Did you know that there were female pilots during World War II, only they weren’t in the U.S.? They were in the Soviet Union. In the spring of 1943, at the height of the war, two pilots, members of the Soviet Air Force were flying their polikarpov PO-2 biplanes, which were flimsily built of plywood and canvas, over a soviet railway junction. It was snowing heavily and the men pilots were sent on to secure a bridge and they were to intercept a lone plane but they were confronted by 42 German bombers and sent their planes into a dive to avoid being hit. They then returned fire directly into the center of the German formation; downing a few planes. Because of the flimsiness of their planes, their maximum speed was lower than the stall speed of the Nazi’s planes, meaning the pilots could out maneuver their crafts more than their attackers.
One of the planes was hit but the pilot was able to bail out safely. People on the ground who witnessed the skirmish ran to her aid. They offered her vodka but she refused. When she took her cap off they were shocked to see that it was a woman pilot, Tamara Pamyathykh, one of the members of the 588th Night Bomber regiment of the Soviet Union. She was sad that she was hit and left her friend Raisa Surnachevskaya still up there fighting the Germans alone. Raisa was also hit but managed to land safely in a snow bank. The 588th was most the most highly decorated female unit in the force flying over 30,000 missions over four years and dropping over 23,000 tons of bombs on invading German armies. There were three other regiments with women in them; the 586th and the 587th. The women ranged in ages 17-26 and flew primarily at night with their flexible planes. The planes were pretty much used for training and crop dusting. The pilots often idled their engines as they neared a target and glided in to release their bombs. The plane could only handle two bombs at a time. They made little noise as they snuck up on their target. The noise reminded the Germans of the sound of a witches broomstick sweeping over them, thus they were called the night witches by the Germans, who feared them.
The Soviet Union was the first nation to allow woman bombers to fly combat missions. These women, with limited technology, flew in the dark at low altitudes with no radar, only maps and compasses. Some from the 586th and 587th worked with the men and had a navigator with them. Their uniforms were hand me downs from the men pilots. The planes had open cockpits which caused frostbit and freezing conditions in the winter. They flew 8 or more missions every night. Still despite all their bravery, they never got the recognition from the male pilots until later on in life; yet they went on to serve their country against the Nazi’s with their very lives same as the men.
Tamara and Raisa went on to live good lives. Raisa passed in 2005 , and Tamara passed in 2012.