Night Witches

In spite of the never-ending fatigue , the loss of friends, and sexual harassment from their suspicious male counterparts, the women kept on flying. Eventually the Soviets formed three regiments of women combat pilots -- the th, the th and the th. The th also trained at Engels, first in the two-seat Yak-7 trainers and later on in the Yak-1 fighters.

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The women proved themselves to be as good as the men. The most outstanding pilots were Raisa Belyaeva and Valeria Khomyakova. The later was allowed to fly solo in the Yak-1 after just 52 minutes of dual instruction.

Talk About "Fly by Night"

She earned the grade of "excellent" during one trial flight but on a subsequent flight crash-landed on the frozen Volga River when she switched to an empty fuel tank. All of the women had their hands full, learning so much information in such a short amount of time. The female mechanics also had their hands full with the demanding task of keeping the planes flying. The winter of was brutally cold, with temperatures plunging as low as F and countless snow storms.

One night in March of that year the women were called upon to save the aircraft from being blown over by gale-force winds. Several women would literally lie on the wings and horizontal stabilizers of each plane, using the weight of their bodies to keep the planes from blowing away. When the wind subsided, the women looked like snowmen, but the planes were intact.

The Night Witches Were Russian Women Who Silently Bombed Nazis by Night

Their respite was brief however. By noon the storm had resumed, and again the women rushed to the airfield to save the planes. The storm finally blew itself out around midnight, and the exhausted women, soaked to the skin and half frozen, could finally rest. The Night Witches practiced what is known as harassment bombing. Their targets were encampments, supply depots, rear base areas, etc.

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Their constant raids made rest for the troops difficult and left them feeling very insecure. The top speed of the Po-2 biplane was 94 mph 82 knots. This is slower than even most World War I fighters and left them very vulnerable to enemy night fighters. But the Night Witches learned their craft well. The Po-2 was very slow, but it was also extremely maneuverable. When a German Me tried to intercept it, the Night Witches would throw their Po-2 biplanes into a tight turn at an airspeed that was below the stalling speed of the Me This forced the German pilot to make a wider circle and come back for another try, only to be met by the same tactic, time after time.

Many of the Witches flew so low to the ground that they were hidden by hedgerows! Completely frustrated, the German pilots would finally simply give up and leave the Po-2 biplanes alone.

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Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons. It was those Germans who gave them the nickname "Nachthexen", or "Night Witches", for their silent, sudden attacks. The Witches flew rickety and slow plywood planes that were secretly the key to their success. One trick involved two pilots drawing spotlights and enemy fire while a third swooped in with her engine cut and her lights put out.

Pretty bold, considering that their wood-and-canvas rides could catch fire with a single successful hit. In the silence of the winter's night, a soft "whoosh" from the planes' wings as they glided in would be all that would give away the Night Witches' attacks.

And because their planes flew slower than the Nazi planes could even stall, they were often much more maneuverable than their counterparts. No wonder every German soldier who downed one was immediately awarded an Iron Cross. With such a tremendous record of victory and bravery, the women of the th would obviously be showered in praise from their fellow aviators, right?

Male pilots disparaged the women, and one general complained that he had been "sent a bunch of girlies" instead of soldiers. But the Night Witches took these insults in stride as well, and celebrated their pilot identities by decorating their lips with navigation pencils, and painting flowers on their bombers.