"Night Witches". Night witches: Soviet pilots, who were afraid of the Germans

Defender of the Fatherland Day - military date, one should remember and congratulate not only the defenders, but also the defenders - brave fighting girls. During the war they showed courage and heroism.
Recently, I read the memoirs of the years of the Great Patriotic War, written by pilots Rakobolskaya Irina and Kravtsova (Mecklin) Natalia - “We were called night witches.” Reading the lines of diaries you become a witness of military events, their experiences, sadness and laughter are presented. The pilots-heroes were 17-20 years old.

The air regiment of female pilots, as in the movie "Heavenly slug", really existed.
The enemy called the pilots "Night Witches", who suddenly appeared silently in small planes. Girls flew on U-2 (Po-2) planes. They took part in the liberation of Novorossiysk, fighting in the Kuban, Crimea, Belarus, Poland, and reached Berlin.

“Let these quiet and modest U-2s,
Chest not made of metal and wings not made of steel,
But there will be legends in words
Fabulous will be intertwined with reality ... "
Written by pilot Natalya Meklin

The pilot of the regiment "Normandie-Niemen" Francois de Joffre admired:
“... Russian pilots, or “night witches,” as the Germans call them, fly out on missions every evening and constantly remind of themselves. Lieutenant Colonel Bershanskaya, a thirty-year-old woman, commands a regiment of these lovely "wizards" who fly light night bombers designed to operate at night. In Sevastopol, Minsk, Warsaw, Gdansk - wherever they appeared, their courage aroused the admiration of all male pilots.

Lieutenant Colonel V. V. Markov recalled:
“Sometimes, watching how girls - armed men hang large-caliber bombs, like technicians at night, prepare planes in a snowstorm and frost, how pilots go on combat missions, I thought: “Well, we, men, are supposed to do all this: go to attacks, freeze in the trenches, storm the enemy from the air. Well, what about them?! They, for the most part, still girls who have seen little in life? How they must love their Motherland in order to voluntarily take on the brunt of front-line hardships!

I often visited the men's regiments located on the same airfield with us, and I had to hear, not without pleasure, how the commander called the guilty pilot to him and angrily reprimanded him:
- How did you land the plane today? BUT? Did you see how the girls sat down? How can I show myself to them now! Shame and nothing more!”

Irina Rakobolskaya (Linde), headed the headquarters at the age of 23.

Natalya Meklin (Kravtsova), at the age of 20 she was enlisted in the air regiment. Hero Soviet Union.
Co-author of "We Were Called Night Witches"

Natalia Meklin wrote her "Pilot's Prayer":
Lord, deliver us from the drill,
Give us a goal on the front line
send us combat mission
And a moonlit night to boot...
Take me from hell to heaven
Let's bomb the front line
And so as not to torment us for a long time,
You sent us a fuel depot...

In 1941, three women's air regiments were formed: the 586th fighter (Yak-1), the 587th bomber (Pe-2) and the 588th night bomber (Po-2), which the enemies called "Night Witches".

The female air regiments were founded by pilot Marina Raskova, who in 1938, together with Valentina Grizodubova and Polina Osipenko, made a direct flight from Moscow to Far East. For a successful flight, the pilot received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Marina Raskova - founder of the women's aviation regiment

In 1941, Marina Raskova was 29 years old.

Konstantin Simonov wrote about Marina Raskova, whom he met in 1942: “Marina Raskova struck me with her calm and gentle Russian beauty. I hadn’t seen her before and didn’t think she was so young and had such a beautiful face.”

Marina Raskova

The pilots warmly recalled Raskova, she died in a plane crash in 1943, she was 31 years old:
“Raskova touchingly said goodbye to us, wished us to receive orders and become guardsmen (how far it seemed to us!). She said that we must prove that women can fight no worse than men, and then in our country women will also be taken into the army. She was amazingly beautiful and feminine, and at the same time, there was no word “impossible” for her ... Some special strength and confidence came from Marina Raskova. –

Warplane "Night Witches"

The "Night Witches" flew on the U-2 aircraft, which later received the name Po-2.
“Our training aircraft was not created for military operations. Wooden biplane with two open cockpits located one behind the other and dual controls - for the pilot and navigator. (Before the war, pilots were trained on these machines). Without radio communications and armored backs capable of protecting the crew from bullets, with a low-power motor that could develop top speed 120 km/h. There was no bomb bay on the plane, the bombs were hung in bomb racks directly under the plane of the plane. There were no sights, we created them ourselves and called them PPR (simpler than a steamed turnip). The amount of bomb cargo varied from 100 to 300 kg. On average, we took 150-200 kg. But during the night the plane managed to make several sorties, and the total bomb load was comparable to the load of a large bomber.

Machine guns on aircraft also appeared only in 1944. Before that, the only weapons on board were TT pistols, ”the pilots recalled.

The girls were trained in the city of Engels.
The pilots had to learn a lot in the war, due to inexperience there were accidents and accidents. At first it was difficult for young girls to get used to army rules and drill.

“... The first weeks at the front ... Not everything went smoothly, there was bitterness and pain of the first losses, and accidents due to inexperience, and difficulties with military discipline. There was embarrassment for our army unpreparedness, which, no matter how hard we tried, here and there crawled out. Sometimes German tanks came very close to our airfield, we had to urgently fly somewhere to the east, where no one was preparing sites for us, and the planes were in the air and there was no radio communication with them. Bershanskaya waited for the last crew to inform him of the direction of the flight, and before that, one of the most experienced pilots in the dark found a suitable site and lit a fire on it.- (Rakobolskaya I.V., Kravtsova N.F. - “We were called night witches”).

The air regiment was completely female, the mechanics and engineers of the regiment were students of technical universities. Navigators were trained from mechanics, and the navigator became a pilot.
They flew around the yard, the pilot and the navigator. Often the navigator herself landed the plane if the pilot was wounded.

The girls took part in the fighting in the Caucasus, the pilots recalled the difficulties of flying in the mountains.

Pilot Marina Chechneva, at the age of 21 she became the commander of the 4th squadron

Marina Chechneva recalls:
“Flying over mountains is difficult, especially in autumn. Unexpectedly cloudy piles up, pressing the plane to the ground, or rather to the mountains, you have to fly in gorges or over unevenly high peaks. Here, every slight turn, the slightest decrease threatens with a catastrophe, in addition, ascending and descending air currents arise near the mountain slopes, which imperiously pick up the car. In such cases, remarkable composure and skill are required from the pilot in order to stay at the right height ...

These were the "maximum nights" when we were in the air for eight to nine hours straight. After three or four sorties, the eyes closed by themselves. While the navigator went to the command post to report on the flight, the pilot slept for several minutes in the cockpit, while the armed forces hung bombs, mechanics filled the plane with gasoline and oil. The navigator was returning, and the pilot was waking up...

“Maximum nights” were given to us by a huge strain of physical and mental strength, and when dawn broke, we, barely moving our legs, went to the dining room, dreaming of having breakfast and falling asleep as soon as possible. At breakfast we were given some wine, which was supposed to be the pilots after combat work. But still, the dream was disturbing - dreamed of searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, some had persistent insomnia ... "

Evdokia Bershanskaya (Bocharova), at the age of 29 she commanded a women's aviation regiment

The regiment commander was Evdokia Bershanskaya. The Women's Aviation Regiment was sometimes jokingly called the "Dunkin Regiment". She was a wise commander, as her colleagues write.

“In a combat situation, we could appreciate the courage and composure of Evdokia Davydovna Bershanskaya, her ability to organize the activities of the regiment so that we girls felt at the front in all respects on an equal footing with men. No one ever gave us indulgence as the "weaker sex", and we never lagged behind the men's regiments in combat work. Strict, modest, self-possessed, she did not stoop to trifles that could obscure the lofty goals for which we fought.

Bershanskaya was a real commander, and we were all proud of her. She never praised or scolded anyone. But one look from her was enough for you to feel double guilt if you were guilty, or to be doubly happy if you did something good.

She generally tried to avoid a commanding tone. And yet her firm hand was felt everywhere. Somehow imperceptibly, she was able to support the initiative where it was needed, and, on the contrary, to stop what she considered wrong. During the flights, she was constantly present at the start and, if necessary, flew on a mission herself. That night, when we received the first combat mission, Bershanskaya opened the account of the regiment's sorties ... "(Rakobolskaya I.V., Kravtsova N.F. -" We were called night witches ").

The girls did not think that awards were given for their military merits.

Bershanskaya recalls: “Once the chief of staff of the division, Colonel Luchkin, came to our regiment and said: “Why don’t you, Comrade Commander, submit your people to government awards? Some pilots and technicians deserve it.” I remember well how the chief of staff I. Rakobolskaya and I looked at each other and said uncertainly: “Is it possible already? We haven't done anything special yet." The design of the award material has begun. And what a joy it was when, on October 27, General K. Vershinin presented orders to forty pilots, navigators and technicians.”

Sometimes accidents, like the croaking of frogs, helped save us from death.

“On the night of May 1, 1943, on the third sortie, they were shot down in the Krymskaya area. Olga managed to land the car, but on enemy territory. For two days they made their way through the front line. They were saved by the fact that there were floodplains nearby: a swamp and reeds, in which they hid from the Germans. They found these floodplains by the croaking of frogs ...

Rufa writes in the literary magazine of the 2nd Squadron: “Only even now I cannot bear the croaking of frogs indifferently. Involuntarily, tears of tenderness and gratitude well up. Who cares, of course, but to me the frog song is more precious than the nightingale trill ... "

Pilots heroes of the Soviet Union - Rushina Gasheva (left) and Natalya Meklin

Pilots went on missions without parachutes, instead they took more bombs. The logic was simple: If they shoot down over enemy territory, then it is better to die than fall into the hands of the Nazis, and if over ours, then somehow we will sit down, our car parachutes perfectly.

Every night, the pilots went on a mission, the flight lasted an hour, then the plane returned to base to refuel and hang bombs. The time to prepare the aircraft between flights took five minutes. During the long winter night, the girls made 10-12 sorties.

In the memoirs, the pilots describe the feat of mechanics who had to work around the clock. Aircraft refueling at night, aircraft maintenance and repair during the day.
“... The flight lasts about an hour, and mechanics and armed forces are waiting on the ground. They were able to inspect, refuel the aircraft, hang bombs in three to five minutes. It is hard to believe that young thin girls during the night with their hands and knees, without any devices, each hung up to three tons of bombs. These modest assistant pilots showed true miracles of endurance and skill. And the mechanics? Whole nights they worked at the start, and during the day they repaired cars, preparing for the next night. There were cases when the mechanic did not have time to bounce off the screw when starting the engine and her hand was interrupted ...

And then we introduced a new service system - shift teams on duty. Each mechanic was assigned a certain operation on all aircraft: meeting, refueling or release ... The armed men were on duty in threes at the cars with bombs. Supervised by one of the senior AE technicians.

Fighting nights began to resemble the work of a well-functioning factory assembly line. The plane that returned from the mission was ready for a new flight in five minutes. This allowed the pilots to make 10-12 sorties on some winter nights.

In the summer of 1943, the regiment was awarded the rank of guards and was awarded the guards banner:

The hot Kuban summer of 1943. Sunny June day. In the morning the whole regiment is excited: today we are being handed the banner of the Guards ...
... We smooth and comb our hair in the most thorough way. And, of course, we wear skirts. True, no one has shoes, but it doesn’t matter - we polish our boots to a shine.
The ceremony of presenting the guards banner takes place on a large clearing near the pond. The entire personnel of the regiment is in the ranks, in squadrons. There comes a solemn moment. Commander of the 4th Air Army Vershinin reads the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In chorus, we repeat the oath of the guards ... "

The war won't end soon
The thunder of anti-aircraft guns will not cease soon.
Silence over the crossing
And the sky is covered with clouds.
The engine is calling - fly faster
Hurry, crashing into the darkness of the night.
German battery fire
Dimensional and extremely accurate.
Another minute - and then
The darkness will explode with blinding light.
But maybe years later
In a dream I see all this.
War and night, and your flight,
At the bottom of the fires is a bloody light,
And a lonely plane
Among the fire over the crossing...
Natalya Meklin

Before the battle for Novorossiysk, the base near Gelendzhik

Pilots took part in the liberation of the city of Novorossiysk. The victory in the battle was given to the girls at a high price.

“The last night before the storming of Novorossiysk came, the night of September 15-16. Having received a combat mission, the pilots taxied to the start. The command post of the airfield was attended by the command of the air and ground armies. Everyone was in suspense, looking impatiently at the clock. And suddenly thousands of lights flashed around, everything rumbled, rumbled. The artillery preparation continued for several minutes. It seemed that the mountains were also humming, the earth was trembling.

It was an unforgettable, terrible and at the same time exciting picture. At the end of the artillery preparation, the regiment received an order to take off. All night the planes suppressed pockets of enemy resistance, and at dawn an order was received: to bomb the headquarters of the fascist troops, located in the center of Novorossiysk near the city square, and the crews flew again. The headquarters was destroyed.

When they returned, they read a radiogram received from the front line, from the sailors who fought on the ground: “We thank the nightlight brothers for the support from the air.” They didn’t even know that “sisters” were flying along with the “brothers” ...

The experience of fighting for the liberation of Novorossiysk, the experience of joint work of ground troops and night bombers was very useful when crossing the Kerch Strait, when creating a bridgehead already on the Crimean coast, and then on the Oder, and then on the Vistula. (From the book by I. Rakobolskaya, N. Kravtsova “We were called night witches”)

Novorossiysk is taken - the girls are dancing

During one of the sorties, four crews were killed.

“... At that moment, searchlights lit up ahead and immediately caught the plane flying in front of us. In the crosshairs of the rays, Po-2 looked like a silver moth entangled in a web.
... And the blue lights started running again - right in the crosshairs. The flames engulfed the plane, and it began to fall, leaving behind a winding strip of smoke.
The burning wing fell off, and soon the Po-2 fell to the ground, exploding ...
... That night, four of our Po-2s burned down over the target. Eight girls...
(I. Rakobolskaya, N. Kravtsova "We were called night witches")

Minutes of rest

“Of course, the girls remained girls: they carried kittens on airplanes, danced in non-flying weather at the airport, right in overalls and high fur boots, embroidered forget-me-nots on footcloths, dissolving blue knitted underpants for this, and wept bitterly if they were suspended from flying”

The girls made up their playful rules.
“Be proud, you are a woman. Look down on men!
Do not beat off the groom from your neighbor!
Do not envy a friend (especially if he is in a dress)!
Don't shave. Save your femininity!
Don't trample your boots. No new ones!
Love combatant!
Do not pour out the cancer, give it to a friend!
Don't swear!
Do not get lost!"

The female pilots in the memoirs describe their baggy uniform and huge boots. The shape to size for them was not immediately sewn. Then two types of uniforms appeared - everyday with trousers and dress with a skirt.
On missions, of course, they flew out in trousers, the uniform with a skirt was intended for solemn meetings of the command. Of course, the girls dreamed of dresses and shoes.

“After the formation, the entire command gathered at our headquarters, we reported to the commander about our work and our problems, including huge tarpaulin boots ... He was also not very pleased with our trousers. And after some time they took measurements from everyone and sent us brown tunics with blue skirts and red chrome boots - American. They only let water through like a blotter.
Long after that, we considered the uniform with skirts "Tyulenevskaya", and we put it on by order of the regiment: "Front dress uniform." For example, when they received the Guards banner. Flying in skirts, or hanging bombs, or cleaning the engine, of course, was inconvenient ... "

Correspondent with pilots

In moments of relaxation, the girls liked to embroider:
“In Belarus, we began to actively “get sick” with embroidery, and this continued until the end of the war. It started with forget-me-nots. Oh, what beautiful forget-me-nots turned out if you dissolve blue knitted underpants and embroider flowers on thin summer footcloths! You can make a napkin out of this, and it will go on a pillowcase. This disease, like chickenpox, took over the entire regiment ...

I come in the afternoon to the dugout to the armed men. The rain soaked her through, pouring from all the cracks, puddles on the floor. In the middle stands a girl on a chair and embroiders some kind of flower. Only there are no colored threads. And I wrote to my sister in Moscow: “I have a very important request for you: send me colored threads, and if you could make a gift to our women and send more. Our girls are rooting for every thread, every cloth is used for embroidery. If you do a great job, everyone will be very grateful.” From the same letter: “And today after dinner we formed a company: I am sitting at the embroidery of forget-me-nots, Bershanskaya is embroidering roses, with a cross, Anka is embroidering poppies, and Olga is reading aloud to us. The weather wasn't..."

Fighting girlfriends

Different stories led girls to war, the sad story of Evdokia Nosal, whose newborn son died during the bombing of a maternity hospital.

Evdokia Nosal. Hero of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 25.

“The first days of the war found her in the maternity hospital of Brest, her son was born. At that time, he and Gryts lived in a border town in Belarus. The Germans bombed the city, the building of the maternity hospital, where Dusya was lying, collapsed. Dusya miraculously survived. But she could not leave the place where until recently there had been a large bright house. There, under the rubble, lay her son...
She scraped the ground with her nails, clinging to the stones, they pulled her away by force ... Dusya tried to forget all this. She flew, flew, and every night managed to make more sorties than others. She was always first."

“She came to us, flew brilliantly, and on the dashboard of her plane there was always a portrait of her husband, also a pilot - Gritsko, so she flew with him. We were the first to introduce Dusya to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ... "


April 24
Yesterday morning I came to the navigators, who were going to bomb, scolded them for the lack of windchips and asked Nina Ulyanenko: “Yes, Nina, you were on flights, how is it, is everything all right?” Nina looked at me strangely and in some too calm voice asks: “What - is everything all right?”
- Well, is everything all right?
- Dusya Nosal was killed. Messerschmit. At Novorossiysk...
I only asked who the navigator was. "Kashirina. Brought the plane and landed. Yes, we always have something new. And usually all sorts of incidents at the start happen without me. Dusya, Dusya... A wound in the temple and back of the head, lies as if alive... And her Gritsko is in Chkalov...
And Irinka did a good job - after all, Dusya fell on the handle in the first cabin, Ira got up, pulled her by the collar and with great difficulty piloted the plane. Still hoping that she fainted...
No matter what I did yesterday, I thought about Dus all the time. But not like it was a year ago. Now it became much harder for me, I knew Dusya closely, but I myself, like everyone else, became different: drier, more callous. Not a tear. War. Only the day before yesterday I flew to this target with Lyusya Klopkova ... In the morning we drank with laughter with laughter for not hitting us: we heard anti-aircraft guns bursting under the planes, but they didn’t reach us ... "

“... In the coffin she lay strict, with a bandaged head. It was hard to tell what was whiter - her face or the bandage... There was a salute from rifles. A pair of fighters flew low, low. They waved their wings, sending a farewell greeting."

"Stargazer" Evgeny Rudnev, died at 24

“... And then, in 1942, instead of Olkhovskaya and Tarasova, they appointed Dina Nikulina as squadron commander, and Zhenya Rudneva, our “astrologer,” as the girls affectionately called her, as navigator.

Dina Nikulina is a bright person, one might say, a "dashing" pilot ... Zhenya Rudneva is a modest, soft girl, a dreamer in love with distant sparkling stars. Back in 1939, Zhenya wrote in her diary: “I know very well that the hour will come when I can die for the cause of my people ... I want to devote my life to science, and I will do it, but if necessary, I will forget astronomy for a long time and I will become a fighter ... ".

Dina Nikulina - Hero of the Soviet Union. She survived the war.

Dina Nikulina is a professional pilot with excellent piloting technique. Her character is cheerful and cheerful. She flew fearlessly. And at the evenings of amateur performances, she recklessly beat off the tap dance, until she was wounded in the leg. After that, we found out that she sings great ... "
(Rakobolskaya I.V., Kravtsova N.F. - “We were called night witches”).

Zhenya Rudneva wrote in her diary:
“On January 5, for the first time in my life, I was in the air for 10 minutes. It is such a feeling that I do not undertake to describe, because I still will not be able to. It seemed to me later on earth that I was born again on that day. But on the 7th it was even better: the plane went into a spin and completed one flip. I was tied with a belt. The earth swayed and swayed and suddenly rose above my head. Below me was blue sky, far away clouds. And I thought at that moment that the liquid does not pour out of it when the glass rotates ...
After the first flight, I was reborn, as it were, began to look at the world with different eyes ... and sometimes I even get scared that I could live my life and never fly ... "

Colleagues wrote in diaries about Zhenya Rudneva, she died on the eve of the wedding. Letters to the war came late, the girl was no longer alive, and letters from the groom continued to come.

"First and last love, pure, bright and deep, like everything that was in her life, came to her unexpectedly. And how good, how simply Zhenya writes about this in his diary: “Why do I need the whole world? I need a whole person, but for him to be "my very own." Then the world will be ours." Once the tank engineer Slava managed to come to our regiment, and then he was sent to Iran ... Thousands of kilometers separated them, but warm words of love and friendship reached Taman from Iran.

He wrote to her:
“... My dear Zhenechka! From now on mine future life takes on a new color! Everything that I will do, I will do as best as possible, honoring your lovely image in my heart. I ask you only one thing - take less unnecessary risks in your work and remember that you are very dear to me ... ... Everything, everything reminds me of you.

It has never happened to me before! I miss you. And how many times have I taken your photograph out of the tablet... ...For some time now you, my dear, have been my second life. I didn’t worry about anyone before, but now I’ll think about you all the time, and probably no work and danger can distract me from this. I will live only for you...

And with regard to the fact that you are an ordinary girl, you will not convince me here. Ordinary girls work in factories, study at institutes in the rear. They do not know the dear price of life, they did not feel the breath of death, and most importantly, they did not destroy the Nazis, the most terrible threat to our Motherland.

Fighting girlfriends

Colleagues bitterly describe the last flight of a friend:
“On the night of April 9, the moon shone brightly over Kerch, and at an altitude of 500-600 meters the sky was covered with a thin layer of clouds illuminated by the moon. Against the background of the clouds, it was clearly visible, as on a screen, how an airplane was slowly crawling across the sky. That night, Zhenya Rudneva made her 645th flight with pilot Panna Prokopyeva. In general, she was an experienced pilot, but she flew into the regiment recently and had no more than 10 sorties. Following her rule, Zhenya checked the young ...

Over the target, their aircraft was fired upon by Oerlikon automatic anti-aircraft guns and caught fire. A few seconds later, bombs exploded below - the navigator managed to drop them on the target. For some time, the burning plane continued to fly west, it was necessary to drop leaflets, then turned east, and then the crews of other cars saw how rockets began to fly out of the first cabin.
At first slowly, in a spiral, and then faster and faster, the plane began to fall to the ground, it seemed that the pilot was trying to bring down the flames. Then rockets began to scatter from the plane like fireworks: red, white, green. It was the cabs that were already on fire ... or maybe Zhenya was saying goodbye to us. The plane crashed behind the front line. One could see how it flashed brightly for the last time and began to fade away...

I was on duty that night, the arriving crews reported that they saw a burning falling plane. According to the timing, it became clear to me that they were Prokopyeva and Rudneva ... Until morning, the armed men wrote “For Zhenya” on the bombs ...

Pilot Evgenia Zhigulenko shot the film "Night witches in the sky" after the war

“Zhenya Zhigulenko is a tall, slender girl with a broad nature, a lover of poetry and flowers, her bouquets were exorbitant in size and of unprecedented beauty. She studied at the flying club before the war, therefore, having flown as a navigator, she then moved to the first cabin. After the war, unexpectedly for us, she graduated from the Institute of Cinematography and became a director. And she released a film based on the history of our regiment "Night witches in the sky." It has both fiction and truth.”

Victory soon!

In 1945, everyone believed that victory would come soon, the enemy was retreating. Rokossovsky himself took care of the awards for the pilots, who personally visited the girls.

“In Dalek we met the New Year - 1945. This year, we have no doubt, will bring Victory. It remains only the last time to gather strength and rush to the west ...
We were preparing for a big offensive, a decisive blow against the Nazis - we studied the areas from the Vistula to the Oder and beyond on maps. Our 2nd Belorussian Front held a direction to the west north of Berlin, its right flank was the coast Baltic Sea.
In the first days of February 1945, we already approached the borders East Prussia. The regiment was stationed 10 kilometers from Mlava. The next point where we had to relocate was on primordially German soil - Charlottenwerder. Our advanced team was sent there, but she was forced to return, meeting along the way a large group of Germans who were breaking through to their troops. When everything calmed down, we flew to a new place.

“After the battle night, we go to the dining room to have breakfast and on the way we find out that in the newspapers there is a Decree of February 23, 1945 on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to nine pilots and navigators of our regiment.

The big hall of the local theater in the city of Tuchola, where we recently flew. Here we have a celebration. Marshal Rokossovsky, Commander of the Second Belorussian Front, came to present the awards. When he, tall, thin, entered the hall, Bershanskaya loudly and clearly reported to him. The marshal, a little bewildered, quietly greeted us and, hearing the general thunderous answer, was embarrassed: it was clear that he imagined the "girls'" regiment, about which he was told, differently. Then he made a short speech and began to present the Gold Stars and Orders.
(Rakobolskaya I.V., Kravtsova N.F. - “We were called night witches”).

Preparing for the Victory Parade

“At the end of May, K.K. Rokossovsky again came to us with his main staff commanders and the command of the 4th VA. He decided to arrange a Victory Day for us. This coincided with the third anniversary of our stay at the front. He even brought a front-line orchestra with him. We rejoiced - it was all over, a thousand one hundred nights had passed, our planes would no longer burn! We danced, sang, drank wonderful wine... And again the marshal surprised me. While dancing in a straight line, Stalin called him. Music interfered, Rokossovsky did not understand the words well, but did not stop the orchestra, inadvertently said to Stalin "that's right" ...

Marshal told us about the Victory dinner in the Kremlin, Stalin sat him next to him, then took his glass and put it on the floor. Rokossovsky froze ... Stalin put on the floor and his glass. Then he took it, Konstantin Konstantinovich did the same, went crazy. And then Stalin said: "I respect you as Mother Earth"...
In the morning the general's team played volleyball against the team of the 2nd Air Squadron. Rokossovsky told me that he was good at extinguishing. However, the generals lost to our girls with a completely devastating score."

Among the impressions after the victory, Natalya Meklin describes the long-awaited shoes, it was like a kind of sign - the end of the war:
“Victory has come. On this day we put on dresses. True, uniforms, with shoulder straps. And shoes. Not boots, but custom-made shoes. They were brought in by car. Full body - choose! Real shoes, brown, with medium heels ... Of course, not so hot, but still shoes. After all, the war is over!

Victory! This word sounded strange. It excited, pleased and at the same time, oddly enough, a little disturbing ... "

“For me, the Motherland is a painful feeling when you want to cry from longing and happiness, pray and rejoice”- wrote Natalia Meklin.

dead girlfriends

Malakhova Anna and Vinogradova Masha Engels, March 9, 1942
Tormosina Lilia and Komogortseva Nadya Engels, March 9, 1942
Olkhovskaya Lyuba and Tarasova Vera Donbass, shot down in June 1942
Efimova Tonya died of illness, December 1942.
Stupina Valya died of an illness in the spring of 1943.
Makagon Polina and Svistunova Lida crashed while landing April 1, 1943, Pashkovskaya
Pashkova Julia died on April 4, 1943 after an accident in Pashkovskaya
Nosal Dusya was killed on the plane on April 23, 1943.
Anya Vysotskaya and Galya Dokutovich burned down over the Blue Line on August 1, 1943.
Rogova Sonya and Sukhorukova Zhenya - -
Polunina Valya and Kashirina Ira - -
Krutova Zhenya and Salikova Lena - -
Belkina Pasha and Frolova Tamara shot down in 1943, Kuban
Maslennikova Luda died during the bombing, 1943
Volodina Taisiya and Bondareva Anya lost their bearings, Taman, March 1944
Prokofieva Panna and Rudneva Zhenya burned down over Kerch on April 9, 1944.
Varakina Lyuba died at the airfield in another regiment in 1944.
Makarova Tanya and Belik Vera burned down in Poland on August 29, 1944.
Sanfirova Lelya was blown up by a mine after jumping from a burning plane on December 13, 1944, Poland
Kolokolnikova Anya crashed on a motorcycle, 1945, Germany

After the war, colleagues found the graves of their dead friends.

“If it were possible to collect flowers from all over the world and put them at your feet, then even with this we would not be able to express our admiration for the Soviet pilots!”- wrote the French soldiers of the Normandie-Niemen regiment.

In conclusion, a song from the good old movie about female pilots, which was filmed on the eve of the victory.

The U-2 itself was created as a training aircraft, was extremely simple and cheap and outdated by the beginning of the war. Although it was produced before the death of Stalin and 33 thousand of them were riveted (one of the most massive aircraft in the world). For combat operations, it was urgently equipped with instruments, headlights, bomb suspension. They often reinforced the frame and ... But this long story and about half a century of life of the machine and its creator Polikarpov. It was in his honor after his death from cancer in 1944 that the aircraft was renamed Po-2. But back to our ladies.

First of all, let's dispel the myth of losses. They flew so efficiently (the Germans practically no one flew at night) that 32 girls died in sorties during the entire war. Po-2 haunted the Germans. In any weather, they appeared over the front line and bombed them at low altitudes. The girls had to make 8-9 sorties per night. But there were such nights when they received the task: to bomb "to the maximum." This meant that there should be as many sorties as possible. And then their number reached 16-18 in one night, as it was on the Oder. The pilots were literally taken out of the cockpits and carried in their arms - they could not stand on their feet.
Tanya Shcherbinina remembers Weapons master

The bombs were heavy. It is not easy for a man to deal with them. Young front-line soldiers, pushing, crying and laughing, fastened them to the wing of the aircraft. But before that, it was still necessary to figure out how many shells would be needed at night (as a rule, they took 24 pieces), take them, get them out of the box and undo them, wipe the fuses from grease, screw them into the infernal machine.

The technician shouts: "Girls! By manpower!" This means that it is necessary to hang fragmentation bombs, the lightest ones, 25 kilograms each. And if they fly to bomb, for example, a railway, then 100-kilogram bombs were attached to the wing. In this case, they worked together. Only they will raise it to shoulder level, partner Olga Erokhina will say something funny, both will burst out and drop the infernal machine to the ground. You have to cry, but they laugh! Again they take up the heavy "pig": "Mom, help me!"

There were happy nights when, in the absence of the navigator, the pilot invited: "Climb into the cockpit, let's fly!" Fatigue vanished. A wild roar filled the air. Maybe it was compensation for the tears on the ground?

The main inconvenience is the inability to put yourself in order, wash, wash. Days were considered a holiday when a "washer" arrived at the location of the unit - tunics, linen, and trousers were fried in it. More often washed things in gasoline.
Flight personnel of the regiment

Take off! (Still from newsreel)

The crew of N. Ulyanenko and E. Nosal receives a combat mission from the commander of the Bershanskaya regiment

Navigators. Stanitsa Assinovskaya, 1942.

The crew of Tanya Makarova and Vera Belik. They died in 1944 in Poland.

Nina Khudyakova and Lisa Timchenko

Olga Fetisova and Irina Dryagina

in winter

For flights. Spring thaw. Kuban, 1943.
The regiment flew from the "jump airfield" - as close as possible to the front line. Pilots got to this airfield by trucks.

Pilot Raya Aronova at her plane

Armed Forces insert fuses into bombs
4 bombs of 50 or 2 of 100 kg were suspended from the aircraft. During the day, the girls hung several tons of bombs each, as the planes took off at intervals of five minutes ...
April 30, 1943 the regiment became Guards.

Presentation of the Guards banner to the regiment. two crew

By the well

All three shots were taken in the village of Ivanovskaya near Gelendzhik before the storming of Novorossiysk.

"When the attack on Novorossiysk began, then to help the ground troops and the landing marines aviation was sent, including 8 crews from our regiment.
... The route passed over the sea, or over mountains and gorges. Each crew managed to make 6-10 sorties per night. The airfield was close to the front line, in a zone accessible to enemy naval artillery.
From the book by I. Rakobolskaya, N. Kravtsova "We were called night witches"

The deputy commander of the regiment S. Amosova sets the task for the crews allocated to support
landing in the Novorossiysk region. September 1943

“The last night before the assault on Novorossiysk came, the night of September 15-16. Having received a combat mission, the pilots taxied to the start.
... All night long, the planes suppressed pockets of enemy resistance, and already at dawn an order was received: to bomb the headquarters of the fascist troops, located in the center of Novorossiysk near the city square, and the crews flew again. The headquarters was destroyed."
From the book by I. Rakobolskaya, N. Kravtsova "We were called night witches"
“During the assault on Novorossiysk, Amosova’s group made 233 sorties. The command awarded the pilots, navigators, technicians and armed forces with orders and medals.

From M. Chechneva's book "The sky remains ours"

"... At that moment, searchlights lit up ahead and immediately caught the plane flying in front of us. In the crosshairs of the rays, the Po-2 looked like a silver moth entangled in a web.
... And the blue lights started running again - right in the crosshairs. The flames engulfed the plane, and it began to fall, leaving behind a winding strip of smoke.
The burning wing fell off, and soon the Po-2 fell to the ground, exploding ...
... That night, four of our Po-2s burned down over the target. Eight girls...
I. Rakobolskaya, N. Kravtsova "We were called night witches"

"On April 11, 1944, the troops of the Separate Primorsky Army, breaking through the enemy's defenses in the Kerch region, rushed to connect with units of the 4th Ukrainian Front. At night, the regiment delivered massive strikes against the retreating columns of the Nazis. We made record number sorties - 194 and dropped about 25 thousand kilograms of bombs on the enemy.
The next day we received an order to relocate to the Crimea.
M.P. Chechneva "The sky remains ours"

Panna Prokopieva and Zhenya Rudneva

Zhenya studied at the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University, studied astronomy, and was one of the most capable students. I dreamed of studying the stars...
One of the minor planets in the asteroid belt is called "Evgenia Rudneva".
After the liberation of the Crimea, the regiment receives an order to relocate to Belarus.

Belarus, a place near Grodno.
T. Makarova, V. Belik, P. Gelman, E. Ryabova, E. Nikulina, N. Popova

The famous and legendary even before the war, the creator of the regiment and the ancestor of the very idea to use the U-2 as a night bomber. Marina Raskova, 1941

Marshal K.A. Vershinin presents the regiment with the Order of the Red Banner for the battles for the liberation of Feodosia.

Monument in Peresyp
Those who did not return from the war - remember them:

Makarova Tanya and Belik Vera burned down in Poland on August 29, 1944.

Malakhova Anna

Vinogradova Masha

Tormosina Lilia

Komogortseva Nadia, even before the battles, Engels, March 9, 1942

Olkhovskaya Lyuba

Tarasova Vera
Donbass, shot down in June 1942

Efimova Tonya
died of illness, December 1942

died of illness in the spring of 1943.

Makagon Polina

Svistunova Lida
crashed on landing April 1, 1943, Pashkovskaya

Pashkova Julia
died April 4, 1943 after an accident in Pashkovskaya

Nosal Dusya
killed in an airplane 23 April 1943

Vysotskaya Anya

Dokutovich Galya

Horny Sonya

Sukhorukova Zhenya

Polunina Valya

Kashirina Irina

Krutova Zhenya

Salikova Lena
burned down over the Blue Line on August 1, 1943

Belkina Pasha

Frolova Tamara
shot down in 1943, Kuban
Maslennikova Luda (no photo)
killed in the bombing, 1943

Volodina Taisiya

Bondareva Anya
lost orientation, Taman, March 1944

Prokofieva Panna

Rudneva Zhenya
burned down over Kerch on April 9, 1944

Varakina Lyuba (no photo)
died at the airfield in another regiment in 1944

Sanfirova Lelya
hit a mine after jumping from a burning plane December 13, 1944, Poland

Kolokolnikova Anya (no photo)
crashed on a motorcycle, 1945, Germany.

Those who want to get statistics on the regiment- in Wiki.

On the days of celebration Great Victory one cannot help but recall the female warriors who fought side by side next to the men and were practically in no way inferior to them.

The 46th Guards Taman Red Banner Order of Suvorov 3rd Class Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (46th Guards NBAP) was a women's aviation regiment as part of the USSR Air Force during the Great Patriotic War.

The aviation regiment was formed in October 1941 by order of the NCO of the USSR No. 0099 dated 08.10.41 "On the formation of women's aviation regiments of the Red Army Air Force." Marina Raskova supervised the formation. Evdokia Bershanskaya, a pilot with ten years of experience, was appointed commander of the regiment. Under her command, the regiment fought until the end of the war. Sometimes he was jokingly called: "Dunkin Regiment", with a hint of an all-female composition and justified by the name of the regiment commander.

The party and political leadership of the regiment was headed by Maria Runt. For some time the chief of staff of the regiment was Fortus, Maria Alexandrovna.

The formation, training and coordination of the regiment was carried out in the city of Engels. The air regiment differed from other formations in that it was completely female. Created according to the same order, two other women's air regiments became mixed during the war, but the 588th air regiment remained completely female until it was disbanded: only women occupied all positions in the regiment from mechanics and technicians to navigators and pilots.

The commander of the women's aviation regiment E.D. Bershanskaya sets a combat mission for her pilots

On May 23, 1942, the regiment flew to the front, where it arrived on May 27. Then its number was 115 people - most aged 17 to 22 years. The regiment became part of the 218th night bomber air division. The first sortie took place on June 12, 1942. Then it was the territory of the Salsky steppes. Then the regiment suffered its first losses.

Flight personnel of the regiment. Assinovskaya 1942.

Until August 1942, the regiment fought on the Mius and Don rivers and in the suburbs of Stavropol. From August to December 1942, the regiment participated in the defense of Vladikavkaz. In January 1943, the regiment took part in breaking through the enemy's defensive lines.

Faithful friends T. Makarova and V. Belik. Assinovskaya 1942

By order of the NPO of the USSR No. 64 dated February 8, 1943, for the courage and heroism of the personnel shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, the regiment was awarded the honorary title "Guards" and it was transformed into the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.

Presentation of the regiment of the guards banner. June 10, 1943. Ivanovskaya.

Pilots of the 46th Guards Night Light Bomber Aviation Regiment went through a glorious combat path from the Caucasus Mountains to Nazi Germany during the war years. 23672 times the crews of the regiment took to the skies, they dropped almost three million kilograms of bombs on the enemy! For fearlessness and skill, the Germans called the pilots of the regiment "night witches."

A group of female pilots of the 46th guards regiment. Kuban, 1943.

From March to September 1943, the regiment's pilots participated in breaking through the defenses of the Blue Line on the Taman Peninsula and liberating Novorossiysk. From November 1943 to 1944, the regiment supported landings on the Kerch Peninsula (including the famous Eltigen), the liberation Crimean peninsula and Sevastopol.

Pilots at the front-line dugout in Gelendzhik.
Vera Belik and Ira Sebrova are sitting, Nadezhda Popova is standing.

There were no men in the 46th Guards, all its soldiers - from pilots and navigators to technicians - were women. Yesterday's students, pupils of flying clubs, workers of factories and factories. Young, fragile, at the call of their hearts, they joined the soldier's ranks and with honor passed the difficult road of the war until the great Victory Day. 23 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Among them are Marina Raskova, Vera Belik, Tatiana Makarova, Evgenia Rudneva, Marina Chechneva, Olga Sanfirova, Marina Smirnova, Nadezhda Popova.

Navigators. R. Gasheva, N. Mecklin are sitting. N. Ulyanenko, Kh. Dospanova, E. Ryabova, T. Sumarokova. Autumn 1942. Assinovskaya.

The 46th Aviation Regiment flew U-2 (Po-2) light night bombers. The girls affectionately called their cars "swallows", but their well-known name is "Heavenly slug". Plywood airplane with low speed. Each flight on the Po-2 was fraught with dangers. But neither enemy fighters nor anti-aircraft fire that met the "swallows" on the way could stop their flight to the target.

“Our training aircraft was not created for military operations. Wooden biplane with two open cockpits located one behind the other and dual controls - for the pilot and navigator. (Before the war, pilots were trained on these machines). Without radio communications and armored backs capable of protecting the crew from bullets, with a low-power motor that could reach a maximum speed of 120 km / h.

There was no bomb bay on the plane, the bombs were hung in bomb racks directly under the plane of the plane. There were no sights, we created them ourselves and called them PPR (simpler than a steamed turnip). The amount of bomb cargo varied from 100 to 300 kg. On average, we took 150-200 kg. But during the night the plane managed to make several sorties, and the total bomb load was comparable to the load of a large bomber. ”- Rakobolskaya I. V., Kravtsova N. F. “We were called night witches.”

T. Sumarokova, G. Bespalova, N. Mecklin, E. Ryabova, M. Smirnova, T. Makarova, M. Chechneva.

The control was dual: the aircraft could be controlled by both the pilot and the navigator. There were cases when navigators brought aircraft to the base and landed after the pilot died. Until August 1943, the pilots did not take parachutes with them, preferring to take another 20 kg of bombs instead. Machine guns on aircraft also appeared only in 1944. Before that, the only weapons on board were TT pistols.

S. Amosova and T. Alekseeva

I had to fly at an altitude of 400-500 meters. Under these conditions, it cost nothing to shoot down the low-speed Po-2s simply from a heavy machine gun. And often the planes returned from flights with riddled planes. Technicians patched them in haste, and in the future, the wings of many cars began to look like patchwork quilts. In order not to unmask the airfield, the technicians had to work in complete darkness, in any weather, in the open air.

The division commander presents a combat order to the navigator N. Reutskaya. 1944

The girls worked just wonders, as it was often necessary to return a crippled car to service at a seemingly impossible time. Technicians and mechanics - Galya Korsun, Katya Broiko, Anya Sherstneva, Masha Shchelkanova and others - laid the foundation for combat success in the sky with their work on the ground.

The technical composition of the regiment. 1943

Once, two pilots returned from a mission on a completely broken plane: as soon as their “swallow” reached the airfield? .. Thirty holes, the landing gear was broken, the center section and fuselage were damaged. The friends were sure that they would have to be horseless for three days. But what was their surprise when the plane was restored in 10 hours!

Before flights. The meteorologist reports to the flight crew of the regiment about the weather. Spring 1944.

Our little Po-2s haunted the Germans. In any weather, they appeared over enemy positions at low altitudes and bombed them. The girls had to make 8-9 sorties per night. But there were such nights when they received the task: to bomb "to the maximum." This meant that there should be as many sorties as possible.

Vera Khurtina, Tanya Osokina, Lena Nikitina, Tonya Rozova, Shura Popova, Masha Rukavitsyna. 1944-45.

And then their number reached 16-18 in one night, as it was on the Oder. Breaks between flights were 5-8 minutes. The pilots were literally taken out of the cockpits and carried in their arms - they fell down. During interrogation, one captured German officer complained that the "Russfaner" did not give them rest at night and called our pilots "night witches", because of which they could not sleep.

For flights. N. Studilina, N. Khudyakova, N. Popova, N. Mecklin, J. Glamazdina,?, S. Akimova

I had to fly mainly at night, they approached the target with a muffled engine. They were dangerous flights in the night sky cut with searchlight blades and pierced with tracer rounds. It was risk and courage, overcoming one's own weakness and fear, an indispensable will to win. Each flight for them was difficult in its own way, and therefore memorable. But there were those among them that I remember especially, such when minutes cost weeks and months of life, flights, after which the first gray hair appears.

Pilots Tonya Rozova, Sonya Vodyanik and Lida Golubeva before a sortie.

The combat losses of the regiment amounted to 32 people. Despite the fact that the pilots died behind the front line, not one of them is considered missing. After the war, the commissar of the regiment, Evdokia Yakovlevna Rachkevich, used the money collected by the entire regiment, traveled to all the places where the planes died and found the graves of all the dead.

From left to right, seated: pilot Anya Vysotskaya, photojournalist for Ogonyok magazine Boris Zeitlin, navigator Irina Kashirina, squadron commander Marina Chechneva; standing: squadron navigator and adjutant Maria Olkhovskaya and flight navigator Olga Klyueva. A few days before the death of Anya and Irina. July 1943 Kuban. Ivanovskaya.

However, in addition to combat, there were others. So, on August 22, 1943, the communications chief of the regiment, Valentina Stupina, died of tuberculosis in the hospital. And on April 10, 1943, already at the airfield, after the next departure, 3 girls died: one plane, landing in the dark, landed directly on another, which had just landed. Crews died even before being sent to the front, in disasters during training.

The crew of the combat aircraft

Since May 15, 1944, he was part of the 325th night bomber air division. In June-July 1944, the regiment fought in Belarus, helping to liberate Mogilev, Cherven, Minsk, Bialystok. From August 1944, the regiment operated on the territory of Poland, participated in the liberation of Augustow, Warsaw, Ostroleka. During the liberation of the Crimea in May 1944, the regiment was temporarily part of the 2nd Guards Night Bomber Air Division.

Heavenly slug over the defeated Reichstag.

In January 1945, the regiment fought in East Prussia. In March 1945, the regiment's guards took part in the liberation of Gdynia and Gdansk. In April 1945 and until the end of the war, the regiment helped to break through the enemy defenses on the Oder. For three years of fighting, the regiment never left for reorganization. On October 15, 1945, the regiment was disbanded, and most of the pilots were demobilized.

Natalya Meklin (right, 980 sorties) and Rufina Gasheva (left, 848 sorties).
The photo was taken after the victory.

According to incomplete data, the regiment destroyed and damaged 17 crossings, 9 railway echelons, 2 railway stations, 46 warehouses, 12 fuel tanks, 1 aircraft, 2 barges, 76 vehicles, 86 firing points, 11 searchlights. Now, looking back, it is hard to imagine that these young fragile girls brought down a deadly load on the enemy, destroyed the Nazis with aimed fire. Each flight was an exam - a test for flying skills, for courage, resourcefulness, endurance. They passed it "excellent".

"Group portrait of female pilots-heroines of the 46th Aviation Regiment". 1985 Sergei Bocharov.

On September 24, a female crew headed by Valentina Grizodubova flew from Moscow on an ANT-37 Rodina aircraft. The flight for the girls was not easy: having overcome Ural mountains, the crew first partially, and then completely lost any connection, flying away in an unknown direction. In these extreme conditions, the pilots passed Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. When the sky cleared a little, it turned out that they were already flying over the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Fuel was running out, and the chance of survival was minimal. And then Grizodubova turned the plane towards the coast, hoping to land in the taiga. Navigator Marina Raskova was ordered to jump with a parachute because the glass cockpit she was in was not designed for such a dangerous landing.

After Raskova jumped out, the plane made an emergency landing in the delta of the Amgun River. But the tragic circumstances still did not pass the story of the participants in the air flight. During a rescue operation to search for future Heroes of the Soviet Union, two planes collided, killing 15 people, including Alexander Bryandinsky, a participant in a recent non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East. On November 2, 1938, the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union were awarded to the entire female crew. During the Rodina flight, which lasted 26 hours and 29 minutes, a women's world aviation record was set for a flight distance of 6450 km (in a straight line - 5910 km).

The fate of the famous female pilots developed in different ways, world records remained in the historical past, and not everyone experienced new exploits. Marina Raskova was a true hero of her time - a failed opera singer, chemist and, finally, a pilot. She was not interested in ordinary female stories from novels, but was inspired by something else: industrial aesthetics and dynamism, the ideal of a woman free from the prejudices of the male world and capable of great feats. In this sense, an excerpt from the diary that Raskova kept while working as a chemist in the laboratory of the Butyrka aniline plant is indicative: “I fell in love with the plant so much that its boilers fill my soul.”

Marina Raskova

Marina Raskova, thanks to Stalin's personal sympathy, organized three regular women's air regiments during the war. It consisted only of women up to the service personnel. Iron discipline was observed here - all the girls were obliged to cut their hair short. In military circles, the combat unit received the awesome nickname "Night Witches", which terrified German troops. During night sorties, the Germans recognized the "witches" by the characteristic hum of Soviet aircraft and sent the best Luftwaffe pilots against them.

In less than 14 months since the creation of the air regiment, Marina Raskova has committed a large number of sorties on a Pe-2 bomber, destroying many military equipment and manpower of the enemy. January 4, 1943 near Saratov, making the transfer of a new regiment to the place of deployment, Marina Raskova lost control in difficult weather conditions and crashed.

Another heroine from this brave trinity is a maximalist woman - Polina Osipenko. Human amazing fate, whose example clearly shows how you can achieve any goals with your perseverance and work. Not enrolling in the Kachin flight school, Polina did not despair and got a job in the canteen for pilots. Training flights took place at several sites. Breakfast for the pilots was regularly delivered by 12 o'clock on plywood U-2. On these biplanes, the future famous pilot just got her first skills.

The turning point in the fate of Polina happened at the moment when K. E. Voroshilov once visited the Kachinskoye school. Having a little courage, the pilot asked the commander to be enrolled in educational institution. And it was accepted contrary to the established rules. After graduating from the flight school, Polina enrolled in the aviation unit. There she improved her skills as stubbornly and persistently as she had once been a shock worker on the collective farm and set agricultural records.

In 1936, pilot Polina Osipenko climbed to a height of 9,100 meters, setting her first world record. Not a single woman in the world has risen so high before her! Then there were other achievements, including the legendary direct flight Moscow - the Far East, after which she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In May 1939, already in the rank of major, Polina Osipenko died under mysterious circumstances in a plane crash along with pilot Anatoly Serov. The details of the death of Polina Osipenko and Anatoly Serov are unknown to this day.

Polina Osipenko

Unlike Polina Osipenko, whose glorious path was tragically cut short in 1939, and Marina Raskova, who died in 1943, Valentina Grizodubova lived until 1993. Since childhood, Valentina has been attached to the sky: as a child, she flew on an airplane with her father, an aircraft designer, pilot and inventor. From an early age, the fate of Valentina Grizodubova was predetermined.

Entering the Kharkov Institute of Technology, Valentina still dreams of becoming a pilot, and she seeks admission from the people's commissar S. Ordzhonikidze. Thanks to his assistance, on November 4, 1928, she was enrolled in the first enrollment of the Kharkov Central Aeroclub. After graduating in three months, Grizodubova then entered the 1st Tula flight and sports school of OSOAVIAKhIM, and then in 1929 to the school of instructor pilots in Penza, after which she was sent as an instructor to Tushino, where until 1934 she trained 36 pilots.

She was rightfully appointed commander of the country's most famous female crew, her leadership qualities manifested themselves not only in the record flight Moscow - the Far East, but also during the Great Patriotic War. In 1942, Valentina Stepanovna was entrusted with the recruitment of an entire aviation regiment, which consisted exclusively of male pilots. Colonel Grizodubova has more than 200 sorties, including night bombings (132 sorties), as well as the delivery of ammunition and military cargo beyond the front line.

Valentina Grizodubova

After the war, Grizodubova developed a brilliant career, which fell on, perhaps, best time Soviet aircraft industry, whose developments we use to this day. In life, Valentina Stepanovna was a wonderful sympathetic person, ready for great deeds for the sake of those unjustly offended. According to her adopted son, it was she who interceded for S.P. Korolev, who was repressed in 1939, and allowed him to be released ahead of schedule in 1944 with a further appointment to the post of chief designer for flight tests.