The “Night Witches”
Taman Peninsula
- combat sorties flown by the regiment
- ≈ 24,000
- combat sorties flown by the regiment
- of its airwomen became Heroes of the Soviet Union
- 23
- of its airwomen became Heroes of the Soviet Union
The 46th Guards Regiment was made up entirely of young women. They flew at night in light plywood Po-2 biplanes, cut their engines over the target and dropped bombs silently. The enemy called them the “Night Witches”. Many of the regiment’s pilots became Heroes of the Soviet Union.
The Po-2 planes were made of plywood and fabric and flew no faster than a car on a motorway. For a long time the pilots flew without parachutes. Each crew flew several sorties a night. The regiment was commanded by Yevdokia Bershanskaya.
The young women were 17 to 22 years old. Between sorties they embroidered, wrote poems and letters home. Navigator Yevgenia Rudneva had studied astronomy before the war. She was killed in 1944, and a minor planet is named after her.
See it on the map