Author: Rainbow Kursk
Recently, I saw the anime PO master "Yorktown CV-5" draw the girls of the 588th Night Flight Regiment of the Soviet Air Force - Ania, Natasha and Tonya, standing in front of their beloved fighter planes.
"We are the silent blizzard,
A gust of crane chirping rolled up the wind
In the clouds, he is not afraid to sacrifice to fight for the country
We have integrated into the skyline of our homes"
- "Songs Echo in the Sky"
In the eyes of their families and lovers, they are young and beautiful girls; in the eyes of their comrades-in-arms, they are the colorful clouds of the sky and the birdsong of spring; and in the eyes of their enemies, they are witches in the night sky, nightmares of their enemies!
In the Great Patriotic War, there was such a Soviet air force, composed entirely of women.
On October 8, 1941, in accordance with Order No. 99 of the People's Commissariat for National Defense, the Red Army formed the 122nd Air Brigade, which had three women's flying regiments— the 586th, 587th, and 588th, while the 3 regiments that were intended to be composed of all women were finally all women.
Due to the lack of materials and weapons during the war, the Red Army was not able to equip these female fighters with advanced fighters, but gave the old-fashioned Polykapov Po-2 biplane trainer to the girls, asking them not to learn to fly, but to bring bombs to bomb the Germans!
Image: The Bo-2 trainer known for its slowness.
The Bo-2 trainer aircraft entered service in 1929 with an all-wood structure, served as a junior trainer aircraft in the Soviet Air Force and major aviation clubs, and after the outbreak of war, this backward biplane must also go to the battlefield!
The characteristics of the machine are obvious, that is, slow! When the bomb was not loaded, the maximum flight speed was only 94 knots, or 174 km / h, which was not much faster than today's cars.
But the advantage of slowness is also more obvious, that is, girls are safer to drive, can maintain flight at very low speeds, almost no stall at all, even if the propeller does not turn, it can fall like a glider.
It is a good companion for traveling at home and killing enemies!
Image: The slow-flying Bo-2 was known to the Germans as the broomstick of the witch.
However, the girls of the 588th Regiment did not dislike their wooden planes at all, and quietly flew over the front of the battlefield at night, sneaking into the German barracks, bringing fear and death to the fascists.
The 588th Regiment was a night flying regiment, mainly after receiving a request for front-line support at night, taking off with small bombs, closing the engine and gliding close to the target after approaching the war zone, and turning on the engine to climb back to the ship after the bombing was completed.
The wooden structure and cloth skin of the Bo-2 aircraft were almost synonymous with stealth aircraft under the imperfect radar of the year, and the Bo-2 was almost never detected by german lookout posts in the moonless night sky after the engines and navigation lights were turned off.
In this way, the girls flew the Bo-2 planes to constantly attack and harass, so that the German soldiers could not sleep at night, the nerves were highly nervous and even collapsed. The 100-horsepower engine equipped with the Bo-2 emits a "whizzing" sound when flying at low altitudes, known as the broom sound of witches by the neurasthenic Germans, which is also the source of the 588 regiment's nickname "Night Witches", and this terrible sound also accompanied the German army throughout the war.
In October 1943, the 588th Regiment was awarded the title of 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Flying Regiment. Throughout the war, the 588th Regiment fired more than 24,000 sorties and dropped more than 3,000 tons of bombs, with 23 girls in the regiment awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" and 12 receiving the Order of the Red Banner.
And these are all bought with the blood of the hanging ladies, and there are 40 double crews in the whole regiment, of which 31 are sacrificed by the country. On the night of the worst losses, 4 Wave-2s were shot down!
Here we use comics to pay tribute to these "witches"! They are real heroes!