A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II

by Anne Noggle

  One night four of our planes were assigned a combat mission to drop bombs on a German fortification near the town of Mozhajsk. We were circling to drop our bombs and lost one aircraft and crew because the Germans had massed antiaircraft guns to protect the area, and we were under heavy fire. As I turned to fly back to our airdrome, I could see the flashes of antiaircraft bombs around me but couldn't hear them because of the roar of the engine. Suddenly my engine quit, and in its silence I could hear everything. I was shocked at first and didn't know what had happened to the engine. I looked down and saw that the whole floor of the cockpit had been blown away by a shell.

  My altitude was about eleven hundred meters, so I decided to try to glide to the Soviet territory, which in fact I did. When the distance between the aircraft and the earth was about one hundred meters the right wing of the aircraft fell off, and the plane crashed to the ground. At that moment my thought was of my children; I couldn't reconcile my thoughts knowing that they would grow up without me. It was winter, and there was a heavy wind building up high drifts of snow. When our plane crashed I lost consciousness. The aircraft had fallen straight into a high snowdrift.

  Some hours later I regained consciousness, crawled out of what remained of the plane, and tried to understand what had happened to my navigator and my aircraft. I fumbled with my right hand and found a body under the snow. It was my navigator, dead and frozen. I tried to stand up and immediately fainted. When I again regained consciousness, I knew I must move some way. I couldn't walk, but I dragged my body from one bush to another. I couldn't go far because I was so wounded. Early in the morning a Soviet reconnaissance unit found me and took me to a medical station. When they unbuttoned my flying suit and removed my helmet, they realized for the first time that I was a young woman of twenty-two. They sent me to a nearby military hospital in Moscow.

  I was operated on and remained in the hospital for four months. My jaw was smashed, and all my lower teeth had to be extracted. My feet were also badly crushed. Even now I walk with difficulty. Other pilots in the hospital came to see me because they had heard that a young girl pilot had crashed at the front and had been brought to the hospital as a sack of bones. All my ribs were broken and my spine injured. I lay in bed covered with bandages and encased in plaster. The surgeon wanted me discharged from the army, and I wanted to return to flying. He wouldn't allow that and said that I must learn to walk with crutches.

  While I was in the hospital a letter came to the regiment informing me that my two children, ages two and five, had been killed in a bombing. The regimental commander decided not tell me until I recovered, because the news would be too much for me in my poor condition. He came to the hospital to take me back to the regiment, not wanting me to go home and discover the death of my children. Back at the regiment the doctor worked with me to train my legs to walk again. She forced me to exercise my legs and feet, and the pain was terrible. At times I would call her a fascist, and she said that someday I would thank her for her strict regime. In time, as I progressed, I worked in the regimental office as a clerk. Sometimes I would get into the cockpit of a plane and found I could work the controls with my hands, but it was nearly impossible to use my feet on the rudder pedals.

  One day the whole squadron was to go out on a daylight mission, and they were short two crews. The regimental commander asked the squadron commander if there were two more crews, because we were flying day and night. These crews had to be formed from the pilots and navigators who had been injured and had just returned from the hospital. I asked the commander if he would let me pilot one of the planes, and he didn't want to, but he couldn't find another replacement, so I flew the mission. Within two weeks I flew a number of missions, and then a medical board approved my flying.

  About the time we were liberating the Baltic area, at the end of 1944, the regiment received orders that women who were flying in male regiments must be transferred to female regiments as reinforcements. I was transferred to the 46th Guards Bomber Regiment. I was glad to be in a female regiment. It was easier for me because, well, men are men and women are women; I was more comfortable. On the eve of the victory parade in Moscow I was finally told that both my children and my husband had been killed in the war.

  After the war I flew in civil aviation until 1964. I crop dusted and flew in the medical squadron until I retired. I adopted two childrentwo boys-one my nephew, and one an orphan from the siege of Leningrad. I never remarried.

  Introduction

  The 587th Bomber Regiment was honored during the war by being designated a "Guards" regiment and officially became the 125th M. M. Raskova Borisov Guards Bomber Regiment. The aircraft flown by the regiment was considered to be the most complex of the Sovietmade aircraft in World War The Petlyakov Pe-2, a twin-engine, twin-tail dive bomber, was powered by two 1,100 HP liquid-cooled engines for a maximum speed of 336 MPH at 16,400 feet. The bomb load was specified as i,ooo kg, but the more experienced women pilots regularly carried 1,200 kg. The landing speed was quite fast, and the airfields were not well constructed and at times were nothing more than potato fields. The small forward compartment of the plane was difficult to exit, with the pilot and navigator riding back-to-back. The aircraft carried a crew of three: pilot, navigator-bombardier, and a tail-gunner in a separate rear compartment. Less competent and less experienced pilots were known to be afraid of this unforgiving aircraft, while skilled pilots loved it.

  Combat missions were flown in a "V" formation. This was considered best for the bombers, because their machine-gun field of fire overlapped, giving them mutual protection from enemy fighters. If a bomber was forced to drop out of this protective formation for any reason, it became instant prey for enemy aircraft.

  All of the pilots and navigators in the regiment were women, while some of the tail-gunners were men. The bombers were escorted by fighter aircraft and protected by them against enemy attack. Earlier in the war the German Luftwaffe fighters, with their overwhelming superiority, often broke through the Soviet fighter protection and engaged the bombers directly.

  The first commander of the regiment was Major Marina Raskova. When she was killed Lieutenant-Colonel V. V. Markov, a male commander with extensive combat experience, was assigned to the regi ment. Although no statistics were available, ground personnel included a number of men, mainly mechanics with advanced skills in maintaining this complex aircraft. There was no antifreeze available for the aircraft early in the war. Each engine was drained of water and oil in the winter, whenever an aircraft was on the ground for any length of time, to keep it from freezing. The regiment comprised two squadrons with ten aircraft in each squadron.

  When the war ended, Markov married a navigator from the regiment. Retired from the air force as a lieutenant-general, Markov requested an interview-such was his pride in the regiment. General Markov died in 1992.

  Petlyakov PC-2 aircraft on a mission, iz5th regiment

  Five aircrews-a total of fifteen women of the regiment-perished in the war, and five women became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

  Captain Valentina Savitskaya-Kravchenko, navigator of the regiment (vsx)

  Lieutenant-Colonel Valentin Markov, pilot, commander of the regiment (vm)

  vsx : This idea of forming three regiments appeared in September, 1941. The antifascist meeting took place in Moscow, and Marina Raskova, a trained navigator, Hero of the Soviet Union, and later a pilot, called upon all the women who could fly to join the army. In October, 1941, many women pilots and other women involved in aviation started arriving in Moscow. Originally one regiment was planned, but instead Raskova formed three regiments. Even then many women had to go home because there weren't enough positions for them. We were taken to an airfield at Engels, on the Volga River, for training. The 586th Fighter Regiment was sent to the front in the Yak-I plane in April, 1942. In June, 1942, the women in the newly formed 588th Air Regiment were sent on their first combat mission. Our regiment, the 587th, received the Pe-2 dive bomber, a new twin-engine, very
complex aircraft, in August and September of 1942. In January, 1943, we were sent to the front near Stalingrad. There was a shortage of this aircraft, and initially the planes were sent to combat regiments already at the front, so there was a delay in receiving ours. Raskova had insisted that all the women's regiments fly only aircraft made in the Soviet Union.

  Valentin Markov, commander, 125th regiment

  Marina Raskova, who had chosen to lead our regiment as its commander, perished with her crew while trying to land her plane in very bad weather on January 4, 1943. She was then thirty-one years old, and she had a thirteen-year-old daughter. She hit the high bank of the Volga River while approaching the airfield at the Stalingrad front and crashed. Marina never lived to fly a combat mission.

  vM: I was appointed regimental commander at thirty-three, and I was a major. At the end of the war I was a lieutenant-colonel. I finished my military career as a lieutenant-general of the air force.

  vsx: The regiment started its combat missions in February, 1943, after more training at the front. The Pe-2 was very heavy and difficult to control while taking off and landing. It could carry up to a ton of bombs. We flew off of fields with no paved runways; these were potato fields. The navigator, who sat behind the pilot facing the rear, would turn in her seat and push on the pilot's back to give her the added pressure to raise the tail of the plane and shorten the takeoff distance.

  When we were dive bombing we could carry only the bombs under the wings. At Engels there were too many pilots and not enough navigators. I was a pilot who was taught to be a navigator. The women who were chosen to fly the dive bomber were the most experienced pilots with a minimum of 700 flying hours.

  vnn: At the time I was chosen to command the female regiment I commanded a male regiment. I had been shot down and wounded and was hospitalized. When I was told that I was to lead a female regiment, the order was like a cold shower to me-I was shocked! The man who recommended me for this position approached me carefully, from a distance. He asked if I knew about the death of Raskova, and when I said I did, he asked what I would think of commanding this regiment. I couldn't visualize how I could command women during war, flying bombers. I knew the aircraft and knew how difficult it was even for male pilots to fly. I couldn't imagine how women could manage it.

  I was told I would be given every assistance from Moscow. In fact these were sheer words, only declarations. How could they help me from Moscow, such a great distance from Stalingrad! I didn't believe their promises and asked them to appoint some other pilot, but I was told the order had already been issued and signed. When I left the office, angry and pale, and told my friends waiting for me at the door that I'd been appointed the female regimental commander, their hair rose in surprise and indignation. They believed I would have to go through hell in that regiment. By my nature and character I am very disciplined, and knew that there was nothing to do but agree.

  vsx: We women wouldn't even hear of a man coming to command our regiment!

  vM: A hundred questions arose in my mind: what should I do as their commander? I knew women's nature very well, and I knew because of their caprice and susceptibility to offense it would not be an easy job to rule them. As their commander I was to fly with them in combat, and to fulfill a combat mission demanded strict discipline on the pilot's part. This was why I hesitated. I also didn't know what the attitude of the women would be toward me. Marina Raskova was their beloved commander; they were so fond of her and wanted to follow her example. I made a decision to be a just, strict, and demanding commander, irrespective of the fact that all these personnel were female. When I came to the regiment they didn't like me.

  vsK: Behind his back we called him "bayonet." He was so strict and straight.

  vM: They called me so also because I constantly put my principles of strict discipline into their heads, teaching them how to do this and that, seeing to the exact accomplishment of my orders, to their uniforms, boots, and brass. But their antipathy against me did not last long. I arrived at the regiment on February 2 or 3. The regiment had made only a few combat missions beginning at Stalingrad.

  The main combat training was at the northern Caucasian front in April, 1943. In that area there was strong resistance from the German air forces, and at that point the experience of the women in combat began improving. They flew at very low altitudes following the terrain, dropping bombs from an altitude of one and one-half kilometers or lower. When we were bombing all the artillery were firing at us: submachine guns from the ground, anti-aircraft artillery, and ground artillery; it was very dangerous. We had very heavy dogfights in the air. All in all, we were heavily attacked by the Germans.

  The field airdromes were not more than forty-five to fifty kilometers from the front line. The aircraft could fly about two and one-half hours without refueling. Their speed was 40o kilometers per hour with a range of about one thousand kilometers. During a day we usually made two or three flights. It took the ground personnel two hours to prepare the planes for the mission: to fuel, rearm, and patch holes if necessary. The aircraft was metal, and the loads when we dove were great. On the front edge of the wing there were dive brakes used on dive bombing missions.

  After I made a lot of combat missions with this regiment I saw the attitude toward me become softer and more respectful, and by the summer of 1943 we had become real, true combat friends. Many people helped me to fulfill my mission and to train the personnel. Especially helpful were the head of the liaison service, a woman who graduated from the military academy before the war; the engineer of the regiment, responsible for armament; and the squadron commander, Timofeyeva, who had a husband, who was also at the front, and two children. She had joined the army even though she might not have been drafted. Our regimental doctor, a woman, also gave me knowledge of female problems. So I knew everything about the situation in my regiment. Of course there is a specific approach to the command of a female regiment, some peculiar features. You should be delicate when you are treating with the women; you should use your ears like radars.

  vsx: A lot of girls fell in love with him; he was very handsome.

  vM: The regiment was receiving combat assignments from the air force division. We had two squadrons in our regiment of ten aircraft each, with approximately twenty-one or twenty-two planes in the regiment. As a rule a mission was assigned to one squadron or to a regiment as a whole, but at times an air-bomb division would make a mass bombing. Ours was a regiment of front bomber aviation, and the targets were at the front line of the enemy positions. Manpower firing; strong points; concentrations of armament, tanks, and artillery formations; airfields; railroad lines; stations; bridges; and seaports (at the end of the war) were our main targets.

  At the beginning of the war there were more pilots and crews than bombers, and on many occasions I chose who to assign to a mission. There were fixed crews, with no changing of crew members from one bomber to another. As a rule a squadron also operated in the same way. I flew with the regiment when we were assigned a mission. Valentina was my navigator. The female crews competed with other crews and counted their combat missions. And on occasions when I chose some crews but not others, they attacked me, were cross with me-why she but not me! Each mission was a risk to their lives, because all the fire from air and ground was concentrated on the bombers. In spite of all this, the women were striving to go on these missions.

  We lost five crews. These were combat losses: five crews, three women in each. But there were many occasions when the crews made forced landings: in swamps, shot down, or jumping with parachutes. Not all the crew would get out sometimes. In one such case the squadron was attacked by many German Focke Wulf-19os, and one of our planes was shot down, burning, and the pilot gave the command to her crew to jump. The tragedy was that when the navigator was jumping her parachute caught on the barrel of the machine gun. She was outside the plane, but the harness was caught and she couldn't free herself. The pilot was trying to help the navigator slide off the barrel of the gun, a
nd she worked the controls to swing her free. The navigator was freed from the plane, opened her parachute, and almost immediately touched the ground. The pilot perished in the crash. This is one example of friendship, mutual support, and bravery. There were some men in our regiment. Some were gunners, but the pilots and navigators were all women. The majority of the ground personnel were also women.

  vsK: There were seventy-five women flying in our regiment. Five of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

  vM: The women in my regiment were self-disciplined, careful, and obedient to orders; they respected the truth and fair treatment toward them. They never whimpered and never complained and were very courageous. If I compare my experience of commanding the male and female regiments, to some extent at the end of the war it was easier for me to command this female regiment. They had the strong spirit of a collective unit, which is still clearly manifested on our reunion day. Fifty years have passed since the war ended, but all these years we've been having our reunions on May 2 in front of the Bolshoi Theater. Most of us are old and sick, but it is our sacred day. We leave our business and illness aside and come there to see each other.

  During the war there was no difference between this regiment and any male regiments. We lived in dugouts, as did the other regiments, and flew on the same missions, not more or less dangerous. It's hard to fancy how difficult the conditions were for these women. There should be two toilets at least, for men and women. We had only one! All the crews had almost the same number of combat missions. Almost all of these women were shot down, and after hospitalization, they came back to the regiment and flew bravely. But only after the war were they awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This bureaucratic machine takes time. And from the present viewpoint, I can see that very few of my girls were awarded that highest title. If I could turn time back, I would have promoted many more of them for that award. Now I have a very grave sentiment about that because many of them deserved it.