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The Night Witches and Other Warrior Women of World War II

Khalid Elhassan December 8, 2019 31 min

Lyudmila Pavlichenko - World War II — WWII Red Army snipers. Pintrest

35. The Flying Covens

A 588th Night Bomber Regiment pilot. Flite Test

Because of their airplanes’ light bombload – only two bombs, one under each wing – the aviatrixes of the 588^th often flew in relatively thick formations in order to make a dent. A typical mission often involved up to forty Po-2 airplanes, each with a pilot in front and a navigator in the back. Because of weight constraints, they almost never had any ammunition with which to defend themselves if attacked.

Because of their wood and canvass construction, the Po-2s did not show up on radar, and the distinctive sound of their engines was often the first warning Germans had that the raiders were near. The first planes usually went in as bait to attract the attention of German spotlights, whose illumination helped the raiders. They would release flares to further illuminate the target, drop their bombs, then make the short flight back to base to rearm, and fly another sortie.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.