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. 
A couple of years ago I binged on Russian films. One of which was about these pilots (title might have been “Night Witches” or something close).
Another great Russian film is the remake of “The Dawns of Ours are Quite”, even better than the 1943 original version
These I think were Star Media productions, on YouTube (don’t know if they’re still up). Both from the early 2000s.
Hitler and Stalin were buddies and attacked Poland together. While the NAZIS were busy hunting down Jews on their side, the Communists murdered all of Poland’s officers and civilian leaders. Why the hell we became allies with the Soviets is a historical sledgehammer to the skull of reason…
In response to a number of posts.
Current Soviet deaths, combat and civilian, during The Great Patriotic War (TGPW) is now 28,000,000.
Female snipers had more patience and tolerated the elements better. The historical fiction book WAR OF THE RATS, which the movie Enemy at the Gates is really based on, is about the sniper Tania Chernova. The Russian movie Battle of Sevestapol, on prime, is about the sniper Ludmilla Pavlichenko.
The Rusdian TV show on prime is NIGHT SWALLOWS. It uses the night witches as the vehicle for the drama series.
That was very interesting. Thanks for posting that video.
Yes, but the Russians were more than happy to sit idly by, while their “ally” Hitler was invading France and bombing Britain.
Russians were more than happy to sit idly by, while their “ally” Hitler was invading France and bombing Britain.
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Germany and Russia were allies at time, which is what allies do. The Russians could have cared less about France or Britain, where they had no interests. And BTW so did the US until Pearl Harbor, after which FDR declared war on Germany.
“because they were too small to show up by either radar, or infrared locators used by German anti-aircraft.”
First I’ve heard of infrared being used in WWII. I’m skeptical.
It’s not Beta its low Gamma even Epsilon !
You forget who the Vice President was when we entered the war. ONE Henry Agard Wallace. You know, the guy who was FRDs Secretary of Agriculture from originally FSRs agriculture Secretary. Hell, it was from the Soviet Union that he learned that you could pay farmers not to grow things. Along with other great communist ideas. Scranton was an avowed Communist to his close friends.
He would have become President, IF, the Democrats had not stopped voting at the convention to resume in the morning. Then the next morning, out of the blue the party put up Truman to be FDRs Vp in his last term. They knew FDR was in bad shape and was all but dead in 1944 during the election.Which would make Wallace the next President after FRDs death.
As the Roosevelt Secretary of Agriculture, he went to the Soviet Union in the late 30’s and fell in love with Communism. They showed him what they wanted him to see, and so he believed that Communism was what we needed to fix our problems.
Then when FDR picked him as his VP in the 1940 election, he was able to convince FRD that Stalin was a great guy who did great things for the Soviet Union. Of course it didn’t help that Truman was also an idiot, because he drove Stalin into creating the Soviet Block by his Marshall Plan. Which put Western Europe at direct odds with thew Soviet Union creating the Cold War.
The Soviet Union was busted, Europe was busted, and if thing were left alone the Soviet Union would have broken up in it’s own civil war. But. NOOOOOO, Truman had to give the Soviet Union a reason to create his own block of nations to counteract the rebuilding Europe and.
Without the Allies, Russia would have lost ...
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Except, the Russian winter killed most of Germany’s crack troops - moreover there were way more Russians than Germans, Germans who where not in the business of forcing their troops into battle like the Russians. It would just have taken longer - Germany was fighting for mere territory, while the Russian were fighting for their homes, families and the Motherland.
The allied aid made the war end quicker. Hitler just did not have the manpower to “wipe out” the Russians. Plus, Russia was simply too big to hold, let alone control.
I’ll let historians argue from here - I have other things to do.
Any predictions where they will lean in future conflicts?
They have admitted it.
It wasn't so much tanks and planes that saved them, but food, trucks (250K), fuel (The US produced 60% of the oil in 1941) and gunpowder. (40% of what the soviets used).
Still the Russian's killed 80+% of the German army and disserve credit for that.
The only coalition that could have defeated the Axis was the Soviet Union, British Empire and the USA and Hitler was dumb enough to get them all aligned and fighting against him.
For anyone who enjoys war movies, I recommend the 1985 Soviet film “Come And See”.
It’s a war film, but it is more disturbing and frightening than any horror film.
It’s based on the real experiences of the screenwriter, Ales Adamovich, during his time fighting with the Partisans in what is now Belarus.
This film is not for the faint hearted and contains extremely disturbing scenes. What the SS Dirlewanger Brigade did to the Belarusians was just as horrific as what their fellow Nazis did to the Jews.
Many Westerners don’t realize that Hitler hated the Slavs just as much as they hated the Jews. The Nazis planned on exterminating the Slavs. It’s a crime that the Slav Holocaust is ignored in schools.
Six Hundred and Twenty Eight Belarusian villages were burned, along with the villagers. One in five Belarusians were killed during the war. That’s atrocious.
I would give you the same answer that Churchill did in 1939.
Actually, they go hand-in-hand. Socialism is an economic system, the dreadful alternative to capitalism, while communism is a political system, the dreadful alternative to a constitutional republic, or democratic state.
A communist political system inevitably fosters a socialist economy.
Hitler was too stupid to realize that had he treated the Russians more humanely, they would have considered him a liberator. Once the Red Army was taken out, then Hitler could have done whatever he wanted. He certainly would have had most Ukrainians support.
“Yes, but the Russians were more than happy to sit idly by, while their “ally” Hitler was invading France and bombing Britain.”
The Soviets supplied the fuel used by the Germans in those campaigns.
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