Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Night Witches

Starting point is 00:00:00 In the dark skies over the eastern front of World War II, the Soviet Union deployed one of the most unusual and effective combat units of the war, the Night Witches. Officially the 588th night bomber regiment, the unit flew outdated fragile biplanes on nighttime harassment missions against German forces, cutting their engines to glide silently towards their targets before dropping bombs. But perhaps more notably, the regime was entirely composed of women. Learn more about the night witches. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison.

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Starting point is 00:01:10 down the right-wing cult spiral in a search for salvation. The Night Witches, or the 588th Nightbomber Regiment, were an all-female group of aviators for the Soviet Union during World War II. The regime was formed by Marina Ruskova, the first female navigator in the history of the Soviet Air Force. Ruskova was one of the most famous aviators in the Soviet Union and a central figure in the creation of the all-female combat units of World War II. Born in 1912, she began her career in aviation as a navigator and quickly gained national prominence in the 1930s after setting several long-distance flight records, including a highly publicized non-stop flight across the Soviet Union that made her a household name. Her achievements earned her the title

Starting point is 00:01:59 Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the country's highest honors, and gave her rare political influence in a male-dominated field. Because of these accolades, Roscova was a celebrity and often compared to the American Amelia Earhart. This level of respect gave Roscova personal connections to leadership in the USSR, specifically Joseph Stalin. Stalin had been impressed by her aviation skills, perception with the public, and had a desire to promote women in the military as part of Soviet propaganda. Roscova used this position to petition Stalin to allow her to form a women's fighting squadron during World War II. Roscova had been getting letters from women in the Soviet Union who wanted to join the war effort. The Soviet Constitution

Starting point is 00:02:41 technically said that women had the same civil rights as men. A female soldier was viewed, at least for propaganda purposes, as an example of this Soviet ideal. But despite the lofty rhetoric, traditional beliefs about women were still prevalent in Soviet society. Women were discouraged from acting in perceived manly roles, especially when it came to the military. As a result, when women did join the military, they're often assigned to support roles. So despite equality, women were rarely found in the front line and were not allowed to join the Air Force. Roscova wanted to change that. And when the Nazis invaded, Stalin gave her a chance.

Starting point is 00:03:20 The conflict between the Soviets and the Nazis sparked by the invasion of the Soviet Union was a brutal example of total warfare, where the lines between civilian and military were blurred or were non-existent. At the start of the invasion, the Nazis were prevailing and inflicting staggering losses on Soviet troops and resulting in the displacement of millions of people and the loss of significant amounts of Soviet territory. As the war dragged on, Stalin became desperate, so he gave an order to accept women into combat roles, though this was more for necessity than real equality. As a result, he gave Roscova permission to deploy three all-female Air Force units. Women in Roscova's group would be allowed to become pilots, support staff, and engineers.

Starting point is 00:04:05 These units would be the first time that a nation would allow women to officially engage in combat in a modern mechanized war. If you remember back to my episode on Ludmila Palvichenko, she was one of the top Soviet snipers of the war and exemplified this policy of allowing women in combat roles. Raskova created the three teams by choosing from a pool of 2,000 applicants. They were required to have a year of intense training to learn to fly, navigate, and maintain their aircraft. And a year may sound like a long time, but the usual training normally took several months to complete anyhow. As there had been no women in the Air Force prior, they were given men's old uniforms, and these uniforms were almost always too big. Their boots would often

Starting point is 00:04:49 have to have bedding stuffed inside of them just to keep them on their feet. When given their planes and navigational tools, many of the women actually decided to add a feminine touch by painting flowers on them. When completing their training, the women were assigned to one of three groups. The best aviators would be members of the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment. The second best would be in the 587th bomber aviation unit, and the worst in the training program would be assigned to the 58th night bomber aviation regiment. And that's right, the night witches were the worst of the class, but ended up being the most feared. The night witches were led by another woman, Major Yevdochia Berkenshaya. Major Berkenshaya had attended the Batyak School of Pilots. After graduating in 1931,

Starting point is 00:05:36 she trained other pilots before being assigned as commander of the 28th. Special Operations Aviation Squadron. Berkoshaya was chosen to lead the 58th Nightbarmar Regiment due to work qualifications. As part of an all-female crew, they, along with the other female regiments, faced disparities and disadvantages compared to their male counterparts. They were given less respect and worse equipment, faced skepticism and sexual harassment from their male counterparts, and were given old out-of-date planes due to a lack of supplies.

Starting point is 00:06:07 The women would fly in Pollycarpaw of POTube biplanes, that were already outdated by the start of the war. They were essentially used as cromp dusters and training aircraft by this point. These were made with plywood and had a canvas stretched over them. Basically, if the plane was hit, there was a good chance it would burst into flames. Additionally, they had no parachutes because adding them would have added too much weight to the plane. They were not given any modern navigation tools, so the best they could do is rely on maps. The cockpit was also open, leaving the pilot and a navigator,

Starting point is 00:06:40 to the elements. Another danger is that the plane was slow, maxing out at just 90 miles per hour and could only carry two bombs. And because the bombs were so heavy, the women were forced to fly low to the ground so they would be easily spotted. This led many of the women to describe their planes as a coffin with wings. Their only defense is that they would fly at night to try to mitigate their obvious disadvantages. However, there were some advantages. Because the plane was so light, it was easily maneuverable, making it hard to land a direct hit. Because it was made of wood and small, it wouldn't show up on German radar or infrared detection systems. The women without radios couldn't be picked up by radio detectors.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Also, because the planes were slow and maneuverable, they could take off and land from almost anywhere, allowing attacks to be coordinated from anywhere. They were basically ghosts that were almost impossible for the Nazi. to detect. And even if they were detected, their slow speed worked in their favor against other airplanes. Because they were slower than the German planes could fly, it was difficult for the German planes to engage in aerial combat with them. Because they conducted night raids and were almost undetectable, the night witches had a massive psychological impact on the Germans, who needed to be prepared all night long and therefore ended up getting less sleep. The main strategy that the

Starting point is 00:08:09 night witches used was flying in sorties, of which they would usually run multiple every night. They would leave their base, fly in groups of eight to 18 planes, drop their two bombs, return to base, refuel, and start all over again. This strategy was effective because the Germans would defend using searchlights and guns that the witches would need to get through to hit the targets. However, the night witches would often fly in small groups of three. This was effective because when they would near the spotlights, two of the planes would fly through the lights and then veer away from the target. As the guns followed those planes,

Starting point is 00:08:44 the third would fly forward. To remain undetected, the third plane would kill its engine and then drift to the target. The gliding plane was said to make a sound like a whoosh similar to that of a sweeping broom. After dropping their two bombs, the pilot would then turn the engine on and then switch places with one of the other three planes. And this would repeat until all the bombs were dropped and they could fly back to the base and reload. The mission of the night witches was to disrupt German morale by ruining their sleep while trying to hit important targets. The wishing sound, the difficulty in spotting the unit, and the fact that they were women, resulted in the German soldiers nicknaming the unit, Nakh Hexen, or Night Witches.

Starting point is 00:09:26 The Germans felt that women serving in military roles was a laughable idea, so it was meant to be derogatory. If the Germans captured female Soviet soldiers, they would often publish photos of the prisoners along side images of German women to show the people back home the differences between feminine German and masculine Soviet women. While the name Night Witches was intended to be derogatory, when the women in the unit found out they proudly embraced the title. Despite looking down upon the women, the Germans did feel their impact. The witch's ability to disrupt supply lines, ruin infrastructure, and destroy morale became such a massive problem for the Germans that any German soldier who shot down a Night Witch would automatically be awarded the Iron Cross.

Starting point is 00:10:11 There was no one significant battle that is associated with the Night Witches. Their heroic stem from their constant non-stop bombardment of German forces. This made them the most decorated female unit in the entire Soviet Air Force. By the end of the war, the witches had flown 2,672 combat sorties. As a collective, the unit would complete 28,676 flight hours. They dropped the total of 3,000 tons of bombs and 26,000 incendiary shells. The results were that they managed to destroy or damage 17 river crossings, nine railways, two railway stations, 26 Nazi warehouses, 12 fuel depots, 86 prepared firing positions, and 11 searchlights. In addition, the unit a 155 supply drops to Soviet troops, which provided troops on the ground with much-needed food

Starting point is 00:11:06 and ammunition. By the end of the war, the Night Witches had lost 32 pilots from their 261 total members. As the unit proved its ferocity and bravery, it gained respect inside the Soviet Union. Of the 89 women who received the country's highest honor, the hero of the Soviet Union, 22 were members of the Night Witches. However, despite their heroic efforts, the women weren't part of any Soviet victory parade because their planes literally flew too slowly. Marina Roscova, who was responsible for the creation of the Night Witches, didn't live to see the end of the war. She was killed in a plane crash in January 1943 while flying in poor weather, and she was honored with a state funeral, with her ashes interred in the wall of the Kremlin.

Starting point is 00:11:51 After World War II, women were once again barred from combat roles, and the story of the night witches became a distant memory. Yet, despite being a... Overlooked by history, their story and heroic efforts played a small but crucial part in the Soviet victory in World War II. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode is provided by the Olivia Ash. Athens Georgia Completionist Club. Gary, I travel quite a bit for work daily and found Everything Everywhere Daily about eight months ago. What a great travel companion for my drives around Northeast Georgia. Thank you for all your hard work. It is greatly appreciated.

Starting point is 00:12:36 I will keep listening to them, so I guess you have to keep making them. Go dogs. The next review comes from Henry over on Spotify. He writes, As a member of the Western Kentucky Completionist Club, I just wanted to say, Gary, keep up the good work. Awesome show, very entertaining and educational on every level.

Starting point is 00:12:52 As a 53-year-old truck driver, I feel nobody is too old to be curious about learning something. Well, thanks both of you for the reviews. And remember, if you leave a review of the podcast on any of the major podcast apps, you two can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Night Witches

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