HST 198 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Precision Bombing, Marina Raskova, Night Witches
16 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Russia"s female ww2 bombing regiment, only exclusive female regiment. Famous aviator and navigator in the 1930"s. 1933 first female russian navigator for the soviet air force. 1934 began teaching at the air force academy. Died in a plane crash near stalingrad. Thousands of women volunteered to join the military, but were turned away. Marina raskova talked stalin into allowing the women to join the war effort. Many joined the military as combatants or medical roles. 800,000 served in the soviet armed forces. Many had pilots licenses to take things from factories to factories. Huge disadvantage, their planes were very old. Their planes came back with bullet holes in them because the germans attempted to shoot them down. To their enemies they were supernatural, to their male counterparts they were less than human. Could only carry 6 bombs at a time, really was never designed for warfare. Max speed of their aircrafts was slower than the stalling speed of nazi aircrafts.
