Posted on 08/05/2021 12:40:09 PM PDT by OneVike
Interesting war documentary video on YouTube about the 1,200 WWII Soviet female Bomber Regiment nicknamed, "The Night Witches", by the Germans. The all-female 588th Bomber Regiment dropped more than 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets. And in doing so, they became crucial to the Soviets winning their portion of the war against Germany.
Their job was to harass the Germans at night so they could not rest from the war. While the Russians fighters rested, the women would fly all night dropping bombs and forcing the germans to be alert 24/7. Germans nicknamed them the Nachthexen, or “Night Witches,” because the whooshing noise their wooden planes made resembled that of a sweeping broom. “This sound was the only warning the Germans had. Equipped with only 2 bombs, one on each wing, and a handgun for battle, these witches flew under the cover of darkness in bare-bones plywood biplanes.
Braving bullets and frostbite in the air they were feared and hated so much by the Nazis that any German airman who downed one was automatically awarded the prestigious Iron Cross medal. That's because these female bombers were more effective than 99% of the Russian male fighter squadrons were.
The planes were effective, because they were too small to show up by either radar, or infrared locators used by German anti-aircraft. Often times flying at low speeds or with engines off in gliding mode just before dropping their bombs, the Germans seldom knew they were there until it was too late. They were in all sense of the word, ghost fighters in the sky.
Russia didn't equip them with radios due the planes’ limited weight capacity and the military’s limited funds. Thus the female pilots lacked most of the luxuries offered their male counterparts. Instead of radar, guns and radios, they were forced to use more rudimentary tools such as rulers, stopwatches, flashlights, pencils, maps and compasses. They flew so low that parachutes would be worthless, but the low altitude allowed them cover from the German fighters above at night. The Germans lost them in the landscape.
Altogether these daredevil heroines flew more than 30,000 missions in total, or about 800 per pilot and navigator. Of the 1,00 pilots, they only lost 30. 24 of the flyers were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Despite being the most highly decorated unit in the Soviet Air Force during the war, the Night Witches regiment was disbanded six months after the end of World War II. And when it came to the big victory-day parade in Moscow, they weren’t included—because, it was decided, their planes were too slow.
So after 4 years of fighting for Mother Russia, the communists government rewarded their heroism by ignoring their valuable service. Just like communists. Once you served their purpose, they forget what you did for them. 
So who was making the sandwiches while this foolishness was going on?
this piece is trying to say they unfairly or unjustly ignored the women, but then refutes itself by saying communism does that to everyone it uses up and discards.
they were actually treated equally, communism does this to everyone. nothing to complain about. there are plenty more groups of soviet men discarded that no one has ever heard about, that have never gotten one inch of press.
In the Flying Heritage Collection (Paine Field Everett WA), that was founded by Paul G Allen, there is a fully restored “Nightwitch” era Polikarpov U-2/Po-2
http://flyingheritage.org/Explore/The-Collection/Russia/Polikarpov-U-2-Po-2.aspx
Food, what food? The only ones eating were those foolishly dying for Stalin. Everyone one else was expendable.
And they though it was bad under the Tzar. LOL.
One of the reasons Hitler was able to advance so far so fast was because Stalin was busy killing his own people in the 30’s to consolidate his power.
When Hitler came a calling, anyone who didn’t like Stalin’s rule were already dead or starving to death. That meant many who knew how to fly planes were already eliminated, because they were smart enough to know this Stalin guy was as crazy as Hitler.
Thanks.
I wrote it.
Basically, you are correct, but it’s a fact they refused to recognize their sacrifice for the war like they did for the men.
However, they still needed the men for their expansion across Eastern Europe, but the women were expendable and unneeded.
they’ve done the same thing to many different groups of men there as well
as you say thats what communism does
not saying its right, but they were treated equally as every group of men never recognized there
I would gladly make some of them sandwiches.
Even cook breakfast for them.
Brave Ladies.
Both Hitler and Stalin were monsters but Hitler was worse.
He wanted to exterminate the Russian people so they had no choice but to fight with everything they had.
That said, Stalin was a bast*d who probably murdered more people than Hitler.
Hope they enjoy hell together.
Attractive young women...did they put all the homely ones in the back?
In spite of all we did in Wwii the Russians did considerably more of the the heavy lifting.
If you are down to eating bread made from half flour and half sawdust and boiled shoe leather, not much demand for sandwiches.
Sabaton did a song “Night Witches”.
bookmark
bookmark
they became crucial to the Soviets winning their portion of the war against Germany.
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Good Grief man, do you have any idea what the Russians did? They were the largest part of the war - and would have overrun Germany without the allied ground forces or D-Day. Did you ever read about the Battle of Kursk where hundreds of thousands of Russians died in that single battle? 26,400,000 Russian died in combat with the Germans. Their part - gees!
There was a wonderful TV series about those heroines...
In part, it started because women supposedly have better night vision than men...
A Russian woman was the Soviets top sniper...
150,000 Russian women & children (working 8-hrs per day, 7-days per week) dug the trenches/tank traps/pill boxes around Leningrad...
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