“The Night Witches”: The Soviet Air Force’s Deadliest Female Bomber Pilots
The Night Witches used the Polikarpov PO-2 to make life miserable for Wehrmacht ground troops.
As part of its Women’s History Month coverage, The National Interest is publishing a multi-part series honoring some of history’s most badass female warriors. We started off with the deadliest female sniper in history, the Red Army’s Lyudmila Pavlichenko of World War II (or as even the post-Soviet era Russians still prefer to call, “the Great Patriotic War,” and, sticking with the same country and war, in part II we covered a couple of Pavlichenko’s aerial warrior counterparts in the Soviet Air Force, Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak and Yekaterina “Kayta” Budanova, the only two women in history to become fighter pilot aces.
For part III, we’ll stick with the WWII Soviet Air Force, only this time we’re not merely going to discuss a couple of individual heroines, but an entire unit of them, and this time, we’ll be discussing bomber pilots as opposed to fighter pilots. Say “privyet (hello)” to the 588th Night Bomber Squadron (later known as 46th “Taman” Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment), immortalized in history by their nickname, “The Night Witches.”
So, Who Exactly Were the Night Witches?
To answer that question, we turn to former Sunday Times of London journalist Russell Miller in his 1984 book The Soviet Air Force at War, part of Time-Life Books’s excellent book series The Epic of Flight:
“Partly out of need, partly out of a sense of Communist egalitarianism, the Soviet Air Force in World War II was the only major arm to allow women to fly in combat units. … Some of the bravest women fliers belonged to the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. The Night Witches, as they were known, were equipped with slow PO-2 biplanes (pages 94-95); nevertheless, in the course of the War they flew no fewer than 24,000 sorties over enemy lines, dropping 23,000 tons of bombs. Their casualties were high—and so were their honors. Of the 30 citations of Hero of the Soviet Union awarded Air Force women, 23 went to the Night Witches.”
The unit was commanded by Podpolkóvnik (lieutenant colonel) Yevdokia Davidovna Bershanskaya (1913-1982), the only woman to receive the Order of Suvorov.
Incidentally, the sobriquet of “Night Witches” was not self-bestowed, nor was it conjured up by their male tovarishiy (“comrades”). Rather, it was their Nazi German adversaries, the ones at the receiving end of their bombing raids. In order to approach their targets stealthily, these aviatrixes would shut down their engines and glide over the Wehrmacht camps. The sound of the bombers’ gliding was likened to that of a witch flying on a broomstick by the frazzled, sleep-deprived Germans, who conjured up the nickname “Nachthexen,” i.e., Night Witches.
To provide our readers an additional sense of appreciation of just how daring the “Nachthexen” were, the infamous frigidity of the Russian winter sometimes jammed a Po-2’s ordnance release mechanisms, meaning the aircraft’s navigator would reportedly have to climb out onto the wings to kick the bombs free. In spite of these challenges, some of the pilots flew over 1,000 combat sorties.
The Proverbial “Broomstick” the Night Witches Flew: the PO-2
Packing ordnance far deadlier than a black cat’s teeth and claws, the Polikarpov PO-2 (NATO reporting name “Mule”) was the conveyance the Night Witches used to make life miserable for Wehrmacht ground troops. This warbird made its maiden flight on June 24, 1927, and was officially introduced into the service of the Rodina (“Motherland”) in 1929. Remarkably, the plane remained in production until 1959, well into the Jet Age (ergo long enough to earn a NATO reporting name).
To cite Miller again:
“Of all the aircraft utilized by the Soviet Air Force in World War II, the oldest, slowest—and most widely useful—was the dumpy little PO-2. A highly maneuverable biplane with a top speed of 81 mph, the PO-2 was designed by Nikolai Polikarpov in 1927 as an inexpensive, easy-to-fly basic trainer … Serving in new roles during the War, the versatile PO-2 performed splendidly as a scout plane, artillery spotter, courier, transport, target tow, and ambulance … So annoying were the nightly visitors that the Germans coined a[n additional] sardonic nickname: ‘duty sergeants.’”
Besides the aforementioned speed, the PO-2’s tech specs and vital stats (courtesy of the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has an airworthy “Mule” in its collection) included:
- Crew: Two (Pilot, Gunner/Observer)
- Fuselage Length: 26 ft. 11 in.
- Wingspan: 37 ft. 5 in.
- Empty Weight: 1,698 lbs.
- Loaded Weight: 2,976 lbs.
- Powerplant: One Shvetsov M-11P five-cylinder, air-cooled, radial piston engine, generating 125 hp
- Range: 390 miles
- Service Ceiling: 9,800 ft
- Rate of Climb: 547 ft./min. initial
- Armament:
- Guns: One rear-facing 7.62 mm machine gun in a flexible mount at the back of the rear cockpit
- Bombs: Up to six 110 lb. bombs on lower wing racks
With an estimated 30,000 airframes built, the PO-2 was the most abundant biplane in aviation history.
Looking Ahead … and Disclaimer
Yes, this series has covered all Soviet military women thus far. However, this should in no way be construed as an endorsement of Stalinism on the part of the author of The National Interest in general. However, speaking as a military veteran myself, the warrior ethos enables me to recognize battlefield bravery regardless of nationality, ideology, or gender.
That soapbox rant aside, for the sake of being “fair and balanced,” our remaining two installments in this series will cover a Romanian and an American female warrior. Stay tuned, dear readers.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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