Ojalá alguno de los profesores de esas asignaturas que amargaron mis años de estudiante las hubiera impartido con la décima parte de mano izquierda y encanto que tiene Xplanes contando historias de aviación. Esta sobre escuadrones femeninos de bombarderos rusos tampoco tiene precio. Hasta existe un cómic de Garth Ennis!
Night Witches
On June 22 1941, Germany commenced Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of the Soviet Union. The resulting conflict is known by many names - The Eastern Front, the Russo-German War, the Axis-Soviet War to name a few - but scholars/historians tend to agree that it was the largest, bloodiest and most ferocious theatre of war in human history.
Marina Raskova, a famous aviatrix before the war, used her personal influence with Joseph Stalin to secure permission to form three all-female combat units. The most famous was the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. They flew obsolete Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes (believed to be the second most produced aircraft in history), and flew night-time harassment bombing missions against enemy encampments. The Po-2 aircraft could only carry a couple of bombs each, so missions were mainly psychological in impact - the aircraft would cut their engines and glide over the targets, release their bombs, and hopefully vanish into the night (there are stories of enemy troops hearing singing as the silent aircraft passed overhead)
The German forces called them “Nachthexen” - Night Witches
The missions were endless and highly dangerous. The Witches would regularly fly in groups - each aircraft taking it in turn to act as a decoy against searchlights and flak. Losses to enemy nightfighters also took their toll. Many refused to wear parachutes, opting for a revolver instead..
By the end of the war, the Soviet women bomber pilots had earned 23 Hero of the Soviet Union medals and dozens of Orders of the Red Banner, flew more than 24,000 sorties and dropped 23,000 tons of bombs. Most surviving pilots had racked up nearly 1,000 missions each.
more here, here and here
(art above from the excellent but brutal “BATTLEFIELDS: Night Witches”, a 3-part comic mini-series by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun, released last year)
