During World War 2, the Nazis were afraid of 46th Taman Regiment (An all-female regiment of Soviet Air force)

The Nazis dubbed them the 'Night Witches', on account of the way they would cut their aircraft engines to silently swoop in before dropping their bombs. #Thread

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From mechanics to navigators, pilots to officers, the 46th Taman Aviation regiment was composed entirely of women.

The women, most of them barely 20 years old, started training in Engels, a small town north of Stalingrad (USSR) soon after the German invasion in 1941.

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The women of the 46th regiment flew their first bombing mission on June 8, 1942 after an intense 1-year training.

The air raid consisted of three planes; their target was the headquarters of a German division (Wehrmacht). The raid was successful.

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They flew obsolete Polikarpov Po-2 wooden biplanes and the Po-2 could only carry two bombs that weighed less than a ton altogether.

The women aviators made full use of their woefully outclassed converted bombers and turned the aircraft’s weakness into its biggest strength. 4/15

Po-2s, which were excellent crop dusters in peacetime, were so slow that pilots in Germany’s frontline interceptors Guns had trouble shooting them down.

The top speed Po-2 was well below than the stall speed of the planes of the German Air Force (Me-109 & Fw-190).

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The pilots of the German Air force (Luftwaffe) risked crashing if they tried to reduce speed enough to dogfight the Po-2s. The Luftwaffe had no answer on how to fight them in air.

The 46th regiment was especially deadly at night. And that's what terrified the Nazis.

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Po-2s also had excellent gliding characteristics. This allowed the pilots to kill the noisy engines as they approached their targets & surprise their unwitting enemies with devastating effect.

Because of this, the Luftwaffe soon got to know (and feared) these women fliers.

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During gliding (engine off), the Po-2's wooden frame made a whooshing noise which resembled that of a sweeping broom. This sound was the only warning the Germans had. The planes were too small to show up on radar.

A reason why Germans called them the Night Witches.

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Nadezhda Vasilyevna Popova, one of the first young women to enlist, recalled her inaugural mission, in which two of her friends were fatally shot down by anti-aircraft guns.

They fought non-stop for months in 1942 & 1943, sometimes flying 5 to 8 missions on the same night

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The Nazi High Command viewed them as such a menace that an Iron Cross was promised to any Luftwaffe pilot who shot down a 'Nachthexen' (Night Witch).

The German Soldiers were afraid to sleep at night because of them. Any small sound would trigger an alarm in their ranks.

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During one such mission, a bomb hadn't come loose. They couldn't land the plane as the shock of landing would knock the bomb loose (Also kill them) and it would also damage the runway.

So the bombardier climbed out onto the wing in mid-flight and kicked the bomb loose.

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In three years (1942 - 1945), the women of the 46th Taman Regiment flew roughly 30,000 missions, dropping a total of 24,000 tons of bombs on the German Armies.

This regiment, along with the Female Soviet Snipers, were considered the most deadly during World War 2.

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The most outstanding pilots of the 46th Regiment were Raisa Belyaeva and Valeria Khomyakova.

By the war’s end, the deadly squadron would lose more than 31 pilots but would produce 23 Heroes of the Soviet Union.

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These young women rattled and terrified the most dangerous armed forces that the world had ever seen.

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Highly recommended: The Huntress by Kate Quinn. A gripping Novel.

I like to retell this story over and over since last 5 years. This might become a movie soon.

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