The Soviet Union was the first nation to allow women pilots to fly
combat missions. During World War II the Red Air Force formed three
all-female units -- grouped into separate fighter, dive bomber, and
night bomber regiments -- while also recruiting other women to fly
with mostly male units. Their amazing story, fully recounted for
the first time by Reina Pennington, honors a group of fearless and
determined women whose exploits have not yet received the
recognition they deserve.
Pennington chronicles the creation, organization, and leadership
of these regiments, as well as the experiences of the pilots,
navigators, bomb loaders, mechanics, and others who made up their
ranks, all within the context of the Soviet air war on the Eastern
Front. These regiments flew a combined total of more than 30,000
combat sorties, produced at least thirty Heroes of the Soviet
Union, and included at least two fighter aces.
Among their ranks were women like Marina Raskova ("the Soviet
Amelia Earhart"), a renowned aviator who persuaded Stalin in 1941
to establish the all-women regiments; the daredevil "night witches"
who flew ramshackle biplanes on nocturnal bombing missions over
German frontlines; and fighter aces like Liliia Litviak, whose
twelve "kills" are largely unknown in the West. Here, too, is the
story of Alexander Gridnev, a fighter pilot twice arrested by the
Soviet secret police before he was chosen to command the women's
fighter regiment.
Going well beyond the handful of uncritical, journalistic, or
poorly documented previous accounts, Pennington draws upon personal
interviews and the Soviet archives to detail the recruitment,
training, and combat lives of these women. Deftly mixinganecdote
with analysis, her work should find a wide readership among
scholars and buffs interested in the history of aviation, World War
II, or the Russian military, as well as anyone concerned with the
contentious debates surrounding military and combat service for
women.
General
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