During World War II the main contenders employed regiments of female pilots.
England created the Air Transport Auxiliary or ATA,
accepting more than 160 women
who were in charge of moving planes from factories to bases or ports, transporting loads or towing targets for shooting practice.
The US Army included almost a thousand women
in its ranks
with similar tasks.
In Germany it was no different, pilot Hanna Reistsh
became famous
by landing and taking off from a makeshift runway in Berlin during the siege of the Third Reich.
Although only the USSR included women in combat units.
The ideology of the Nazi leaders was always dotted with esotericism and magic, but if they ever had real reasons to
believe in witches,
those responsible were the Nachthexen
(night witches)
.
This is what the Germans called the military aviators of the 588th Night Bombardment Regiment of the Soviet Union.
On November 2, 1938, Polina Osipenko, Valentina Grizodúbovatres and Marina Raskova were awarded the
Heroines of the Soviet Union
distinction for various records in flight distance;
They were the first women to receive it and the only ones before the start of World War II.
Marina Raskova, who had also been the first female instructor at the Air Academy, was
personally interviewed by Stalin
and awarded the rank of Major.
The 115 women of the Soviet 588th Aviation Regiment in World War II.
They inoculated fear among the Nazis with their suicide attacks and 23 of them were named heroines in the USSR.
When Hitler broke the Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union, Marina led a campaign so that women could also fight the Germans in the air.
On October 8, 1941, and thanks to her friendship with Stalin, she achieved her goal:
three Air Regiments composed only of women were created
... among them the 588th Night Bombardment Regiment.
This Regiment was made up of about
400 women
, including pilots and ground personnel, and they had
an average age of 22 years
.
When Marina met all of them, she was scared that such young women could die...
Mascha Dolina participated in 74 missions and dropped 45,000 kilos of bombs from his plane.
They shot her down in 1943 and she was badly injured.
Gorbachev decorated her in 1990. She is a heroine of the Soviet Union.
The Germans were advancing rapidly and the training that lasted several years at the Air Academy was reduced to a few months.
They had to undergo tough physical training and an intensive course in combat tactics, but none of them complained about it.
Furthermore, the aircraft assigned to the Night Bombing Regiment were the Polikarpov U-2 (Po-2), the most produced biplane in the world, initially created for
flight practice and field fumigation.
At just 21 years old, Lilya Litvyak had already shot down 12 Nazi planes.
She was promoted to commander.
She was a hero in the Battle of Stalingrad, she disappeared in the Battle of Kursk in 1943.
They flew wooden airplanes
The problem with these planes was that they were too slow, obsolete (
manufactured in 1927
) and
were built of wood and canvas
.
Those "flying broomsticks",
without radio or parachutes
(they said they would rather die than fall into the hands of the Germans), carried two crew members (pilot and navigator) and had capacity for two bombs which, on some occasions and due to the obsolete launch,
they had to throw by hand
.
In principle, they had no chance against the fast German fighters, but their maneuverability allowed them to make
sudden and rapid turns
that made it extremely difficult to be shot down.
In addition, their slowness allowed them to fly so low as to fly
between forests
where German fighters could not access.
Marina Raskova who invented the women's regiment.
Due to their low carrying capacity, the night witches carried out several operations in the same night, always following the same tactic: when they approached the objective,
they stopped their noisy engines and glided until they reached the objective
, they launched the bombs and turned them on again to get out of there.
The dead engine had a devastating psychological effect in the Nazi camps.
The whistle of the wind could barely be heard
as it brushed against the structure of the plane.
The Germans nicknamed them Nachthexen, the night witches,
comparing it to the noise of a flying broom.
The "Night Witches" planes.
They were slow, obsolete (made in 1927), and were constructed of wood and canvas.
Those "flying broomsticks" did not have radios or parachutes (they said they would rather die than fall into the hands of the Germans).
From 1941 to the end of the war, the women of this Regiment
flew 23,672 missions and dropped more than 3,000 tons of bombs
.
It lost 31 crew members (27% of the total) and 23 "night witches" were decorated by the Soviet Union.
Major Raskova died on a mission in 1943. Other female aviators with their own names were: Nadya Popova and her crew member Katya Ryabova
who carried out 18 missions in one night
;
Lieutenant Irina Sebrova
participated in 1,008 missions
and survived both times she was shot down, managing to reach her base.
Stories from History.
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GML