1941 was a bad year for the Soviet Union. Well, arguably every year in the Soviet Union was a bad one but 1941 was exceptionally grim.
The German attack in June of 1941 had caught the Red Air Force napping. In the first three days of Operation Barbarossa the Luftwaffe had destroyed close to 4,000 Russian aircraft and suffered only very light losses.
The Russian people initially treated the Germans as liberators. That didn't last very long. Nazi atrocities quickly made the Russians realize that Stalin at least was their S.O.B. and they rallied to defend their homeland.
It takes some effort to lose a popularity contest to Joseph Stalin but the Germans were nothing if not efficient.
Patriotic Russians, both men and women, rushed to defend the motherland. The women were initially turned down. "Go home and help your mother" one was told. The Russians could be (and arguably still are) quite chauvinistic in their attitudes towards women.
The women persevered and by 1942 had won the right to fight and die for their country. This is their story.
Much of this can be credited to Marina Raskova. At the time of the German invasion, she was already a record setting pilot and a Major in the Soviet Air Force (in a non-combat role). She had previously been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal for a record-setting flight from Moscow to Siberia. It was she who begged and pleaded with Stalin to allow women to fly in combat.
In 1942 three all-female units were formed. From thousands of applicants the top candidates were selected for flight training.
Of the three, the most famous would be the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, which flew the Po-2 biplane.
The Po-2 looks more suited to WWI than WWII.
The Polikarpov Po-2 was a 1920s design that was quite obsolete by 1942. The closest Western equivalent would be a Stearman 75. It was quite slow, which turned out to be an advantage since it could fly
slower than the stalling speed of German fighters trying to attack it. It was also quite maneuverable.
Po-2 with the rear gun installed.
Flying in the darkness at or even below treetop level, the little Po-2s would climb up to altitude, shut their engines off, and glide over the German units to drop their bombs.
Women of the 588th and their aircraft.
This was similar to the "Bed-check Charlie" attacks experienced by US troops in the Pacific and later in Korea.
The sound of the wind whistling through the Po-2's struts is said to have sounded like a witch's broomstick and the Germans dubbed them Nachthexen or "Night Witches".
We simply couldn't grasp that the Soviet airmen that caused us the greatest trouble were in fact women. These women feared nothing. They came night after night in their very slow biplanes, and for some periods they wouldn't give us any sleep at all.
- Hauptmann Johannes Steinhoff, Commander of II./JG 52, Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, September 1942.
German fighter pilots were promised an Iron Cross for shooting down a Po-2. The little biplanes proved difficult targets for German
night fighters. Searchlights and anti-aircraft guns proved to be a much greater threat to the night flyers.
To counter the German guns, the women came up with some inventive tactics. They started flying in three-ship formations. Two planes would act as decoys while a third attacked. Pretty gutsy to sit there and draw enemy fire, but they did it. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Since the Po-2 carried a very small bomb load, the crews flew multiple sorties every night. One crew reportedly flew 18 sorties on a single night.
Note that the Po-2 crews usually didn't wear parachutes. They generally flew too low to use them anyway.
Overall the 588th is credited with over 23,000 sorties and 3,000 tons of bombs dropped. Losses were heavy.
For the most part they flew "night harassment" raids, but did have at least one notable success where they took out a large number of German aircraft on the ground.
Ultimately 24 of its members were awarded the coveted Hero of the Soviet Union medal. They didn't just give those things away.
In case you were wondering what a bad-ass looks like. Po-2 pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Nadezhda Popova in 2009.
The 588th ultimately was awarded the elite status of a "Guards" regiment and was renamed the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.
Not as well known were the 587th Regiment, which flew the Pe-2 light bomber, and the 586th, which flew the Yak-1 fighter.
The Pe-2 was a twin engine fighter-bomber that was produced in large numbers. It was comparable (although not equal to) the de Havilland Mosquito. It was known for being fast, rugged and maneuverable.
A formation of Pe-2 fighter bombers.
The Pe-2 was reportedly quite heavy on the controls and could be a handful for some of the smaller women. In fact, taking off in a fully loaded Pe-2 was reportedly a handful for
anyone. In some cases the navigator had to put her arms around the pilot from behind so that both could heave on the control stick for take off.
Pilot Mariya Dolina in front of a Pe-2.
Unlike the 588th, which remained all female, there were some men in the 587th. The Pe-2 gunner position required a relatively tall person and not enough women could be found that met the height requirement. Thus some of the Pe-2s flew with female pilots and navigators but male gunners.
Marina Raskova herself commanded the 587th until her death in a crash during bad weather. Remember, just flying these planes was dangerous, let alone fighting in them. She was given a state funeral and her ashes are interred in the Kremlin.
Marina Raskova was killed when her Pe-2 crashed while attempting to land in a snow storm.
There's not a lot written about the 587th, at least in English. From what I could find, five of its members became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Forty six were killed. In one incident they were separated from their fighter escorts, attacked by eight Bf-109s and managed to shoot down four of their attackers.
The 587th also achieved Guards status and was renamed the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment.
Lastly we have the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment. This unit flew the Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter in an air defense role. Their primary mission was point-defense against enemy bombers.
The Yak-1 was a lightweight little fighter constructed of plywood over a steel frame. While primitive by Western standards, it performed well at the low to medium altitudes. Since this was where most air combat took place on the Eastern Front, the little Yak-1 did fairly well against its German counterparts.
Ground crew of the 586th working on a Yak-1.
What I find most interesting is how lightly armed the Yaks were. The most common version had a single 12.7 machine gun and a single 20mm cannon in the nose. Compare that to the six 12.7 machine guns on a P-51 or Hellcat and it seems to lack firepower. The Russians didn't like to put guns in the wings because this affected the roll rate of the aircraft. I would think you'd need exceptional gunnery skills to score a kill in a Yak-1, especially against a bomber, but they managed somehow. The same basic design became the basis for the outstanding Yak-3 and Yak-9 later in the war.
The 586th had mixed results and never achieved Guards status like the other two Regiments. It initially consisted of a two all-female squadrons with a female commander Tamara Kazarinova. Kazarinova was apparently very unpopular and was ultimately replaced by a male officer, supposedly for health reasons. A third squadron with male pilots was later added to the unit.
The two most famous members of the 586th actually scored their kills while on loan to male squadrons for the defense of Stalingrad.
Lydia Litvyak and Katya Budanova would become the war's two female aces. Both were credited with 11 kills, although there is some question as to how many of these were "shared" kills. Still an impressive record.
I believe the pilot on the far left is Lydia Litvyak.
Litvyak came to be known as "The White Lily" in Russia or "The White Rose of Stalingrad" in the West. Twice wounded in combat, she was awarded the status of "free hunter". This meant that she was allowed to go out and hunt enemy aircraft on her own initiative, a rare thing in the Soviet Air Force.
Yak-1 with Lydia's "Yellow 44" markings. Later versions had a bubble canopy and better rearward visibility.
One famous tale involves her shooting down a German ace and three-time recipient of the Iron Cross. For some reason I picture this guy straight out of Hollywood central casting. You know, ramrod straight, arrogant, the stick up his ass had a stick up it's ass.
Upon being captured, he asked to meet the Russian ace who had out flown him. When introduced to Litvyak, he assumed he was the butt of a joke, right up until she recounted the dogfight in such detail that it could only have been her.
Lydia was shot down in August of 1943 during the Battle of Kursk. While attacking a group of German bombers she was bounced by their escorts. She was last seen being pursued by as many as eight Bf 109s. Since no parachute was seen, and no body was found, it was thought that perhaps she had been captured. This precluded her being awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. After an extensive search by her relatives and her former mechanic, her body was finally located in 1979. She was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union in 1990.
Lydia Litvyak was 21 when she was killed.
Katya Budanova for some reason never achieved the fame of Lydia Litvyak although she had an almost identical career. Katya flew in the same units as Litvyak and was also awarded the coveted status of "free hunter". She is credited with 11 kills, although 5 of those may have been shared. It depends on who you believe.
That's Katya Budanova in the center.
Budanova was killed in July 1943 while taking on three Bf-109s. She killed one and damaged a second to the point where it withdrew. Basically it was three against one and she got two. With her Yak in flames, she crash landed in a nearby field and was dead when they found her. In 1993 she was awarded Hero of the Russian Federation, as there was no more Soviet Union.
Katya Budanova was 26 at the time of her death.
Initially treated with skepticism by their male colleagues, the Soviet women distinguished themselves in combat. The female units were rewarded by being disbanded at the end of the war. Women were banned from the service academies and in 1948 legislation was passed excluding women from combat.
Thank you for your service comrades, now get back in the kitchen.
Like I said, they can be pretty chauvinistic.