The Night Witches

Portrait of Hero of the Soviet Union senior lieutenant of the guards Evgeniya Maksimovna Rudneva 

Go here for information about the Night Witches, Russian women pilots who flew bombing missions against the Nazis during World War II, dropping 23,000 tons of bombs.

• The all-women pilots were formally known as the 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces.

• This article from the Atlantic also includes info on the Night Witches given by the brave women themselves.

Click here for the of obituary Nadezhda Popova, the deputy commander of the Night Witches.

• Click here for an animated op-doc from the New York Times on Nadezhda Popova, one of the Night Witches.

• See also, 'Night Witch' Flew Bomber Planes during World War II from NPR as reported by Audie Cornish (July 15, 2013) and The Night Witches Who Ruled the Sky from the website Russia Beyond the Headlines.

• Click here for a 23 minute documentary piece from BBC on the Night Witches.

Flying for Her Country: The American and Soviet Women Military Pilots of World War II. Amy Goodpaster Strebe (Potomac Books, 2009) and Night Witches: The Amazing Story of Russia's Women Pilots. Bruce Myles (Academy Chicago Press, 1990).

Soviet Airwomen in World War II from YouTube.

Red Sky, Black Death: A Soviet Woman Pilot's Memoir of the Eastern Front. Anna Timofeyeva-Yegorova, Kim Green, Margarita Ponomariova. (Slavica Publishers, 2009).

 

History of American and English Women Pilots

 
Visit here for a National Public Radio story about female pilots in WWII, including interactive materials.

This is a timeline of women pilots entering the American Military forces.

Katherine Stinson, the Flying Girl was a female pilot that offered to fight in World War 1 but was refused the opportunity. 

Here is a video of her with a plane 1917.

Ruth Law

Ruth Law: Queen of the Air, a female pilot that asked to fly in World War I and was refused.