Night Witches: The Women of the Soviet Air Force

It might be surprising to learn that, during the World War II, there were certain aircraft units that were made up entirely by female pilots. We're talking about the Soviet Air Forces that allowed women volunteers to take part in the fight against the invading German army during 1941's Operation Barbarossa.

Initially rejected, enthusiastic young women convinced the Soviet leadership that female squadrons might be a good idea in the face of the German invasion. Due to this, the USSR became the only nation to send women pilots into combat during the war.

Not only were the pilots in these female-only squadrons women, often so too were the ground crews and ground staff.

The pilots and crew were in their early twenties. The youngest members were just 17.

These women flew in all sorts of Soviet military aircraft ranging from tiny canvas covered biplanes like the Po-2 to twin-engined dive bombers like the Petlyakov Pe-2. One of the regiments to fly the Pe-2 was the 125th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment who flew 1,134 missions over the course of the war.

One of the main all-women units in the Soviet Air Forces was the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. This particular group was by far the most successful despite only having flimsy plywood biplanes they had at their disposal. The missions were perilous. The heavy payload the Night Witches (the 588th's German nickname) had to carry meant they had to fly at low altitudes, often through dense flak, as they approached their targets.

Nadezhda Vasilyevna Popova, a pilot of the 588th who passed away in 2013, reminisced: “I sometimes stare into the blackness and close my eyes,” she said in 2010. “I can still imagine myself as a young girl, up there in my little bomber. And I ask myself, ‘Nadia, how did you do it?"'. Hats off to them.