The Night Witches-Russian Combat Pilots WWII-Heroines of the Soviet Union

By Emma Gee

The Night Witches
Combat Pilots WWII
Heroines of the Soviet Union
By Emma Gee

Eager young Russian women pilots, some of them still teen-agers, fearlessly fly night bombing missions at the Russian front. They fly outdated Polikarpov Po-2 open cockpit biplanes converted to bombers. These courageous night bomber crews drop their payload of bombs relentlessly on the German invaders during the Great Patriotic War of Russia 1941-1945 during WWII. While caught in the blinding searchlights, they face the overwhelming superiority of the Messerschmitt fighter planes of the German Luftwaffe along with the endless barrage of the enemy anti-aircraft guns on every sortie.
At first, the Russian Military turned away the young female volunteers, telling them to go home and help their mothers, but as the German invasion of Russia progresses, they accepted the female pilots to train as combat pilots. As the war rages on, the courageous women demonstrate their resolve, their male counter parts respectfully refer to the highly decorated airwomen of the night bomber regiment as their ‘brave little sisters.’
To the German soldier, they are the Nachthexen, the dreaded ‘Night Witches’ because of the quiet swoosh of the silenced engines of the Po-2 biplanes, which reminds them of the swooshing sound of a witches broom flying through the air. The constant harassment bombing in the dead of the night, leave the Germans with little rest.
Romance at the front is often just a brief encounter, a kiss goodbye with the hopes of meeting again after the war is over. Some of the airwomen meet soldiers, fall in love, and marry, only to find themselves widowed not long afterwards; that is the way of life on the front lines.
The daredevils of the all-woman night bombing regiment fly between 10 and 18 missions a night in any kind of hazardous weather conditions. Many of them receive the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ award, the country’s highest honor, some posthumously, for their awe-inspiring bravery. These courageous young aviators, the only women combat night bombers of WWII, play a significant role in defeating the German invaders and driving them out of their beloved Russia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emma Gee
• Release date: Jan 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311810502

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The Night Witches

Russian Combat Pilots WWII

Heroines of the Soviet Union

By Emma Gee

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015 by Emma Gee

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For the Night Witches, the courageous women pilots and navigators of the 46th Taman Guard Night Bomber Regiment.

Prologue

The Russian Front

WWII

The brave young Russian pilot anxiously flew her Polikarpov Po-2 biplane loaded with deadly bombs toward the German enemy lines. Her heart pounding, blood surging through her veins, the steadfast airwoman firmly gripped the control stick of her Po-2 night bomber.

Fear was her constant companion, death, always just a heartbeat away. Each deadly sortie she flew might be her last, but she vowed to help liberate Russia from the German invaders or die trying. ‘Life is life! War is War!’ thought the bold young pilot as she drew nearer to the battle zone.

The daring teenage pilot gathered up all of her inner strength and raw courage to face the fierce German Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) once again. The tenacious seventeen-year-old pilot zeroed in on the designated objective below.

Her navigator/bombardier/ gunner in the rear cockpit shouted, Now!

Instantly, the pilot shut down the engine of the Po-2, gliding smoothly in silence toward the enemy ammunition dump guarded by German soldiers. The navigator pulled the release pin, dropping their payload of bombs on the target as she screamed at the German soldiers in Russian, Get out of our country, you fascist swine. A few seconds later the navigator shouted Bulls eye! as she pounded the side of the Po-2 with a clenched fist.

The pilot swiftly re-started the engine, gaining altitude as she quickly changed direction away from the horrendous explosion below. A steady stream of Russian Po-2 night bombers followed close behind them to drop their payload of bombs on the enemy encampment. The Germans realized the low flying biplanes had arrived when they heard the ‘swoosh’ caused by the wind blowing through the ailerons (wires between the wings) as they glided overhead low to the ground. Soon, all hell would break loose.

In a blink of an eye, the black heavens illuminated as the blinding beams from the German searchlights cut through the sky scouring the area for the approaching squadrons of Russian Po-2 night bombers.

The deafening barrage from the fascist’s anti-aircraft guns thundered in their ears, as the biplanes pitched and rolled in the criss-crossed beams of the intense stream of light; the small Po-2s caught like flies in a spider’s web. They darted around anti-aircraft shells exploding all around them, as they fell into a sideslip and dove away from the piercing beams of the menacing searchlights. Just when they felt the situation could not get any worse; more trouble arrived.

The imposing German Messerschmitt Me-109s loomed from all directions like giant birds of prey searching for their next quarry. They viciously fired their powerful machine guns as they sought out the smaller Po-2s. The Russian biplanes were slower, but more maneuverable than the faster more powerful German fighter planes.

The Russian pilots, trained in combat evasive maneuvers, could turn sharply in their nimble little planes to elude the speedy Me-109s as they roared by them and then the German fighter planes had to make a wide sweep, returning to attack the Po-2s once again.

When the German pilots reduced speed to get a good shot at the slower flying biplanes, the quicker more powerful fighter planes often went into a stall. The stall speed of the Me-109 was higher than the top speed of the Po-2 biplane. Sometimes, the frustrated German pilots failed to pull the aircraft out of the stall; the Me-109 spiraled downward towards the ground bursting into flames on impact. The more experienced pilots were able to pull the fighter plane out of the stall, exasperated with their failure to shoot down the little biplanes; they ruthlessly continued to pursue the Russian Po-2s with vengeance on their minds.

The superior German pilots had not trained to engage in aerial combat with these inferior slow flying biplanes. They trained for challenging dogfights with other fighter planes like the British Spitfire. They felt that chasing these inferior little crop dusters around the sky was a waste of their time, but they had to obey their orders.

In the rear cockpit of the Po-2, the vigilant navigator/bombardier/gunner/ held her lithe fingers at the ready position on the machine gun installed in the Po-2. Her watchful eyes darted in all directions, on the lookout for the deadly enemy fighter planes. The rear-mounted machine gun of the Russian biplane operated by the navigator burst into action firing rounds at the enemy fighter planes as they raced by the Po-2 leaving the lightweight biplane bobbing in its slipstream.

The chaotic surroundings could mean sudden death for the Russian airwomen at any moment, but they continued to fight valiantly to achieve victory for the people of Russia. The dedicated women night bombers carried on with the mission, their minds sharp, their eyes wide open, with sheer determination in their hearts; their lives depended on it.

Surrounded by the maelstrom of exploding anti-aircraft shells, machine gun blasts riddling their fuselage, blinding searchlights scanning the skies, and the Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter planes of the mighty German Luftwaffe pursuing them viciously, the Russian airwomen never wavered.

The Polikarpov Po-2 biplane

Several minutes into the battle, one of the wooden and canvas biplanes hit by a spray of bullets from a Me-109, exploded, erupting into flames. The courageous crew had successfully bombed the blinding searchlights, turning the sky to blackness once again, but it was too late for the Po-2, the biplane broke up and fell to the ground in seconds. Two more brave sisters of their regiment had perished.

The women pilots and navigators were accustomed to flying and navigating in the dark skies; they had trained to fly at night and now they had acquired plenty of experience. They flew between ten and eighteen sorties every night close to the front lines. The stanch airwomen had not had a rest for months.

The nauseating smell of exploded shells from the enemy anti-aircraft barrage lingered in the air of the cold dark sky. The intoxicating odor filled the open cockpits of the Russian Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes causing the aircrews to choke and gasp for air.

Each pilot and navigator carried a pistol to make sure the ruthless German fascists did not take any of them as prisoners to be tortured to death if they survived a crash landing. The orders were clear, if capture by the Germans appeared imminent; shoot as many fascists as possible with the pistol, but save the last bullet to use as a quick, less painful end to their own life.

The airwomen heard stories of how the vicious fascists treated woman prisoners. They preferred a quick painless death, rather than a prolonged agonizing end to their lives. Surrender was not an option. The Russian military automatically labelled anyone who yielded to the fascists as a traitor. The pilots and navigators believed it was better to die a heroine, than be remembered as a collaborator by the people of their beloved Russia.

Suddenly, the pilot felt a sharp pain in her head, a sticky substance covered her eyes; it was difficult to see. She tried to wipe it away with her hand, as she shouted to her navigator, but she did not answer.

The pilot felt dizzy as her Po-2 rapidly dove to the ground. She pulled back hard on the control stick, the plane started to respond as she levelled out, but it was too late. She braced herself for impact. As the biplane hit the ground with a horrendous thud, an extremely sharp pain shot up her spine. The Po-2 came to an abrupt halt as it smashed into a grove of small trees and heavy bush.

The pilot was barely conscious as she struggled to unfasten the straps of her pilot’s seat. She could smell fuel; bullets must have ruptured the fuel tank, she thought. Taking a deep breath, she reached for a handkerchief in her tunic pocket to wipe her eyes.

Again, she called to her navigator; still no reply. She felt a severe pain in her neck as she slowly turned her head in extreme agony to check her navigator in the rear cockpit. The navigator’s dead green eyes stared blankly back at her. In the blood-splattered interior of the rear cockpit, the navigator’s hand still rested on the machine gun. The pilot felt a twinge in her heart for the death of her navigator, her sister in combat.

The pilot swallowed a lump of bile in her throat as she suppressed a wave of nausea. Blood streamed down her face. Her head hurt like hell. Instinctively, she felt for her pistol; she unfastened the clasp of the holster. Fear gripped her, at any minute her aircraft could explode; she had to get out. She did not want to burn to death; the Po-2 would not be her funeral pyre. With a great deal of effort, she dragged herself from the cockpit and crawled painfully onto the wing. Her strength gone, she slid to the hard ground and crawled desperately away from the aircraft, as the sun slowly started to rise, inching its way over the horizon.

She rolled onto her side as she reached for her pistol. It was gone! Oh no, she sighed weakly as she drifted into unconsciousness.

The pilot awoke in a daze with a German jackboot pressed hard against her chest; a pair of evil eyes stared down at her smugly as he pointed a German Luger pistol at her forehead. The sun stung her eyes as she glared back defiantly at the fascist devil. She could not breathe. Then everything went black.

Chapter 1

Nazi Germany

Adolf Hitler’s Master Plan

In 1913, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler moved to Munich, Germany where he had inherited his father’s estate. At the outbreak of World War 1, Hitler volunteered for the Bavarian Army as an Austrian citizen in 1914 because he did not want to join the Austrian Army for the reason that it permitted a ‘mixture of races’ within its ranks.

Lance Corporal Hitler served as a dispatch runner on the western front of France and Belgium where he received a wound in the left thigh during the battle of the Somme when a shell exploded in his dugout. After two months in hospital, he returned to the front where mustard gas temporarily blinded him. Hitler, a decorated veteran of WW1, received the Iron Cross first class and second class as well as the Black Wound Badge.

After the war, Hitler began his rise to power as the leader of the German Workers’ Party. He blamed the humiliation of the loss of the war on the Jews; he denounced democracy and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy. Hitler gained the popularity of the German people when he criticized the restrictions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles signed by the Allies, Britain, France, United States, and Italy at the Palace of Versailles January 18, 1919 after the end of WW1. The Treaty of Versailles ordered Germany to demilitarize and relinquish some of its territories after Germany lost the war.

In November1923, Hitler as leader of the German Workers Party, a predecessor of the Nazi Party, led a coup in Munich, to seize power, referred to as the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ or the ‘Munich Putsch’. Hitler, charged with treason, served nine months of a five-year sentence in prison where he wrote his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). The book, edited by his fellow prisoner Rudolf Hess, was an outline of Hitler’s political ideology and plans for the future of Germany.

After the failed coup in Munich and imprisonment, Hitler decided to take a new approach to political power; he used his charismatic oratory ability to spread Nazi propaganda, anti-Semitism, and Pan-Germanism (unification of all German-speaking people in Europe). Hitler’s Nazi Party became the largest elected party in the German Reichstag.

As appointed Chancellor of the Nazi state (also referred to as the Third Reich) in 1933, Hitler pulled Germany out of the League of Nations, further distancing Germany from the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. As the head of the Nazi state, Hitler also became Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Supreme Commander in Chief of German Armed Forces).

Disregarding the terms set out in the Versailles Treaty; by 1938, Hitler had built up the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) from 100,000 to 600,000 strong, increased productions of weapons, aircraft, naval ships, and artillery. Hitler had been gearing up for war, since before his rise to power as dictator of Germany.

Hitler continuously pursued additional ‘lebensraum’ living space for the German people; he declared unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in 1938. He then turned his attention to the ethnic German population (German speaking people living outside Germany) such as the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia bordering Germany.

In February 1938, Hitler entered into an alliance with Japan, a modern and powerful nation; Japan had also departed from the League of Nation in 1933, because of the restrictions imposed on the size of armies. At the same time, Hitler severed the Sino-German economic agreement with China, putting an end to the many raw materials, which China provided to Germany. He halted the arms shipments to China from Germany and recalled the German officers working with the Chinese army. He would have to look elsewhere for the raw materials supplied by China, but China had lost Germany as an Ally. Germany’s alliance with Japan and severed ties with China, gave Japan the advantage with their war on China.

Britain, France, Germany, and Italy signed the Munich Agreement along with Germany at a conference held in Munich; Czechoslovakia was not present at the conference. The Munich Agreement handed the Sudetenland to Hitler as an annexation of Germany in the name of peace. The border area, populated with German speaking citizens was also the location of Czechoslovakia’s border defences as well as banks and heavy industry such as coal, iron, and steel.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared that the Munich Agreement stood for ‘peace of our times’. The Czechoslovakians called it the ‘Munich Betrayal’.

In violation of the Munich Agreement, Hitler ordered the German Armed Forces to invade Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1939. It was an easy takeover for the German troops as they encountered very little resistance from the Czechoslovakian Army. Hitler was not only in search of lebensraum for the German people, but also for raw materials to fuel his Nazi war machine.

In 1939, Hitler and the Nazis conquered Poland with a Blitzkrieg (lightning war) attack, taking hundreds of thousands of prisoners. The Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) implemented ‘Death Camps’ such as Auschwitz in Poland as well as numerous other death camps and labor camps in Germany where the Nazis murdered millions of innocent people that Hitler deemed racially inferior. Rail cars transported countless numbers of condemned Jews from all over Europe to these heinous death camps.

By 1940, Nazi Germany occupied most of Europe, including Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Around the same time, Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy joined forces with Hitler in June 1940.

Britain was next on Hitler’s list of countries to invade in July 1940. The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) tried relentlessly to terrorize the British into surrendering to the Nazis as they continuously dropped countless tons of deadly bombs on the small island of Britain. The skies over Britain turned black with hundreds of German Junkers 88 bombers and Messerschmitt fighter planes as the air raid sirens screeched through the cities warning civilians to take cover in the air raid shelters. Britain sent squadrons of heavy four-engine Halifax and Lancaster bombers on massive air raids to Berlin and other large cities such as Hamburg and Dresden in Germany, in retaliation for the bombing of London.

Britain desperately needed trained pilots to combat the large number of bombers and fighter planes of the Luftwaffe. Civilian women pilots of the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) volunteered to ferry the military aircraft from the factories to the Royal Air Force (RAF) airfields to free up the trained RAF combat pilots for the defence of Britain against the vicious air attacks of the Luftwaffe. Allied air force pilots from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, as well as volunteer American pilots arrived in Britain to join the fight with the RAF against the continuous air raids of the Luftwaffe.

Hitler misjudged the ability of the British RAF Spitfire fighter planes that were faster and more maneuverable than any German fighter planes of the Luftwaffe. The British Hawker Hurricane fighter plane along with the anti-aircraft Bofors guns fought off the German bombers during endless aerial attacks on Britain and its people, while the Spitfire fighter planes furiously engaged in dogfights with the Messerschmitt Me-109s.

Hitler underestimated the unyielding determination of the British people during the Battle of Britain. Churchill, the new Prime Minister of Britain vowed Britain would never surrender to Germany. Hitler’s ‘Operation Sea Lion’, the attempted invasion of Britain had failed.

After an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate the British into surrendering, he then turned his sights on a much larger prize, the Soviet Union of Russia that had much more lebensraum and natural resources than Britain. The plans for the full-scale invasion of Russia were already formulating in Hitler’s evil mind.

Hitler was temporarily side tracked from invading Russia; in April 1941, Germany joined forces with Italy and Bulgaria to invade Greece. The Germans raised the Nazi flag over the Acropolis signifying their victory. A bloody slaughter ensued when a Greek partisan climbed the flagpole at night and tore down the Nazi flag; the Nazis retaliated by executing thousands of partisans. The Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) rounded up the Jews for deportation by train to death camps, over 60,000 Jewish people in Greece died at the hands of the Nazis.

Chapter 2

Operation Barbarossa

The Invasion of Russia

June 1941

Adolf Hitler, Chancellor the Third Reich, and Fuhrer of Nazi Germany was also the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Supreme Commander in Chief of German Armed Forces). Hitler summoned his generals to a meeting around the huge wooden oval conference table at the new Reich Chancellery building in Berlin, Germany. In 1933, a suspicious fire caused extensive damaged to the old Reichstag building, where the government of the country convened before Hitler took over as Chancellor with his fascist party.

Hitler considered the Reichstag building a symbol of the Social Democratic Party; he decided not to have it restored. Instead, he had the new Reich Chancellery building constructed with a fifty-five foot deep air raid shelter (Fuhrerbunker) built underneath.

Hitler had signed a Non-aggression Pact with Russia in August 1939. Two years later, Hitler could utilize his newly acquired armies and weapons of the countries the German Forces now occupied to aid with the invasion of Russia.

The full-scale invasion of Russia, code name ‘Operation Barbarossa’ was named after a heroic German, Frederick Barbarossa, a Roman Emperor and King of Germany from 1152-1190. When Barbarossa, also known as red-beard died; according to legend, he was not actually dead, but sleeping. One day he would awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness. Hitler thought Barbarossa was an apt name for the operation.

Hitler, as the Supreme Commander in Chief of the German Forces self-importantly presented his plan Operation Barbarossa to his generals. The generals viewed the large maps of Russia and the surrounding countries spread out across the huge table; they listened intently to the Fuhrer’s plans.

Hitler had recently returned from his retreat in the Berchtesgaden located in the Bavarian Alps where he had developed the plan for the operation of the invasion of Russia.

Hitler needed Russia’s oil fields and other natural resources for his master war plans. His numerous Panzer tanks, aircraft of the Luftwaffe as well as other military vehicles and equipment could not function without a massive amount of oil. The large land mass of Russia would give the German people a great deal of lebensraum for the German master race. Hitler’s plan called for the extinction of the entire Russian population through slave labor, starvation and murder of every man, woman, and child.

Hitler carefully planned ‘Operation Barbarossa’ strategically with the purpose of crushing Russia within ten weeks. His strategy for the invasion of Russia entailed dividing his army into three groups; Army Group North would advance on Leningrad, previously named Petrograd in 1924, but originally called Saint Petersburg, the second largest city in the Soviet Union. The Germans would advance from the south of Leningrad, while the Finnish Army attacked from the north.

Army Group Center would march on the cities of Minsk, Smolensk, and the capital city of Moscow. Hitler felt that the rapid capture of Moscow, the heart of the Nation, would result in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Army Group South along with the army of Romanian would launch an offensive on the Caucasus, the Ukraine, and the Crimea to besiege Rostov and the oil wells. The Nazi SS would follow behind the troops to