Night witches

Serafima Amosova speaking to members of the "Night Witches"

Ms. Popova was a member of a renowned unit of deadly female Soviet pilots called the “Night Witches” by German invaders because of the sound their plywood planes made.

Yekaterina Vasylievna Budanova, also known as "Katya Budanova", (6 December 1916 – 19 July 1943), was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. With 11 air victories, along with Lydia Litvyak, she was one of the world's two female fighter aces. She was shot down by either Luftwaffe ace Georg Schwientek of JG 52 or ace Emil Bitsch, of JG 3.

Night witches, the untold story of Soviet women in combat [Myles, Bruce] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Night witches, the untold story of Soviet women in combat

The Bletchley Girls Tessa Dunlop Hodder & Stoughton, 341pp, £20 Defending the Motherland: the Soviet Women Who Fought Hitler’s Aces Lyuba Vinogradova; translated by Arch Tait MacLehose Press, 349pp, £

Who climbs into a plane made of cloth and plywood, takes it up into a pitch-dark night sky, then turns the engine off? For several hundred women in the USSR during World War II, this hair-raising s…

Nadezhda Popova, who died this week aged 91, was one of the first to volunteer for Stalin's all-women air force units. She flew 852 missions and was shot down several times.

Some of the Soviet women aviators ended up becoming so deadly, that they earned a nickname from the Germans that stuck: called the Russian Night Witches.

World War II Soviet Russian Aviator. The first woman to become a navigator in the Soviet Air Force, she set numerous flight records in the 1930s flying Soviet military aircraft. Decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union award prior to World War II, when the war started she used her influence to help form three...