They Called Us Night Witches. Expanded Edition

The legendary 46th Guards Tamanskaya Regiment — one of the three women's aviation regiments formed at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It consisted only of women — from the regiment commander to the technician. Most of them were very young girls, recent schoolgirls and students. The Germans called them “night witches,” Russian soldiers — “swallows,” and Marshal Rokossovsky called them “legends.” During the years of war, the girls made 24 thousand combat sorties: they bombed the Germans in the Don region, in Stavropol, in the Caucasus, in Kuban, in Belarus, Poland, and East Prussia. 25 pilots and navigators were awarded the title of Hero. The feats of these women are recounted by Irina Rakobolskaya, the chief of staff of the regiment, and Hero of the Soviet Union Natalia Kravtsova (Meklin), the commander of the flight that dropped 147 tons of bombs on the enemy. This edition also includes documentary stories by Natalia Kravtsova about other famous pilots: Ekaterina Budanova, Lydia Litvyak, and Olga Yamshikova.