Who Were The Soviet Night Witches?

Soviet pilot Nina Raspopova knew her plane had been hit — anti-aircraft guns had blown away the bottom of the cockpit and her legs dangled over the open space. She was wounded and blood dripped down her limbs. Then, German searchlights targeting Raspopova’s plane blinded her. For a moment, she wasn’t sure which direction she was flying, though she knew she couldn’t crash in enemy territory.

In the distance, Raspopova saw a faint sparkle: the floodlight on her regiment’s runway. She directed the plane toward that direction and glided into neutral territory. After a rough landing, she walked with her navigator to a Soviet camp. Hours later, she sat on a bench and waited her turn for surgery.

That was in December 1942. Within months, Raspopova was back in the cockpit.

Raspopova and her co-pilot were members of the Soviet 588th Air Regiment, a deadly, all-female squadron of bombers during ...