The Little-Known Story of the Night Witches, an All-Female Force in WWII
The Little-Known Story of the Night Witches, an All-Female Force in WWII
JUNE 25, 2015 1:55 PM
In the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union, German soldiers had a very real fear of witches.
Namely, the “Night Witches,” an all-female squadron of bomber pilots who ran thousands of daring bombing raids with little more than wooden planes and the cover of night—and should be as celebrated as their male counterparts.
This month marks the 73rd anniversary of the start of their pioneering service. In June of 1941, the Axis powers pushed into the Soviet Union using the largest invading force in the history of warfare. The infamous Operation Barbarossa saw about four million troops wade into Russia from the west, establishing a line that threatened to overtake Moscow itself. The offensive was one of the most violent and terrible military actions in World War II, with countless atrocities committed against the Russian people. The battle-hardened male soldiers of the Soviet Union held the front lines against the Axis forces, keeping the invasion from overtaking the capital.
From the start of the war, Colonel Marina Raskova, a Soviet pilot who was known as the “Russian Amelia Earhart,” began receiving letters from women across Russia wanting to join the war effort in any way they could. Many women served support roles at the time, but it was difficult to make it to the front. Raskova lobbied to finds ways for women to take a more active role in the war, and was highly successful in her efforts, leading to women being eligible for the draft and even convincing the military to establish all-female units.
In October of 1941 the order came down from Joseph Stalin that Raskova was to establish a trio of all-female air squads. The only one reported to have remained exclusively female was the team of night bombers, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, where everyone from the pilots, to the commanders, to the mechanics were women.
The regiment began filling out in 1942, with young women ranging in age from 17 to 26 transferring to the small town of Engels to begin flight training. The future pilots were greeted by Raskova herself with a no-nonsense, military manner. The women were issued size 42 boots, outfitted with ill-fitting military uniforms made for bulkier male soldiers. Their hair was cut short. As one of the pilots would recall in a later interview, “We didn’t recognize ourselves in the mirror—we saw boys there.”
The women faced significant obstacles even before they began engaging in combat—namely, with the equipment. They had to fly Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft—two-seated, open-cockpit biplanes that were obsolete even by the standards of the day. Made of plywood frames with canvas stretched over them, the craft were light, slow, and provided absolutely no armor. The benefit of the planes was that they had a slower stall speed than the standard German fighters, making them hard to target, and they could take off and land just about anywhere. However, this came as literal cold comfort to the aviators who had to fly the ships through walls of enemy fire in the dead of night, with the freezing wind whipping around and through the exposed cockpits, often giving the pilots frostbite.
But this did little to discourage the women of the 588th. Starting with an initial bombing run on June 8, 1942, the all-female squadron would harry Nazi forces with overnight bombing runs all the way until the end of the war. At the peak of the regiment’s strength, it had as many as 40 two-person crews, flying multiple bombing runs as soon as the sky darkened, taking part in as many as 18 in a single night. The light planes could only carry six bombs at a time, so as soon as one run was complete the pilots would be re-armed and sent back out for another run. Of course this tightly controlled weight limit also meant the women could not bring parachutes and also had to fly at lower, more easily spotted, altitudes.
Using such vulnerable craft to make their bombing runs, the cover of night was crucial to their success and survival. Three planes would leave simultaneously, with two of the airplanes drawing searchlights and gunfire, and the third sticking to the darkness, to drop the bombs. In order to remain hidden, the pilots would also kill their engines when they got near their target, and simply glide over it, deploying their payload.
As the silenced bombers sailed over the Nazi forces, making a light “whooshing” sound, German soldiers began referring to them as “Nachthexen,” or “Night Witches,” a name the pilots of the 588th quickly took on with pride. Rumors began to spread among the Germans that the Soviets were giving the women pills and treatments that gave them the night vision of a cat. One of the most famous of the Night Witches, Nadezhda Popova, who herself flew 852 missions, earning her multiple medals and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, described the situation a bit more accurately in Albert Axell’s book Greatest Russian War Stories: 1941–1945, saying, “This was nonsense, of course. What we did have were clever, educated, very talented girls.”
Unfortunately, not everyone was so impressed with the 588th regiment’s fortitude and military prowess. Many in the Soviet military still found the idea of women flying in combat to be laughable, despite their clear ability. Undeterred by the lack of faith from many of their male counterparts, the women embraced their identities, and are said to have painted their lips with navigational pencils and to have drawn flowers on the side of their aircrafts.
By the end of the war, the Night Witches had flown somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 bombing raids, delivering around 23,000 tons of munitions right to Nazi’s. The 588th lost 30 pilots during the fighting, and 23 pilots, including Popova, were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The squadron was never disbanded, but was instead converted into the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, which continued to fight for the Soviet Union.
The Night Witches didn’t have great planes, or superior bombs, or even very much support for their unit, but they nonetheless became one of the most remarkable fighting forces of World War II. No sorcery needed.
In partnership with Atlas Obscura.
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This is certainly something that Hollywood could make a great movie out of.....
Incredible courage shown by the ''Flying Witches''...
Historians have always said that the Germans forgot about two things when they invaded Russia...The weather and the women...
Some of the deadliest snipers of the Russian army in WWII were the women snipers.
Those incredibly brave women were feared, hated, and even respected by their German adversaries. They flew rickety old obsolete low powered biplanes at treetop height in the dead of night with no lights. They would sometimes cut their engines on the run in to their targets to further avoid detection and surprise the Germans on the ground. The psychological aspect alone from sleepless nights also created mayhem far out of proportion to their actual numbers. If that ain't guts, I don't know what is!
No doubt it's a hell of a lot of courage and guts.
Hi Ed-NavDoc,
I don't believe that I've seen you on NT before. If your a new member, welcome.
NavDoc, Corpsman?
Yep. HM1/FMF USN/RET 1972 - 1993.
I have been on NT for about 6 months. Was previously on NV for over 10 years.
Excellent, thank you.
This is certainly something that Hollywood could make a great movie out of.....
Incredible courage shown by the ''Flying Witches''...
Historians have always said that the Germans forgot about two things when they invaded Russia...The weather and the women...
Some of the deadliest snipers of the Russian army in WWII were the women snipers.
IIRC, at one point Hitler was trying to decide whether to launch his next efforts towards attacking Britain, or attacking the USSR. Attacking the USSR was a major mistake-- it certainly hastening his eventual defeat.
(Had he attacked Britain instead, it would have been a massacre for the Brits. Of course if he had attacked Britain the Allies would've eventually won the war anyway-- but attacking the U.K. would've been more advantageous for the Nazis, at least short term)
This would make for another interesting article. There are many opinions from historians on this.
There was a book by one these women, can't remember her name, that told her personal story. My library had to go through a system called "Prospector" to find a copy at the University of Wyoming. Very interesting read, with pictures of her during and after the war.
I wasn't aware of that book, but there was a book written, ''Daughters of the Night Sky'' by Aime K. Runyan a book of fiction but based on the Russian ''Night Witches''..
I finally remembered the word "red" was in the title and finally found it!
Pretty sure your library could help you locate a copy.
I'll have to check it out..Thanks
Awesome story!
The Soviets were a little better at giving women equal rights than the Americans were. A little better.
I'll be posting a story of the Russian female snipers of WWII soon...Another amazing story.
And my favorite with 309 kills - 39 of them German snipers.
Soviets believed in putting ALL in harms way to stop the Nazi's. "For the motherland"...dontyaknow !
Others didn't NEED ALL to defeat the Nazi's....... which was a good thing !
Probably because the Nazis weren't invading your country, but even here it took a national effort.
Russians threw the kitchen sink at the Nazi's.....willy nilly. They didn't care who was killed.
Your not much on protecting women....are you !
Yes, it did. Everything was rationed, people were encouraged to plant Victory gardens, communities set up scrap metal and rubber drives...and the women went to work in the factories.
Everybody did their part
Everyone please stick with the topic of the article. Thank you.
Just "ME" ?
It states EVERYONE.
Oh.....shows "It Is Me" only commented to !
Thank you for all that voted that response up.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.....my bad.
Your not much on protecting women....are you !
I wonder...have you considered actually reading what a person actually said...before replying to them?
Maybe that was true in the past. (At least in theory, Communism provides equal rights to all "minorities"). However Russia is still an old-fashioned & very traditional backward society in many ways. And that includes seeing women as inferiors. (For more information google "Pussy Riot").
Here's one video on the subject-- its in Russian but you can see what's going on (You can find many more videos and articles in English on the 'Net).
Although in all fairness they did honor those brave women-- those postage stamps are very cool!
(P.S: If anyone is wondering what the letters "CCCP" mean-- that's basically USSR in the Russian language. (I know that only because I used to collect stamps)
You're absolutely right. With the fall of the Soviet Union, patriarchy has reared its ugly head especially since the Russian Orthodox Church isn't "illegal" any longer.
Totally cool story and you are right, it would make a great movie.
The Soviet Union made use of every abled body person to stop the Nazi, so I am not surprised that they would use women. What is surprising is how well they did.
Thanks for this piece of history. Most Americans don't realize that without the USSR, we might have not been able to stop Hitler.
I read quite a bit about the Eastern Front in WWII and done some research on the battles and various units in the Russian army....Russia had between 800,000 and one million females in their military. Tankers, fighter pilots, front line medical personal, snipers, machine gunners and one small unit that I'll be posting a story on...It was in the epic battle of Stalingrad...
Coming soon.
They needed all hands on deck, that's probably why they had so many females in their military
Did you ever see "Enemy at the Gate"?
It's about a Russian sniper (Jude Law) up against a German sniper (Ed Harris) in Stalingrad. Very good movie.
I did see that movie, Trout..Excellent movie.
gonna go google that name now
Everyone has been very kind to me today in expanding my knowledge. This is the third time I've gone a-googling
Just googled his name. They should make a movie
He is a legend.
There are three that would make a great movie...
Ernest Evers. Battle of Samar (largest U.S. Naval engagement in history) MoH
Mitchell Red Cloud, Korea MoH....Camp Red Cloud at the DMZ in Korea is named after him.
Roy Benavidez, Vietnam MoH.
Roy P. Benavidez (Yaqui)
US Army Special Forces soldier Roy Benavidez, Yaqui Indian (1935-1998). GI JOE action figure, Medal of Honor recipient Roy P. Benavidez (below).
Master Sergeant (then Staff Sergeant) Roy P. Benavidez United States Army, who distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions on 2 May 1968 while assigned to Detachment B56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic of Vietnam. On the morning of 2 May 1968, a 12-man Special Forces Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters in a dense jungle area west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam to gather intelligence information about confirmed large-scale enemy activity. This area was controlled and routinely patrolled by the North Vietnamese Army. After a short period of time on the ground, the team met heavy enemy resistance, and requested emergency extraction. Three helicopters attempted extraction, but were unable to land due to intense enemy small arms and anti-aircraft fire. Sergeant Benavidez was at the Forward Operating Base in Loc Ninh monitoring the operation by radio when these helicopters returned to off-load wounded crewmembers and to assess aircraft damage. Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a returning aircraft to assist in another extraction attempt. Realizing that all the team members were either dead or wounded and unable to move to the pickup zone, he directed the aircraft to a nearby clearing where he jumped from the hovering helicopter, and ran approximately 75 meters under withering small arms fire to the crippled team. Prior to reaching the team's position he was wounded in his right leg, face, and head. Despite these painful injuries, he took charge, repositioning the team members and directing their fire to facilitate the landing of an extraction aircraft, and the loading of wounded and dead team members. He then threw smoke canisters to direct the aircraft to the team's position. Despite his severe wounds and under intense enemy fire, he carried and dragged half of the wounded team members to the awaiting aircraft. He then provided protective fire by running alongside the aircraft as it moved to pick up the remaining team members. As the enemy's fire intensified, he hurried to recover the body and classified documents on the dead team leader. When he reached the leader's body, Sergeant Benavidez was severely wounded by small arms fire in the abdomen and grenade fragments in his back. At nearly the same moment, the aircraft pilot was mortally wounded, and his helicopter crashed. Although in extremely critical condition due to his multiple wounds, Sergeant Benavidez secured the classified documents and made his way back to the wreckage, where he aided the wounded out of the overturned aircraft, and gathered the stunned survivors into a defensive perimeter. Under increasing enemy automatic weapons and grenade fire, he moved around the perimeter distributing water and ammunition to his weary men, reinstilling in them a will to live and fight. Facing a buildup of enemy opposition with a beleaguered team, Sergeant Benavidez mustered his strength, began calling in tactical air strikes and directed the fire from supporting gunships to suppress the enemy's fire and so permit another extraction attempt. He was wounded again in his thigh by small arms fire while administering first aid to a wounded team member just before another extraction helicopter was able to land. His indomitable spirit kept him going as he began to ferry his comrades to the craft. On his second trip with the wounded, he was clubbed from additional wounds to his head and arms before killing his adversary. He then continued under devastating fire to carry the wounded to the helicopter. Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed two enemy soldiers who were rushing the craft from an angle that prevented the aircraft door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all classified material had been collected or destroyed, and to bring in the remaining wounded. Only then, in extremely serious condition from numerous wounds and loss of blood, did he allow himself to be pulled into the extraction aircraft. Sergeant Benavidez's gallant choice to join voluntarily his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least eight men. His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to duty, and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.
Military ribbons, medals of Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez, Medal of Honor recipient.
This would have merited a seed of its own.
In addition to this, he did so much for military veterans and schools...Perhaps I'll post all of his life in another article.
I agree -- most Americans don't appreciate the role Russians played in opposing the Nazis & gratly shortening the war.
(Although IMO the Allies would have ultimately won anyway-- its just that the war would have been even much, much longer and bloodier than it was without the Russian efforts).
Or the degree of sacrifice they made, with something like 25-30 million Soviets dead due to the war.
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I really doubt that since 3/4 of Nazi losses were on the eastern front. While we're getting off topic here, without the resource strain of the eastern front the Nazis likely would have prevailed in Europe. I also think it's quite likely that their missile and nuclear research would have advanced much more quickly.
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More on topic but it says a lot about the profound misogyny of our culture that the WASPs weren't allowed any role in overseas missions. Even more so that the program was dropped entirely for 30+ years after WWII, and almost 50 years before female pilots were allowed aviation combat roles......despite the fact that they faced the same risks in non-combat aviation roles. Pretty silly to enforce such gender bias for "safety reasons" when what one was really covering up was a degrading and harmful kind of paternalism.
What our military really should have been doing was looking to other countries like Canada, the USSR and Israel to see how women's roles and rights had advanced far beyond what they were in the US during the WWI, WWII and the post-war period. We were in a position to do so but we dropped the ball immediately after WWII.
To put the losses in perspective.. The U.S. lost 416,000 in WWII....Russia lost 1.1 million just at the battle of Stalingrad and another 40,000 to 80,000 civilians at Stalingrad.
For some reason it's a topic that comes up almost every time I meet a Russian or other former Soviets - I think they're astonished or a bit angry that so few Americans know who really bore the burden of WWII. Most Americans seem to know nothing about what the Soviets did and think the US "won" the war. We're # 1.....despite apparently knowing very little about even our own recent past, much less that of other countries.
Actually that reminds me of an article I read a while back-- about why Hitler decided to attack the USSR rather than Britain. Logic would dictate attacking Britain. (Russia was much larger. A much bigger population means the Russian army would be considerably larger than a British one.
And in addition, the area was also considerably larger-- the YUGE (perhaps even Bigly YUGE?) area of the USSR meant much longer German supply lines to defend in Russia..
Finally, the Russian Winters can be horrendous, considerably worse than those in England. (A considerably off-topic Trivia Q-- a derail from my previous derail: There Palm Trees growing in England-- T/F? { Perrie is not allowed to answer that Q :^)
So from the POV of success for the German War effort, attacking the USSR instead of Britain made no sense. So why did Hitler do it?Apparently it wasn't based on logic but rather on, of all things, Hitler's extreme racism! Most people know that the considered the Jews to be an "inferior race"-- but he also considered other groups to be "inferior" as well. And that includes the Slavic peoples. (Russians, Poles, etc). . . . even though they were enemies, Hitler did consider the British to be "Aryans" (a "superior race").
Since he wanted to make the entire world great again, he felt the way to do that was to eliminate "inferior races"-- which included the Russians.
The ''Slavs'' to the Germans of that time were considered inferior...Over the years I have spent a fair amount of time in both Germany and Yugoslavia, and with a few vists to Russia.
Yugoslav's are much like the Russian, amazed that Americans know so little about the Yugoslav war time experience. They like Russia suffered huge losses for a very small country. It's often said by historicans that there were three fronts in Europe. The Western Front, The Eastern Front and the Tito Front. A little know part of of WWII but critical in the defeat of Germany.
I scroll thru Amazon Prime video almost every night looking for documentaries on things I didn't know about WWII. The other night I watched something about Stalin's daughter. I fell asleep but will watch it again some other time.
Here's the memoir of one of the female pilots, very absorbing and interesting read.
Looks interesting, I'll have to check it out at the local library.
Thanks.
Great article, Kavika. Very enlightening. Looking forward to the next exciting story.
I totally agree!
Personally I would like to see more quality articles such as this-- and less petty squabbling (in an attempt to gain points) in most of the so-called political "discussions" here.
Thanks Kirsh, I have a few more in the waiting that hopefully will be well received.
In addition to improving the quality of NT for current members, there's the matter of "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization). Quality articles like the are "Search engine candy"-- because they are somewhat uncommon on the 'Net, they turn up in searches. And some of the people who are attracted to articles such as this one will land here-- a portion of those will probably become new members of NT-- quality members. So its another way to make The Newstalkers great again
Looking forward to that.
Define quality member.