The all-female ‘Night Witches’ bomber unit of WWII

On 8 October 1941, after the famed aviator Marina Raskova had personally petitioned Stalin, the USSR authorised three women’s aviation regiments.

The first of these was the 588th, which was trained at the Engels Military Aviation School, near Saratov on the Volga, before entering combat in June 1942.

It was made up entirely of female pilots and navigators, with mostly female support staff.

Under the leadership of Major Yevdokiya Bershanskaya, the regiment recruited women from civilian flying clubs and trained them for the demands of combat operations.

They shortened peacetime courses to a few months, which included hard night navigation, cross-country flights, and low-level approach practice.

Many of the recruits already had flying experience, yet the war required them to master the challenges of military aviation under the pressure of an advancing enemy. 

From the outset, the regiment operated the Polikarpov Po-2 biplane, a wooden and fabric aircraft first designed as a trainer in the late 1920s.

Despite its limited bomb load, the aircraft proved reliable and easy to repair, and pilots found its handling to be very agile in the air.

With a maximum speed of roughly 150 km/h and a typical bomb load of 100–300 kg on external racks, the Po-2 carried no armour or radio, and early in the war most crews did not carry parachutes, partly due to shortages and to save weight.

Against German fighters, the Po-2’s slow speed and low altitude at night worked in its favour, as it was slower than the stall speed of most enemy aircraft, which made interception difficult.

In many missions, the Night Witches cut their engines as they approached their targets, and they glided silently before they released their bombs and then restarted the engines to escape.

They usually attacked singly or in a sequence, and they sometimes used decoy tactics so that one aircraft that glided released their payload while others drew searchlights and flak attacks away.

Among German troops, the eerie sound of wind in the bracing wires gave rise to the image of broomsticks in flight, which is why they gained the nickname “Night Witches”.

During the summer of 1942, the regiment began combat operations on the southern front to provide vital air support during the Battle of the Caucasus, which lasted from August 1942 to October 1943.

On many nights, crews flew several sorties, often eight to twelve, and they returned to base to refuel and rearm before they headed back into the air.

On one night, Nadezhda Popova flew eighteen seperate attack missions. This was all done without the typical radio contant, so they navigated with maps and compasses, all while strapping important charts to their knees.

They also timed their missions using stopwatches. Since they had to fly in open cockpits the freezing temperatures forced them to wear multiple layers of clothing and oversized men’s uniforms and boots. 

Over time, the regiment built an impressive combat record. In 1943, after operations over the Kuban bridgehead and the Taman Peninsula, the regiment received Guards status and the honorific “Taman,” becoming the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.

By the end of the war, the Night Witches had flown 23,672 combat sorties and dropped over 3,000 tonnes of bombs on enemy supply depots, transport routes, pontoon bridges, and fortified positions.

Their missions disrupted troop movements and weakened defensive lines ahead of major Soviet offensives.

After the Caucasus and Kuban fighting, the regiment supported the liberation of Crimea in 1944, then moved through Belarus and Poland toward the Oder in 1945.

Among the most celebrated members were Nadezhda Popova, who flew about 852 sorties, Irina Sebrova, who completed 1,008, and Yevdokiya Nosal, who became the first pilot in the unit to be posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union after her death in 1943. 

The regiment lost roughly thirty-two women during the war, and there are no well-documented cases in which pilots from the regiment were taken prisoner.

After the war, the regiment disbanded in late 1945. Some veterans continued their careers in aviation, and many returned to civilian life in professions very different from their wartime service.

For her part, Major Yevdokiya Bershanskaya rose to lieutenant colonel and remained a central figure in veterans’ remembrance events.