Thanks and a hat tip to Elena on "The New Russian Forum" on Delphi; justawoman Oct-21 11:22 am To: ALL (1 of 8) 10148.1 The Night Witches were the soviet women of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. All of the mechanics and bomb loaders of this regiment, as in the 586th IAP and the 587th Bomber Regiment, were also women. The Soviet women bomber pilots earned in total 23 Hero of the Soviet Union medals and dozens of Orders of the Red Banner. Read more: http://mysite.pratt.edu/~rsilva/witches.htm http://www.seizethesky.com/nwitches/nitewtch.html Some of these women wrote and published the book ( in Russian), the photos from the book you can check here ( just click every record and you will download the photos): http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/ill.html I put the links to some of those photos: The group photos of pilots http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/024.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/035.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/054.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/115.jpg Technicians http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/081.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/174.jpg Hanging the bombs: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/128.jpg Caricature "Who is heavier?" http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/037.jpg Leaflet-report: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/025.jpg soviet newspaper: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/166.jpg relaxation: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/056.jpg the grave "The unknown pilot" http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/072.jpg the monument to the night witches http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/089.jpg regiment in Poland http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/077.jpg visiting their friend in the hospital http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/177.jpg After receiving the awards on the Red Square http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/179.jpg 1949, annual meeting of pilots in Moscow with the members of the families http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/180.jpg with the sons http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/181.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/187.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/184.jpg with daughters http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/186.jpg http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/183.jpg Some pilots returned to the studies in the University after the war http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/rakobolskaya_kravtsova/094.jpg Options
yes they were quite the gals flying those old slow beat up crates but they did much to harass Wehrmacht rear installations until the LW sent Night fighters to engage them
Erich; I read the book quite a few years ago but as I recall the mission changed to Partisan supply-did Luftwaffe tactical adaptions have something to do with this? Lilya Litvak had gone into fighter planes by the time of Stalingrad. JeffinMNUSA
it very could have, I do know the small bi-plane unit tried to continue with night harass bombings on Wehrmacht front and rear lines, as NJG 100 had jurisdiction in the Witches area they tried to get the flak units to stop but as this was rather infrequent due to the mix of engine noise from the Bi-plane and then Do 217 later Ju 88C and G anything visible was shot at. In many cases the glas were pretty safe as the Lw aircraft were to quick and the German NF's had to drop their undercarriage at times to slow down to get a burst on the Soviet A/C.
Erich; The Soviets were notoriously indifferent to heavy casualties as long as they estimated that objectives were being met. I am curious about the duration of the night bombing missions-were they curtailed early on or did they continue throughout the war? It could also be that after the Partisan conference of the summer of 1942 that supplying Partisan forces took precedence over night bombing. JeffinMNUSA
back in the 70's I was told this was curtailed by very early 1944, the Fw 187 was used to try and stop them as it could travel at a much slower rate of speed compared with the more powerful and quite heavier bomber types used for the purpose. Am not really sure how the Soviets estimated their bombing campaign at night but they did send quite a few Mitchells, Pe-2's Il-4's and whatever they got lend lease or otherwise to drop ordnance. Well it got the LW night defenses attention sending NJG 5 and 100 to snoop anything the Soviets put into the air during the war
Hope I'm not bringing this thread off topic, but for some good historical fiction reading containing a good amount about the Night Witches check out David L Robbins "The Last Citadel" cheers
I found the picture of Stork http://www.a2m.ru/modules/coppermine/albums/allianse-germ/normal_storch.jpg http://www.bush-planes.com/images/PerservedStork.jpg I have read it was the plane that demanded the minimal place for taking off and landing See how it takes off: YouTube - Fieseler Storch Fi-156 Fieseler Fi 156 Storch demo 1938: YouTube - Fieseler Fi 156 Storch demo 1938 Check also the web-site: World War 2 Planes - The Advent of Modern Aviation Soviets air constructors liked Stork, they copied the Storh and produced them under the licence of Reno in 1930-s under the management of Russian constructor Antonov. This plane had the name "Aist"that means Stork in Russian. The links below shows the photos of Yak-1 and Yak-4 from the old soviet albums: ??????? ?????? ??????? | ??????????? ????????? ? ?? ?????? ... | ??????? ?????? ??????? | ??????????? ????????? ? ?? ?????? ... | justawoman Oct-23 11:26 am To: DClift (DClift2) (5 of 8) 10148.5 in reply to 10148.4 Interesting story, I assume Storch could have a gun machine (MG-15 ) but magazine was empty I know the story when the Russian POWs, former pilots that worked on German aerodrome, flew away and crossed the front line using Storch. They have been imprisoned on the soviet side and had to spend 3 years ( a rather short term)in the labor camp as "colaborators". Well, at that time it was seen as fairly by those who received certificates of deaths for their relatives. However, Storch was not the most dangerous German plane. Focke-Wulf Fw 189 - was a problem, it was called a "Flying eye" http://airwiki.org/image/i/spyww2/fw189-i.jpg http://home.mit.bme.hu/~tade/ac-pict/Hung-AF/pre-1945/Fw189/Fw189affro.jpg http://membres.lycos.fr/wings2/3vues/fw189a1_3v.jpg Storch impressed Soviet constructor Antonov (one of the Storchs have been presented to Russian trade delegation in Germany 1940), Focke-Wulf influenced the projects of Sukhoi laboratory ( Sukhoi Su-12)
