Night Witches: Not a belated Halloween story at all

[sff_corgi_lj]

BBC audio link - a half-hour on the first female combat pilot regulars: Russia's Great Patriotic War's 588th Night Bomber Regiment, later called the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation.

'It was the most highly-decorated unit in the Soviet Air Force, each pilot having flown over 1,000 missions by the end of the war and twenty-three having been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Thirty-one of its members died in combat.'

The now-grandmother-age Nachthexen meet every year on May 2nd to catch up and reminisce, medals jingling on their chests.



See also: A story of the U.S.'s 'Mercury 13' from the beginning of the space programme

Comments

[cerrberus.livejournal.com]

RE: A story of the U.S.'s 'Mercury 13'

Image: Jerrie Cobb...beside a Mercury capsule

If she backed down those steps you know what that'd be....
I wonder how different our space program & achievements would be if those candidates had been treated fairly and become working astronauts?
[sounds like a good Alt/Hist]

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

thanks for the link. i had never heard of them