Ladies in the Red Army

There was a thread but it seems i can't find it.

Aleksandra Samusenko commander of tank battalion:

She apperently fought at Kusk as lt. commanding a T-34 tank and was killed in Berlin offensive opration.
From:
http://www.a-z.ru/women/texts/murman1r-13.htm

alta vista translation:

And to prove that ladies were in all arms of RKKA:
18 years old Dusya (Evdokiya) Sytnik was commander of sabre squadron of 18 guard cossak regiment. Don't have other info on her.

Medical sister V.S. Kashevoiya HSU:

http://world-war.ru/foto/albums/userpics/10003/kascheeva-koscheeva.jpg

Maria Dolina HSU deputy commander of Pe-2 squadron:


Sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko HSU:


ISU-122 crew Guards Lt. Vera Orlova in command, while Guards Lt. Nikolai Orlov (her husband) is the driver. Poor guy was outranked from the beggining

 

I guess the Red Army was the only army that had women in the frontline.

 

They had thousands of female snipers trained during the war.

 

I guess Vasili Zaitsev wasn't complaining at the sniper parties

 

Actualy Yugoslavian partizans allso had woman fighters.One thing in communism is that there is no religius (god does not exist) and sex discrimination.

 

As did all of the various resistance forces in Europe and many SOE operatives parachuted into Europe were female. Not properly "Front Line", but I feel that these women do not always get the credit they deserve.

 

I would hate to be a German and have to kill a girl....

 

an account written by a young female russian sniper tells of watching a handsome young german lt through her scope on her very first day in combat...,,,but not haveing the heart to shoot him ...she got her ass chewed out .....then went to work the next day ..no favoritism because of good looks...anymore these girl snipers would set up in the open ,in darkness and then peer through the lens all day WITHOUT moveing the rifle 1 mm ....when a good value target wandered into her field of view, like a top noncom or artillery spotter or officer ...boom ...one shot ,and then not move the rifle ,still ...till after nightfall ...all day no movement ,NONE ...then , one shot ....and wait till dark ...never take a second shot , too risky...german counter sniper teams will get you....

 

Not moving the gun a whole day
Though to do

 

it was soviet sniper doctrine where she trained ...also the girls set up in the open grass ..not near brush or trees ...the girls themselves could move some ..being en defilade ..the rifle was parked as if in a vise...this practice made them invisable , almost ...and allowed them to live ..although her partner ,,,another teenage girl , did move a bit too much one day and was spotted ,...the young girl soldier cryed so hard and long ,they took her out of the line for some period...snipers are always very shocked and supprised when they reap what they have sown

 

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the soviets also had a night bomber squadron staffed by women ,
they had inferior planes the old petiakov "sewing machine " and would cut off the engine ,coming on target silently in at a glide ,
the german hated them but never caught one ,
they always made it back , sometime on foot .
as for the soviet attitude , nurses would fight too if required ,
women were notorious in military intelligence , routinely torturing uncooperative prisonners an executing them afterward ,
the traffic cops were usually women , armed and to be treated with great wariness .


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Jeaguar, i don't want to be sticler to the detail but Pe-2 (petljakov you are talking about is on photo behind Maria Dolina in first post) was two engined dive bomber. They did have at least two all female BAP's (Bomber aviation regiments) that flew on Pe-2. You are probably thinking about Polikarpov U-2LNB (or Po-2 ). BTW they sometimes had horrendous losses, especialy when germans started to employ improvised radar equipped night fighters (Fw-58 Weihe, Fw-189...).

U-2VS "Red 126"
pilot N. Luminova, Ya. Pilenkova
588 NBAP
October 1942



U-2 "White 40"
pilot P. Dovendonya, K. Ristic
46. "Tamanski" GNBAP (Guards night bomber aviation regiment)
Summer 1943

 

the night witches {po2 drivers} also dropped partisans behind german lines ...WITH OUT PARACHUTES !...they slowed way down and tried to put the men into deep snowbanks ..partisans deployed from laying down position on wing ....cant help nut notice all the photos above of soviet ladie commanders depict fairly pretty girls ...its hard to imagine them as expert killers..

 

Just a thought,
wouldn't the "Die fascists!!" message be more effective if it was written in German ?

 

I belive that was only in testing phase and was droped becouse of casulties. For airdrops of personell (partisans and VDV) and eqipment behind the lines Li-2 and Yak-6 were mostly used (as well as range of other twin engined types)

I seriously doubt that those inscriptions were ment to be read by the germans. BTW correct translation is "Death to the faschists"

 

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thanks for the details TISO , is the second plane decoration indicate a pilot award or the squadron ?

the was some paratroopers drops during the december 41 moscow counterattack , one of the story is that due to the lack of parachutes some were dropped without ,
slow , low and aim for flat, clear ,snowy ground , most died in the fighting anyway , the soviet airborne got some massive losses then and in 43 in ukraine

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Guard's sign painted on the plane denotes that regiment (Avia Polk) has guards status. In addition to that sometimes other decorations (Orden of Suvorov, Red flag....). This were mostly decorations recived by a regiment as a unit. Painting of individual decorations was not widespread (except Gold star of HSU recived by a pilot- that was normally painted on the plane).

OFF TOPIC
Orden of Suvorov
Il-2 "so strelkoi" of the 281 ShAP, probably during the fall of 1944, possibly in Estonia


Spoirfirre Mk Vb of 57. GIAP spring 1943 Kuban - Guards sign



Yak-9D St.Lt. M. Grib, 6. GIAP ChF-VMF, ca. June 1944
Guards sign and Orden of the red flag.

 

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very good , I didn't know they had mk 5 spitfire in 43 ?!


an answers to majorwoody and the angst of a woman shooting a good looking man

there was a movie about that called if my memory is true " the 49th "

during the civil war , a crack red sniper up to 48 kills in central asia , found herself shipwreck ( in central asia ??? ) with a white prisonner ,love blossom until the rescue boat got the wrong crew and as a good bolchevick she tearfully raise her score to 49 :cry: :cry: :cry:


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TISO:
Splendid photos and illustrations.
Thanks for posting-up.

Tim

 

Another interesting interview this time with Guards Senior Lieutenant Olga Mikhaylovna Lisikova member of civilan aviation who during the war flew in the VVS as a captain of C-47 and Li-2's:

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/articles/lisikova/index.htm


Guards Senior Lieutenant Olga Mikhaylovna Lisikova in 1943:



She was also used for propaganda:

Translation of the text in the poster: