The Night Witches
A reminder of the power of the female pilot
"Be proud you're
D
uring my junior year at Brown University, I was introduced to a Soviet regi-
ment of female fghter pilots in World War II in a Soviet history class. The
Soviet army was the frst to allow women to fy
aerial combat missions in the 1940s. The Soviet army
had three female pilot regiments, but my research focused specially on the 588th
regiment, nicknamed the Nachthexen or Night Witches by the German army.
Although they did not face death threats for fying, they did confront an army
and a society that was opposed to the idea of them as military pilots and naviga-
tors. That did not deter them. The 588th regiment faced derision from the Soviet
army and their society. Within the military, they were often referred to as "little
girls" or the "skirts regiment." In my research I came across a reference to a So-
viet government offcial who told the women the Soviet army wasn't so desper-
ate that they needed little girls fying their planes. That being said, by the end of
by Ksenia Weisz
NACHTHEXEN
30 Aviation forWomen J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6