The Night Witches, world war two

• In the 1930s, with the black clouds of war gathering over the skies of Europe, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin pushed to demonstrate its technical prowess to the rest of the world, particularly in the air where the Soviets established a number of endurance records for aircraft to demonstrate how far the Soviet Union had come
• These record-breaking efforts included female pilots and aircrew, and none were more famous than Marina Raskova, often credited as the Soviet Union's Amelia Earhart
• Marina Raskova


  The first woman to qualify as a navigator in the Soviet Air Force in 1933, and was part of a record-breaking attempt for female aviators that saw her crew fly over 4,000 miles in a converted DB2 long-range bomber
• This earned Raskova celebrity status in the Soviet Union and crucially influence over Stalin himself
• When war broke out between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, Raskova came to Stalin with a plan for women to join the men in the fight against the fascists
• This plan would result in one of the most famous flying units of World War II, the Night Witches
• The German invasion of the Soviet Union, dubbed Operation Barbarossa, was one of the largest single military campaigns in history, including over 3.8 million German and pro-axis troops, nearly 4,000 tanks, and 5,000 aircraft
• The Soviet air force, suffering from decay and neglect due to Stalin's purges, proved feeble in offering any real resistance to the German Luftwaffe, with 4,000 Soviet aircraft destroyed in just seven days
• Stalin's response was to simply throw more of his people at the Germans, invoking the patriotism of the Soviet people to confront the fascist invaders
• A vast letter-writing campaign was soon undertaken with women pleading to join the men in the fight against the Nazis, and Marina Raskova repeatedly wrote letters to Stalin making the case for why women should be allowed to fight
• On October 8th, 1941, Stalin agreed to allow the female aviation regiments to be formed, including the 588th Night Bomber Regiment
• The Po-2 (Poligraph U2)


  The little Soviet biplane that was chosen as the aircraft for the 588th Regiment, with a top speed of just 94 miles per hour, a bomb load of 770 pounds, and often only a pistol for defense
• The Po-2


  • Its slow speed made navigating at night much safer, its small engine was relatively quiet, and its small bomb load was enough to disrupt the enemy's ability to rest and prepare for upcoming battles
• The 588th became more experienced, adding precision night bombing to their resume, targeting railways, bridges, and German artillery positions using flares to illuminate them
• The biggest threats came from anti-aircraft guns guided by German searchlights, and the Po-2 was prone to catching fire when struck
• The women of the 588th did not carry parachutes, as they flew at such low altitudes that they were of little use
• Women who served in the 588th

  • Zhenya Rodneva
  • Maria Sminova
• Zhenya Rodneva: '"a silly thought, a total paradox crossed my mind - it is wartime, there is too much fear and blood, but I'm living the happiest days of my life at least my life in the regiment will be my brightest memory"'
• Maria Sminova: '"What did we all think then? The girls from the flying regiments - was the war a woman's business? Of course not, but then we didn't think about that. We defended our fair motherland, our people whom the fascists had trampled."'
• 588th military aviation school


  Where the members of the 588th were prepared to deploy to the front in southern Russia in June 1942
• The exact location where the 588th would be flying from wasn't known to them until the last second before deploying, partly for security reasons and partly because the southern front was so fluid at the time
• Sharing an airfield with all-male squadrons

  Members of the 588th did not receive particularly enthusiastic welcomes from their male counterparts
• First combat mission of the 588th on June 12, 1942


  1. Striking at the invading Nazis

  2. Breaking through three defense lines fortified with German artillery

  3. Bombing targets such as fascist aerodromes, railway stations and tracks, field headquarters, and bridges

  4. Flying in a line three minutes apart
• The 588th often struggled to sleep during the hours of daylight when their own operations ceased, due to spending all night flying mission after mission with anti-aircraft fire filling the skies and seeing their comrades shot down
• Maria Smirnova suffered from severe anxiety to such an extent that at one point she was sent away for treatment, only to run away and hitchhike back to the regiment
• Jhinya Rodnever's aircraft was hit by ground fire, and she saw a plane burning down, but her heart skipped a beat when another plane was shot down and her friend Gayla didn't make it back
• Tactics developed by the 588th


  • Reducing their engines to idling and effectively gliding towards their targets to reduce noise
  • Unleashing their bombs directly over the German positions before disappearing into the black of night
• The term "Night Witches"

  Given by German soldiers who had become aware of the all-female unit that was constantly harassing them at night, intended to be derogatory but embraced by the 588th
• In October 1943, the 588th was renamed the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, the title of Guards being applied to the most elite of Soviet military units
• During a flight supporting the offensive in the Crimea

  Maria Smirnova's plane evaded a high-speed attack by a Fokker Wolf FW 190, but the plane following her was not so lucky, and its pilot Darcia Nussel was killed instantly
• On the night of July 31, 1943


  German fighter aircraft were operating in the area, using searchlights to illuminate the Soviet biplanes so they could attack, resulting in four aircraft following Maria Smirnova being shot down
• Jenya Rodneva, a young astronomer just 23 years old, was killed on April 9, 1944, when her plane failed to return from a combat mission
• The Night Witches lost 32 of their 261 members, but this has to be weighed against the sheer number of sorties they flew against the Germans
• Flight commander Irina Sabrova flew a staggering 1008 missions and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, one of 23 women in the regiment to receive this highest accolade
• As the front lines fluctuated, the Night Witches had to be adept at quickly moving their airfields to keep up


  1. Landing in a clearing in Belarus which was to become their new airstrip

  2. Discovering camouflaged German tanks nearby

  3. Taking off using the tiny amount of fuel they had left to escape
• The Night Witches flew their final operations, just 37 miles from Berlin


  May 4, 1945
• After the war, the Night Witches' regiment was denied permission to participate in the victory parade, the official reason being that their planes were too slow
• In 1972, astronomers named an asteroid in honor of the Night Witch Jenya Rodneva, who had dreamed about the stars