- From the depths of hell in silence
Cast their spells, explosive violence
Russian night time flight perfected
Flawless vision, undetected
(Sabaton)
- In the US and the UK, members of the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps) and the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) numbered in the tens of thousands, where they served as switchboard operators, air traffic controllers, and deployed barrage balloons. They occasionally got close to combat, the UK’s Flying Nightingales who served as air-ambulance nurses, first flew into Normandy just a week after D-Day to evacuate servicemembers injured during the initial assault. Both countries also employed many female aviators as training and cargo pilots, but they were almost all civilian employees of the armed forces unlike members of the WAAC and WAAF.
- Meanwhile, the B-29 was under development in the US.
Built almost entirely by women, men refused to fly it citing safety concerns.
So Paul Tibbets, (who went on to drop Little Boy on Hiroshima) taught a crew of women to fly the aircraft.
The logic being; if women can fly it safely, then surely men can too.
- There is also a (very niche) TTRPG about the Night Witches by Jason Morningstar.
- A beautiful animated short about the Night Witches (artistic, not educational): https://vimeo.com/224657277
by HelloUsername
1 subcomments
- In the Apple TV series "Star City" the head of the KGB surveillance department is referred to as the "Night Witch"
- There's a pretty good depiction of them in David L. Robbins' Last Citadel.
- “An attack technique of the night bombers involved idling the engine near the target and gliding to the bomb-release point with only wind noise left to reveal their presence. Allegedly, German soldiers likened the sound to broomsticks and hence named the pilots "Night Witches".”
That’s an interesting story behind the name.
- Sabaton, a swedish historical power metal band, also wrote a song about these women if you're into that kind of thing.
https://www.sabaton.net/discography/heroes/night-witches/
by stackghost
1 subcomments
- In one of the IL-2 Sturmovik games you could fly the Polikarpov Po-2. It's pretty fun because it can maneuver effectively at a speed below the stall speed of most German fighters, so it's pretty much impossible for them to "saddle up" on you for a tracking shot.
As a result unless the AA batteries get you, or Fritz gets lucky lobbing a Mk 108 shell at you from long range, it's actually pretty safe and effective.
by bebe9494i4
2 subcomments
- [flagged]
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