Night Witches

The regiment flew harassment and precision bombing missions against the German military from 1942 until the end of the war.[6] At its largest, it had 40 two-person crews. The regiment flew over 23,000 sorties, dropping over 3,000 tons of bombs and 26,000 incendiary shells.[7][8] It was the most highly decorated female unit in the Soviet Air Force, with many pilots having flown over 800 missions by the end of the war, and twenty-three having been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Thirty-two of its members died in the war.[9]

The regiment flew in wood-and-canvas Polikarpov U-2 biplanes, a 1928 design intended for use as training aircraft (hence its original uchebnyy designation prefix of "U-") and for crop dusting, which also had a special U-2LNB version for the sort of night harassment attack missions flown by the 588th, and to this day remains the most-produced wood-airframed biplane in aviation history. The plane could carry only two bombs at a time, so eight or more missions per night were often necessary.[10] Although the aircraft was obsolete and slow, the pilots took advantage of its exceptional maneuverability; it also had a maximum speed that was lower than the stall speed of both the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, which made it very difficult for German pilots to shoot down, with the exception of fighter ace Josef Kociok, who grounded the regiment for an entire night by shooting down three or four of their planes on the night of 31 July – 1 August 1943.[11][12][13][14]

This all-female flying squadron was not welcomed into the military with open arms. Many of their male counterparts saw them as inferior and treated them with lack of respect.[15] The women of the regiment were also given hand-me-downs of uniforms and over-sized shoes by the men, as well as rudimentary tools (such as rulers, flashlights, pencils, etc) that lacked the "luxury" that the male soldiers received with their tools (e.g.- radar, guns, radios, etc.)[16]

Members of the regiment were deployed from the Engels Military Aviation School to the Southern Front as part of the 218th Division of the 4th Air Army on 23 May 1942, where they arrived on 27 May.[17]

• 12 June 1942: The regiment's baptism by fire took place on the Southern front in bombings of river crossings on the Mius, Severny Donets, and Don rivers as well as roads in the Sal steppes and Stavropol suburbs.
• August–December 1942: In the Battle of the Caucasus, the regiment defended the city of Vladikavkaz as well as bombing enemy equipment and troops in Digora, Mozdok, and Prokhladnaya.
• January 1943: Assisted in the breakthrough of enemy defensive lines on the Terek River as well as offensive operations against ground troops in the Kuban River valley and Stavropol.
• March – September 1943: Assisted in the breakthrough of the Kuban bridgehead and the liberation of Novorossiysk.
• April – July 1943: Participated in the campaign of aerial warfare over Kuban.
• November 1943 – May 1944: Provided air support to ground troops in the Kerch–Eltigen Operation as part of the Crimean Offensive and in the city of Sevastopol.
• June–July 1944: Bombed enemy fortifications along the Pronya River, helping to take control of Białystok, Cherven, Minsk, and Mogilev in Byelorussia.
• August 1944: Operations over Poland in campaigns to expel the Germans from the cities of Augustów, Warsaw, and Ostrołęka.
• January 1945: Participated in the East Prussian Offensive.
• March 1945: Participated in offensives over Gdynia and Gdansk.
• April – May 1945: Assisted in the Vistula–Oder Offensive.
• 15 October 1945: The regiment was disbanded following the end of the war and service members were demobilized.

Throughout the course of the war the regiment accumulated approximately 23,672 sorties in combat, including in the following battles:[7]

• Battle of the Caucasus – 2,920 sorties
• Kuban, Taman, Novorossiysk – 4,623 sorties
• Crimean Offensive – 6,140 sorties
• Belarus Offensive – 400 sorties
• Poland Offensive – 5,421 sorties
• German Offensive – 2,000 sorties

In total the regiment collectively accumulated 28,676 flight hours, dropped over 3,000 tons of bombs and over 26,000 incendiary shells, damaging or completely destroying 17 river crossings, nine railways, two railway stations, 26 warehouses, 12 fuel depots, 176 armored cars, 86 firing points, and 11 searchlights. In addition to bombings, the unit performed 155 supply drops of food and ammunition to Soviet forces.[7]

Irina Sebrova flew 1,008 sorties in the war, more than any other member of the regiment.

In total, 261 people served in the regiment, of whom 32 died of various causes including plane crashes, combat deaths and tuberculosis. 28 aircraft were written off.[18][19]

On 8 October 1941, Order number 0099 specified the creation of three women's regiments—all personnel from technicians to pilots would be entirely composed of women. The other two regiments were the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which used Yak-1 fighters, and the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, which used twin engine Pe-2 dive bombers. Later the unit received the Guards designation and reorganized as the 125th Guards Bomber AviationRegiment.[24] Although all three regiments had been planned to have women exclusively, none remained all-female.[25] The 586th and 588th Regiments employed male mechanics,[26][27] the 586th because no women had received training to work on the Yakovlev fighter planes before the war. The 586th's woman commander, Major Tamara Aleksandrovna Kazarinova, was replaced by a man, Major Aleksandr Vasilievich Gridnev, in October 1942. The 587th Regiment was originally under the command of Marina Raskova, but after her death in 1943, a male commanding officer, Major Valentin Vasilievich Markov, replaced her. The 587th's Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bombers also required a tall person to operate the top rear machine gun, but not enough women recruited were tall enough, requiring some men to join the aircrews as radio operator and tail gunner.[9][28] The 588th Regiment's staff driver and searchlight operatives were also male.[29][30]

• Luftwaffen-Legion Lettland, a German night harassment unit on the Eastern Front during the war (outside of the usual Störkampfstaffel squadrons and Nachtschlachtgruppe groups for such duties)
• Washing Machine Charlie, the term for Japanese night harassment aircraft during the Guadalcanal Campaign and later
• 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, a Soviet regiment that fought in the Battle of Stalingrad composed predominantly of young female volunteers

• Cottam, Kazimiera Janina (1998). Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co. ISBN 1-58510-160-5.
• Cruz, Alberto (2013). Las brujas de la noche. El 46 Regimiento Taman de aviadoras soviéticas en la II Guerra Mundial (in Spanish). La Caída. ISBN 9788461662296.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Magid, Aleksandr (1960). Гвардейский Таманский авиационный полк (in Russian). Moscow: DOSLAF. OCLC 881535802.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Noggle, Anne (1994). A Dance With Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0890966028. OCLC 474018127.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Pennington, Reina (1997). Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1554-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Rakobolskaya, Irina; Kravtsova, Natalya (2005). Нас называли ночными ведьмами: так воевал женский 46-й гвардейский полк ночных бомбардировщиков. Moscow: University of Moscow Press. ISBN 5211050088. OCLC 68044852.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Sakaida, Henry (2003). Heroines of the Soviet Union: 1941–45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-598-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)