The Female WWII Fighters: Night Witches

Not only did they drop more than 23,000 tons of bombs on the Nazis, they were all female troops. They also used poor equipment and had to fly in the freezing air where they often got frostbite while dodging bullets. There were 12 commandments that the Night Witches followed, however their number one commandment was “Be proud that you are a woman”. Here is their story.

• The Main Woman in Charge

• Their Poor Equipment and How They Used Them

• How They Fought

The Main Woman in Charge

Marina Raskova, also known as the “Soviet Amelia Earhart” had been receiving many letters from women all around the Soviet Union wanting to help and join World War II. The women in the war were barred from combat but since the Soviet Union began to grow desperate, they started to rethink their policy. Women were allowed to gain supporting roles such as transfer planes or ammunition but many women wanted to help more. They had desired to be gunners or pilots in the war. Raskova wanted to help in the war so she petitioned to let her form an all female fighting squadron. Once she got permission, she was able to deploy three all female air force units. These women would fly on missions and drop bombs as well as return fire. Raskova quickly began to fill out her teams. She selected about four hundred women for three units, those women moved on to Engles and started learning from Engles School of Aviation. They were expected to learn quickly as the war progressed in order to start immediately working to fight in the war.

Their Poor Equipment and How They Used Them

Since the military was unprepared for women fighters. They weren’t able to produce better fitting uniforms for the new military unit so they were handed male soldiers old uniforms that were often way too big for them.The military also gave them Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, and 1920s crop-dusters that we’re used as training planes. Since the planes had limited capacity and funds, the Nightwitches were not given other “luxury” items that the men were given such as parachutes,radars, guns and radios, and had to use rulers,stopwatches, flashlights, pencils,maps, and compasses. However there were some benefits to these planes, they were able to maneuver faster than enemies and could easily take off and land from most locations. This made them nimble and quick, and good in war.

How They Fought

Not only were the Night Witches hard workers, they were clever too. They could only carry two bombs at a time, there would be one under each wing of the plane, They would send out 40 two people crews that would bomb about 8-18 enemies and then they would fly back after each one to restock on bombs. They only flew at night because the weight of the bombs kept the planes from flying too high. They would go out in groups, the first batch of planes would fly over and attract the German spotlights which helped illuminate where the second batch of planes would hit, then the second planes would stop their engines and glide towards the enemies and drop the bomb, they called this the stealth note and it is what gave the noise of a broom sweeping, which is how they got their name the Night Witches.

Although the Night Witches faced many problems throughout their existence, they still managed to help win the war. Their last mission was on May 4,1945 when they flew about 47 miles of Berlin and three days after, the Nazis surrendered. However, accomplishing the most highly decorated unit in the Soviet Air Force during the war, the Night Witches was disbanded six months after World War II. Sadly, when the victory parade happened in Moscow, they weren’t included because their planes were too slow but no matter the case, they are still respected around the world to this day.