of the former Night Witches, sharing a connection even though they could not speak the same language: “It was not just presenting a little ‘Fifi’ [the WASP logo pin]; it was an American woman pilot and a Soviet woman pilot experiencing a common emotion, and finding that we were alike.”15 

Their trip coincided with the 45th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the WASPs were special guests at the large Victory Parade in Moscow’s Red Square. While at the celebration, the Night Witches and the WASPs wrote two letters, one to US President George H.W. Bush and one to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, to appeal for a “peaceful future for [their] children and grandchildren.”16  The women pilots referred to themselves as “sisters in the sky” working together for a “common good.”17  The meeting of two different groups of women pilots represented women’s patriotic duty to their countries in World War II. Although their missions and wartime experiences were different, both the WASPs and Night Witches used their skills to protect their homelands and, nearly half a century after the war, still wanted to do their best to serve future generations. 

Newspaper clipping with an article about WASP, Soviet woman pilots, and an anniversary in which they were able to meet. University of North Texas

Although the 588th Night Bomber Regiment was only in operation for a short period of time, the group made a significant impact on the Soviet war effort. The over 24,000 missions flown by the Night Witches destroyed Nazi military supplies and transportation, as well as demoralized the enemy soldiers. The women entered dangerous combat roles in the war in order to protect their homes and defend their country. Their skills and courage in the skies of the Eastern Front made the Night Witches valuable contributors to Allied victory in World War II. 

• 1

  Reina Pennington, Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat, (University Press of Kansas, 2001), 8-9.

• 2

  Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 17.

• 3

  Ay Goodpaster Strebe, Flying for Her Country: The American and Soviet Somen Military Pilots of World War II, (Potomac Books, 2009), 15.

• 4

  Lyuba Vonogradova, Defending the Motherland: The Soviet Women Who Fought Hitler’s Aces, translated by Arch Tait, (MacLehose Press, 2015), 66-67.

• 5

  Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 73-74.

• 6

  Serafima Amosova-Taranenko interview in A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II, Anne Noggle, (Texas A&M Press, 2001), 44-45.

• 7

  Alexandra Semyonovna Popova interview in The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonksy, (Random House, 2018), 194.

• 8

  Irina Rakobolskaya interview in A Dance with Death, 27.

• 9

  Vinogradova, Defending the Motherland¸144.

• 10

  Vinogradova, Defending the Motherland¸ 57-58.

• 11

  Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 85-86.

• 12

  Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 88. 

• 13

  Pennington, Wings, Women, and War, 159-160.

• 14

  Barbara Ward Lazarsky, Journal: Citizen Ambassador Program, World War II Women Airforce Pilots Delegation to the Soviet Union, May 3-16, 1990, 6-7, University of North Texas Libraries, Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1009819/ 

• 15

  R. Charlyene Creger, Victory Day Report No. 2 in Journal: Citizen Ambassador Program, World War II Women Airforce Pilots Delegation to the Soviet Union, May 3-16, 1990, 21.

• 16

  Lazarsky, Journal: Citizen Ambassador Program, 17-18.

• 17

  Letter from Women Airforce Service Pilots, WWII to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, 9 May 1990 in Journal: Citizen Ambassador Program, Appendix A.