With permission, I am sharing a post I recently stumbled upon at A Mighty Girl. I know military romance readers, who are always looking for strong female heroines, will enjoy hearing about these inspiring ladies and their place in history. There are also some great links to other sites where you can do more research.
"The Nazis called them 'Night Witches' because the whooshing noise their plywood and canvas airplanes made reminded the Germans of the sound of a witch’s broomstick. The Russian women who piloted those planes, onetime crop dusters, took it as a compliment. In 30,000 missions over four years, they dumped 23,000 tons of bombs on the German invaders, ultimately helping to chase them back to Berlin. Any German pilot who downed a “witch” was awarded an Iron Cross.
These young heroines, all volunteers and most in their teens and early 20s, became legends of World War II but are now largely forgotten. Flying only in the dark, they had no parachutes, guns, radios or radar, only maps and compasses. If hit by tracer bullets, their planes would burn like sheets of paper."
So begins a NY Times tribute to one of the most famous "Night Witches," Nadezhda Popova, who flew 852 missions during the war, including 18 in a single night. She passed away in 2013 at the age of 91. To read about Popova's incredible life story and learn more about these largely forgotten heroines of WWII, visit
http://nyti.ms/JbnOMC
While there aren't any books available for young readers about these courageous women, there are several books for older readers about the role of Russian women combat pilots during WWII including "Flying for Her Country: The American and Soviet Women Military Pilots of World War II" (
http://amzn.to/1mTMad9), "Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II" (
http://amzn.to/15qK7JD), "Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat" (
http://amzn.to/1fyPOs8), "A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II" (
http://amzn.to/1jJb79N), "Red Sky, Black Death: A Soviet Woman Pilot's Memoir of the Eastern Front" (
http://amzn.to/NhxvM4).
This is a marvellous Piece . Read it before just goes to show how heroic woman Really are.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Julie. It is an amazing piece of history. I thought it was worth repeating, and sharing!
DeleteAbsolutely
DeleteAwesome post! Very intriguing. Gonna check out these women's stories for sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer. What I wouldn't give to meet them. Funny how we are never told of these women. Our own women had to wait so long to gain recognition as pilots.
Delete