The Night Witches

They are the 588th Night Bomber Regiment and were formed back in 1941. This is thanks to Major Marina Raskova (Мари́на Раско́ва). She used her close ties with then Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin to gain permission to form 3 female combat units.

These units were:
1. 586th Fighter Regiment
2. 587th Heavy Bomber Regiment
3. 588th Night Bomber Regiment

The plane of choice was the Polikarpov U-2 biplanes. It had been designed and manufactured since the 1920’s, used often as a training plane for beginners.

The design of the plane had been cheap to manufacture but it was incredibly easy to shoot down. Simple ground fire could take the plane out in seconds. But this is why they are the Night Bombers.

Once the navigator had found their targets. The pilot would turn off the engine so the plane would silently glide through the night. The first planes would throw down flares illuminating the targets and then the bombs would be dropped. They’d turn on their engines and escape into the night before any German resistance could fight back.

The purpose of the Night Bombers were to exhaust the Nazi troops inside Russia and Germany by depriving them of sleep. This constant almost nightly harassment on different fronts kept the Germans guessing.

In all it’s reported that the Night Witches dropped 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets. They became an invaluable asset in defeating the Germans.

Sadly Raskova passed away on January 4, 1943. She was flying low on route to one of the fronts. Visibility was poor so she tried to dive below the fog line. Her plane tragically ended up crashing into a riverbank.

Later the 588th Regiment was changed to the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. Commissar Major Yevdokiya Bershanskaya (Евдокия Бершанская). She was the commander of both Regiments until the end of the war in 1945.

After the war Yevdokiya Bershanskaya went out in searched the crash sites of every pilot she lost. To provide an accurate history of all the women in the Regiment.

At the end of the video we have a picture of Yevdokiya Bershanskaya, Marina Raskova and Joseph Stalin.

So for all the women who served and fought for it, Спасибо за вашу услугу. ☭