Flying obsolete Polikarpov Po-2 crop dusters with no radar, parachutes, or radios, women pilots of the Soviet 588th regiment cut their engines near targets to glide silently before dropping bombs, a whooshing sound German soldiers likened to a witch's broom. Their unit, formed under Marina Raskova, flew tens of thousands of missions across the Eastern Front, becoming one of the most decorated in Soviet aviation.
The Po-2 was never meant for combat. A training biplane made of plywood and fabric, it flew so slowly that German fighter planes often stalled trying to match its speed, and its lack of metal parts meant it barely registered on radar. Soviet commanders essentially handed these women outdated crop-dusting planes and told them to fly them into a war, expecting little. The regiment turned the aircraft's weaknesses into a psychological weapon.
Pilots flew in open cockpits through brutal winters, wearing hand-me-down men's uniforms and boots stuffed with newspaper for warmth, carrying only a compass and a map on their knees since instruments frequently froze. On any given night, some crews flew as many as eighteen sorties, cutting the engine on approach to glide in silence before releasing bombs manually, as the aircraft carried no automatic bomb racks.
German soldiers grew so unnerved by the eerie whooshing sound preceding attacks that they awarded any pilot who shot one down an Iron Cross automatically. The Nazis called them Nachthexen, Night Witches, a nickname the women wore with pride. By war's end, the regiment had flown over 23,000 sorties and produced more than two dozen Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Key people: Marina Raskova