Nightwitches … NachtHexen … Ночные ведьмы

Post by **jones jones** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:15 pm

Night witches were Russian lady bombers who bombed the crap out of German lines in WW2. Thing is though, they had the oldest and noisiest planes in the entire world. Probably an urban legend, but it seems the engines used to conk out halfway through their missions, so apparently they often had to climb out on the wings mid flight to restart the props.

To stop the Germans from hearing them coming and firing their anti aircraft guns, they’d climb up to a certain height, coast down to German positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in midair, and get the hell out of there.

Their leader flew over 200 missions and was never captured.

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Post by **jones jones** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:16 pm

(via fyeahwomenshistory)

Post by **LarsMac** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:56 pm

Flying old biplanes built for crop dusting.

From knowing a few people from Russia and Ukraine, I suspect the story of climbing out on the wing to restart the engine was a vodka tale.

Post by **jones jones** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:04 am

LarsMac;1384773 wrote: Flying old biplanes built for crop dusting.

From knowing a few people from Russia and Ukraine, I suspect the story of climbing out on the wing to restart the engine was a vodka tale.

Yeah ... I thought as much! Those ladies clambering out on a wing to restart a prop? I don't think so!

Post by **LarsMac** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:33 am

Actually, such a tale would be a complement to the unit.

Russians don't brag on folks that haven't earned their respect.

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:04 pm

They were ladies of the Taman Guards Aviation Regiment and they flew Polikarpov PO-2s. The Nightwitches get all the attention but there were many others. The Karelian Air Regiment is credited with making thousands of flights into Leningrad carrying in food and medicine and evacuees on the return trip. They could carry 3/4 of a ton over long distances. The Germans despised these planes, they went to bed every night knowing that more than likely one of these planes would pay them a visit. The Germans actually tried to keep statistics of how much sleep the soldiers lost because of their relentless harassment. They also flew supplies to partisans behind the lines and partisan groups themselves used them in the forests around Vitebsk and Pskov. There is one that I know of in the museum in Smolensk. You can see the patches made in the varnished canvas wings to close up the bullet holes.

These were biplanes that in fact were extremely simple and rugged in design AND TOTALLY reliable. Kukuruznik (Russian: Кукурузник) the Finns called it the Nerve Saw.